Dividends 2026 · Codul Fiscal art. 97 & art. 170
Romanian dividend tax,
withholding plus the CASS band.
The 16% withholding is arithmetic. The health contribution is not: CASS on dividends is a fixed amount pegged to a band of 6, 12 or 24 minimum salaries, it is assessed on your whole non-wage income for the year, and it is not refunded if you land in a band you did not intend.
- Withholding rate, 2026
- 16%
- CASS rate applied to the band floor
- 10%
- Minimum gross salary at 1 January 2026
- RON 4,050
- CASS band floors
- RON 24,300 · RON 48,600 · RON 97,200
Your distribution
Net in hand
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- Gross dividend
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- Withholding tax —
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- CASS —
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- Total Romanian tax
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CASS band test
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Below RON 24,300 of aggregate non-wage income, no CASS is due. Each band is a fixed liability of 10% of the band floor, not 10% of your income.
Statutory basis
- Dividend withholding, 16%: Codul Fiscal art. 97 alin. (7) for residents, art. 223 and 224 for non-residents, as amended by Legea nr. 141/2025. Applies to dividends distributed from 1 January 2026.
- CASS banding: Codul Fiscal art. 170 alin. (1). The band is tested against the minimum gross salary in force on 1 January of the tax year, RON 4,050 for 2026.
- Declaration and payment: withholding is remitted by the distributing company by the 25th of the month following payment. CASS is self-assessed by the shareholder on Declarația Unică (form 212), due 25 May of the following year.
- Non-residents: CASS is not due where the shareholder is not insured in the Romanian health system. Treaty relief requires a certificate of fiscal residence for the year of payment, filed before the withholding is applied.
Method and assumptions
- The CASS band is tested on the dividend net of withholding for Romanian-source dividends, aggregated with other non-wage income for the same year. Foreign-source dividends enter the aggregate gross.
- The CASS liability is a fixed sum per band. It is not pro-rated, not regularised downwards, and not refunded if realised income falls below the band floor once the band has been reached.
- Distributable profit is assumed to exist and the legal reserve to be satisfied. Distribution is assumed to occur in 2026.
- Not modelled: the shareholder’s home-country tax and foreign tax credit, the pension contribution (CAS), interim-distribution regularisation, and any anti-abuse or beneficial-ownership analysis.
- Figures last verified against statute on 2026-07-22.
What changed in 2026
Legea nr. 141/2025 raised the dividend withholding rate to 16% for dividends distributed on or after 1 January 2026. The rate was 10% in 2025 and 8% in 2023 and 2024, so a shareholder who has not revisited the position since 2023 is working from a rate that has doubled.
One transitional rule matters. Dividends distributed during 2025 on the basis of interim financial statements — 31 March, 30 June and 30 September 2025 — remain taxed at 10% and are not recalculated at 16% on the annual regularisation. Distributions resolved on the 31 December 2025 statements fall in 2026 and take the 16% rate, because the general meeting approving them cannot sit before January 2026.
The minimum gross salary rose to RON 4,325 on 1 July 2026. That does not move the 2026 CASS bands, which are pegged to the salary in force on 1 January. It moves the 2027 bands.
An estimate, not advice. The CASS position in particular depends on the shareholder’s full income picture for the year, including sources this tool does not ask about, and on their insurance status in the Romanian system. Confirm the figures with your adviser before you resolve a distribution.
Sequence the distribution
before the band closes.
Timing, salary-versus-dividend mix, and the order in which non-wage income lands all move the CASS band. We model the year, not the transaction.