SRL cash ceilings in 2026: RON 5,000 between firms, RON 10,000 vs individuals, RON 50,000 cashier and 25% fines

Tavoris’s blog already covers the mandatory payment account and ANAF inactivity (60 working days, RON 3,000–10,000 fine), the duty to accept cards (GEO no. 193/2002) and the AMEF cash register. Law no. 70/2015 ceilings appear there in a paragraph. Searches for “SRL cash ceiling 2026 RON 5,000”, “cash payments to individuals RON 10,000”, “cashier ceiling RON 50,000 2 working days”, “25% fines Law 70/2015 invoice splitting” and “associate loan cash forbidden” are a different topic: how much cash you may collect and pay in a day, what happens to the till at close, and why an associate’s loan never goes through the cashier. A POS terminal does not raise the ceiling; an AMEF records the sale, it does not legalise RON 12,000 cash from another SRL.

Five dominant topics: (1) RON 5,000/day/person between economic operators, with a RON 10,000/day total outflow cap, (2) RON 10,000/day to or from one individual, including dividends, (3) a RON 50,000 cashier at close and a 2-working-day deposit of the excess, (4) invoice splitting and the 25% fine (minimum RON 500), with no half-minimum in 15 days, (5) associate loans exclusively cash-free, including High Court ruling HP no. 51/2026. Data updated as of 17 September 2026, a Thursday. The DGRFP Ploiești guide of 31 July 2026 and the consolidated text on legislatie.just.ro (including Law no. 239/2025, in force from 1 January 2026) match on the ceilings. The practical premise remains the account opened after the certificate: without it you have nowhere to put the excess.

Among “professionals” — SRLs, PFAs, sole traders, family businesses, liberal professions, associations — art. 3(1) of Law no. 70/2015, as amended by GEO no. 115/2023 (Official Gazette no. 1139/15 December 2023), allows cash only inside daily limits. Receipts: at most RON 5,000 from one person per day. Payments: at most RON 5,000/person, but no more than RON 10,000/day in total. Cash-and-carry stores (GO no. 99/2000) have RON 10,000/day/person on receipts and RON 10,000/day total on payments. Petty-cash advances: RON 5,000/day per person; on the grant date the amount also counts toward the outflow ceiling in letters (c) or (d) (art. 3(4)). A consultancy SRL and a Metro store do not play under the same letters — check whether you are cash-and-carry before you claim RON 10,000.

Art. 3(2) and (3) ban splitting. You do not cut a RON 12,000 invoice into three RON 4,000 invoices, and you do not collect RON 5,000 on Thursday and RON 5,000 on Friday for the same delivery. What is allowed: for an invoice above RON 5,000, you collect or pay RON 5,000 in cash and the rest only by non-cash instruments. Example as of 17 September 2026: you invoice another SRL RON 12,400. Cash RON 5,000 + a RON 7,400 transfer on the same day is compliant. Two cash collections of RON 5,000 on consecutive days, for the same delivery, are a contravention. The ceilings also apply to foreign-currency operations on Romanian territory, at the NBR rate on the operation date (art. 1(3)).

Art. 8 covers branches and secondary establishments with their own cashier and/or account: the ceilings apply to each cashier separately. The DGRFP Ploiești guide (31 July 2026) gives two working points: a RON 5,000 advance + RON 4,000 to a supplier at site A (RON 9,000) and a RON 5,000 advance + RON 4,500 to a supplier at site B (RON 9,500) on the same day — both under RON 10,000/day, each cash book separate. You do not add cashiers together to “lend” ceiling. Banking the cash, paying taxes in cash at the Treasury, travel per diems and withdrawing for wages do not consume the RON 5,000 ceiling (art. 5). The POS guide remains the duty to offer a modern means as well; this article is how much cash you may still take after the client chose notes.

Art. 4(1) — the GEO no. 115/2023 form — caps at RON 10,000 per day, to or from one natural person, receipts and payments that represent supplies or purchases of goods, services, dividends, assignments of receivables or other rights. It is not RON 5,000, as in B2B. It is not RON 50,000: that ceiling in art. 10 covers operations between two natural persons (a car sale, a PF–PF loan), not your SRL. An individual client who brings RON 15,000 cash for a RON 15,000 invoice: you collect at most RON 10,000 in cash, the remaining RON 5,000 by bank, card or payment link.

Splitting is banned here too (art. 4(2)). The Ploiești guide gives the explicit example: a RON 15,000 transaction cut into two cash collections of RON 7,500 on different days, to dodge the ceiling. A contravention. The exception in paragraph (3): sale-purchase contracts with instalments, concluded as required by law — successive instalments are allowed if they follow the contractual schedule, not if you “invent” instalments after the client arrived with the full cash. Refunds on returns (art. 9(2)): at most RON 10,000 cash; above that, only non-cash, with one exception — the individual declares on their own responsibility, on the refund date, that they no longer hold a bank account, in which case you may refund the whole amount in cash.

Dividends to an associate who is a natural person sit on the same RON 10,000/day/person ceiling. If the general meeting approves RON 40,000 net to pay out, you do not take RON 40,000 out of the cashier in one day and you do not “break” it into four days of RON 10,000: splitting dividends is written expressly in art. 4(2). The lawful route is a transfer. The dividends guide covers the 16% tax, the 50% net-asset test and Form 100; this article is only cash discipline. Wedding and baptism organisers (a HoReCa SRL, not a one-off PFA) may ask ANAF for a ceiling above RON 10,000/person/day, under art. 4^1 and Order of the Minister of Public Finance no. 1,265/2016: a decision within 15 days, valid for one year. That is not the default rule of a consultancy SRL.

Art. 4^2(1) says that cash in the till at the end of each day may not exceed RON 50,000. Cash-and-carry stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets: RON 500,000. Amounts above the ceiling are paid into the firm’s bank accounts within two working days — Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays do not count. Example as of 17 September 2026 (Thursday): you close the day with RON 58,000 in the till. The RON 8,000 excess must be banked by Monday 21 September 2026 (working day 1 = Friday 18, day 2 = Monday 21). If the excess appears on Friday 18 September, the deadline is Tuesday 22 September 2026. Paying cash into the account does not consume the RON 5,000 ceiling (art. 5(a)), including via cash-in machines.

The exception in paragraph (2): you may exceed RON 50,000 (or RON 500,000) only with amounts for wages and other staff entitlements, plus other operations with natural persons, for 3 working days from the date set for payment. If payday is Thursday 17 September 2026, the window runs until Tuesday 22 September 2026 (Friday 18, Monday 21, Tuesday 22). If you pay on Friday 25 September 2026 — the same day as the Form 112 deadline for August and the CAEN Rev. 3 update — the 3 working days end on Wednesday 30 September 2026. Withdrawing from the bank for wages does not consume the B2B outflow ceiling (art. 5(d)); keeping that cash in the drawer after the 3 working days does fall back under art. 4^2. Do not confuse working days with the 60 working days for opening the payment account.

Each cashier of a secondary establishment has its own RON 50,000 ceiling (art. 8). You do not “park” RON 40,000 at working point A and RON 40,000 at B to dodge a single drawer — the law looks at each cash book. Without an open payment account you have nowhere to bank the excess in 2 working days: the circle closes on the RON 3,000–10,000 fine plus the fiscal-inactivity risk from the account guide, not on art. 4^2. The cash-register guide tells you how to record a sale to the public; the Z-report balance still has to fit inside RON 50,000 or leave for the bank.

Art. 12(1) punishes, among other things, breaches of art. 3(2) and (3) (B2B splitting), art. 4(1) and (2) (ceiling and splitting versus individuals), art. 4^2(1) (cashier) and art. 9 (refunds): a fine of 25% of the amount received, paid or held in the till that exceeds the ceiling, but not less than RON 500. A derogation from art. 8 of GO no. 2/2001. Example: you close Thursday 17 September 2026 with RON 58,000 and do not bank RON 8,000 by Monday 21 September → 25% × RON 8,000 = RON 2,000. You collect RON 7,000 cash from another SRL in one day → 25% × RON 2,000 (the excess over 5,000) = RON 500, i.e. the minimum. The Ministry of Finance, ANAF and their subordinate units record and apply the sanctions (art. 13).

Art. 12(2): advantages granted to clients so that they pay cash (art. 6) and bank cash releases/splitting above the ceiling (art. 11) — a fine of RON 15,000–20,000. A “3% discount if you pay cash”, a voucher, a gift on a cash payment: all sit here. Do not confuse this with the POS fines in GEO no. 193/2002 (card refusal RON 5,000–7,500, missing infrastructure RON 20,000–50,000) from the card-payments guide: different act, different amounts, different offence. Art. 12(4), inserted by Law no. 239/2025 from 1 January 2026: no payment account, RON 3,000–10,000 — detailed in the account guide, not here.

There is no paying half the minimum within 15 days. Art. LVIII of Law no. 296/2023 (Official Gazette no. 977/27 October 2023) takes Law no. 70/2015 out of art. 28(1) of GO no. 2/2001. The Ploiești guide repeats it on 31 July 2026. The minute is paid in full; a challenge follows GO no. 2/2001, but without the 50% facility. In an inspection the issue is not only the percentage: splitting invoices is defined in art. 2(a) and (b) as fractioning intended to avoid the ceiling. Two genuine deliveries, with two contracts, to the same client on different days are not automatically splitting — but three identical invoices issued on the same afternoon for the same goods are.

Art. 4(4) — again GEO no. 115/2023 — is categorical: receipts or repayments of loans or other financing between the SRL (and the other professionals) and natural persons, regardless of nature and purpose, are made only by non-cash payment instruments. There is no RON 10,000 ceiling. There is no “only RON 4,900, so it is fine”. An associate who puts RON 8,000 cash in the till as an “emergency loan” and a director who repays RON 8,000 cash the following week commit two forbidden operations. The Ploiești guide: forbidden situation = any cash payment, partial or in full; allowed situation = a transfer of the whole amount.

The sanction is art. 12(3): 25% of the amount received/paid, minimum RON 500. ANAF’s example: repayment of an associate credit of RON 25,000 in cash → 25,000 × 25% = RON 6,250. The High Court, HP no. 51/2026 (Official Gazette no. 434/22 May 2026, a Friday), settled the base: the “amount received/paid” is the totality of cash receipts and payments made under the same resolution, not “whatever exceeded a non-existent ceiling”. The regime also derogates from art. 10 of GO no. 2/2001. If the associate made three cash deposits of RON 8,000 for the same loan, the fine is computed on RON 24,000 (RON 6,000), not on each tranche in isolation — check with counsel how “the same resolution” reads on your papers.

Law no. 70/2015 is not the only brake. Law no. 239/2025 blocked the repayment of loans to associates when net assets fall below half of share capital — a fine of RON 10,000–200,000, joint and several liability. You can have a transfer that is perfectly compliant with art. 4(4) and still be barred from repaying, under the Companies Law. Net-asset and Form 100 detail sits in the dividends guide. Share capital paid in at incorporation is not a loan: it is a contribution, with the 30%/70% calendar in the post-incorporation guide. Do not run it through the cashier as an associate credit.

Work through the steps before the first cash collection. The figures are those in force on 17 September 2026.

Tavoris prepares the SRL incorporation file for the ONRC, from the identity document and the registered-office contract. It does not open the payment account, keep the cash book, compute the RON 50,000 balance, file Form 100 for dividends or declare associate loans.

After the certificate, cash discipline is yours, with the accountant. The post-incorporation checklist covers SPV and the capital contribution; the account guide covers the 60 working days — this article covers only how much cash you may touch.

Informational guide as of 17 September 2026. Law no. 70/2015, Law no. 239/2025, GEO no. 115/2023, GEO no. 98/2023, Law no. 296/2023, Order of the Minister of Public Finance no. 1,265/2016, HP no. 51/2026 and the DGRFP Ploiești guide of 31 July 2026 may be updated. Check anaf.ro and legislatie.just.ro. This is not tax, accounting or legal advice.