SRL Form 318 in 2026: EU VAT refund by Wednesday 30 September, EUR 50 or EUR 400 floor

The Tavoris blog already covers VAT registration (the ceiling, art. 316, Form 300) and Form 390 VIES (the intra-EU recapitulative statement, a deadline on the 25th, codes L A T P S). Form 318 does not compute Romanian VAT payable and it does not land in VIES as a partner list. It is the claim by which an SRL established in Romania asks for the value-added tax paid on invoices and imports in another member state: fuel, accommodation, road tolls, a stand at a fair. The basis is art. 302(2) of Law no. 227/2015 (the Fiscal Code). The procedure, the form and the instructions are ANAF Order no. 2,810/2016 (Official Gazette no. 844 of 25 October 2016), Ministry of Finance code 14.13.03.02/18. The rules are point 73 of Government Decision no. 1/2016, which transposes Directive 2008/9/EC and Directive 2010/66/EU.

Five searches the existing guides do not close: (1) who files Form 318 in 2026, (2) the deadline of Wednesday 30 September 2026, after which 2025 VAT can no longer be claimed on this form, (3) the floor of EUR 50 for a calendar year and EUR 400 for a period longer than three months and shorter than a year, (4) why an art. 316 code is a condition for forwarding and why the art. 310 small-enterprise exemption, including an art. 317 code alone, never leaves for the other state, (5) codes 1–10, the assistance program updated on 14 April 2026 and the four months in which the refund state replies. Figures checked on 28 September 2026, a Monday. Two calendar days remain. The practical premise is a VAT code that was valid in 2025 and the SPV opened after the certificate: without an electronic signature you cannot send the claim.

Form 318 is filed by a taxable person established in Romania, for VAT on imports and on purchases of goods or services made in another member state. You do not send the claim straight to the tax authority in Germany, Italy or Austria. You submit it electronically to the Romanian tax office, through the ANAF portal, and Romania forwards it only if it passes the check. Point 73(2) says the right to a refund is judged under the law of the refunding state. Point 73(3) adds a Romanian filter: you must carry out transactions in Romania that give a right to deduct. If you also make transactions with no right to deduct, the other state may refund only the share that matches the pro-rata.

It is not Form 390. Form 390 reports intra-EU supplies, acquisitions and services, monthly, and it does not pay the VAT from a Berlin hotel invoice into your account. It is not Form 300: foreign VAT is not input tax on the Romanian return and it is not cancelled with the 21% rate in force since 1 August 2025 (Law no. 141/2025). It is not e-Factura: the XML in SPV covers Romanian invoices and does not replace the claim to the state where you paid the tax. A firm that is not VAT-registered in Romania, under the small-enterprise exemption, does not use this channel — that is point 4.

The form has a single member state. Germany and France mean two claims, two currencies, two languages. The annex to ANAF Order no. 2,810/2016 requires the information in the language set by the refunding state, not automatically in Romanian. The ISO prefix goes on the invoice; Greece uses EL, not GR. You enter the IBAN and BIC, the description of the activity and, for each invoice or import document, the taxable amount, the VAT and the deductible VAT in that state's currency.

Point 73(11) and the procedure in ANAF Order no. 2,810/2016 fix filing at the latest on 30 September of the calendar year following the refund period. For 2025 transactions the date is Wednesday 30 September 2026. The day is a working day, so the deadline does not move. After that date the right to claim 2025 tax through Form 318 is lost. There is no October rectification that adds forgotten 2025 invoices. Transactions from 2026 have their own deadline: 30 September 2027. From Monday 28 September 2026, two calendar days remain.

The same Wednesday is also the deadline for Form 394 for August and for D406 for August. Those are other forms, monthly or tied to the VAT tax period, filed even when you trade only in Romania. Form 318 for 2025 is an annual claim, per member state, and it is not ticked off together with Form 394. Also on 30 September 2026 the e-TVA suspension ends for firms on cash-accounting VAT — a rule from the e-TVA guide, not a refund of foreign tax. The same day is the second instalment of building tax, land tax and the tax on means of transport (Fiscal Code art. 462, instalments on 31 March and 30 September). A late local-budget payment draws a late-payment increase, not the 0.02% per day interest in art. 174 of the Fiscal Procedure Code, and it is not paid through Form 318.

The refund period is at most one calendar year and at least three months. A period shorter than three months is allowed only when it is the remainder of the year (point 73(12)). You may also include invoices not covered by earlier claims, if the transactions were completed in that year (paragraph (10)). That is not done by ticking 'rectifying claim'. Under the annex to the order, a rectification corrects invoices already listed, with the reference number of the original claim, and it may not contain new invoices. A forgotten 2025 invoice goes on an initial claim, still by Wednesday 30 September 2026.

The floor applies to the amount of VAT you ask to be refunded, not to turnover and not to the taxable amount on the invoice. Point 73(14): if the claim covers a calendar year or the remainder of a year, the VAT cannot be less than EUR 50 or the equivalent in the currency of the refunding state. Paragraph (13): if the period is shorter than a year but longer than three months, the floor is EUR 400 or the equivalent in that state's currency. The National Bank of Romania rate of 1 January 2010, used at point 72 for foreigners' claims against Romania, does not convert these EUR 50 and EUR 400 into lei on your Form 318. You are the applicant, not the refunding state.

Example on 28 September 2026, for an SRL whose art. 316 code was valid throughout 2025. Fuel VAT in Germany, the whole year: EUR 190. An annual claim: 190 is above 50, so the floor is met. The same sum placed only on January–September (nine months, so more than three months and less than a year): 190 is below 400, and the claim fails the floor. Fuel VAT in Austria, the whole year: EUR 40. Below 50, the annual claim does not go forward. VAT on a fair stand in Italy: EUR 440, on a taxable amount of EUR 2,000. The annual claim clears the EUR 50 floor. Three states, three forms. You do not add 190 + 40 + 440 to rescue Austria.

Invoice copies are a different floor and they look at the taxable amount, not at the VAT. Directive 2008/9/EC requires an electronic copy when the taxable amount on the invoice or import document is at least EUR 1,000, and for fuel at least EUR 250. The refunding state applies its own transposition. In the mirror, when Romania receives a foreigner's claim, point 72(11) converts those floors at the National Bank rate valid on 1 January 2010. On the Italian example, a base of EUR 2,000 exceeds EUR 1,000, so you attach the copy. A fuel invoice with a taxable amount of EUR 200 sits under EUR 250 and, at filing, the copy is not mandatory under that text. If the state has doubts it may ask for the document later; in the Romanian mirror, the floors no longer matter where there are justified doubts (point 72(22)).

Point 73(15) requires ANAF not to forward the claim if, during the refund period, the applicant is not a taxable person for VAT, makes only exempt supplies with no right to deduct (Fiscal Code art. 292) or benefits from the small-enterprise exemption in art. 310. The decision is sent electronically (paragraph (16)). Separately, point 4 of the procedure in ANAF Order no. 2,810/2016 checks two things in the application: that you were VAT-registered under art. 316 during the period entered on the claim, and that the invoices on the list were issued while the code was valid. If either condition fails, the claim does not leave for the member state and you do not receive a reference number.

An SRL that has only the art. 310 exemption — under the registration ceiling in the VAT guide, with no art. 316 code — does not recover the EU hotel or the diesel through Form 318. The tax stays in the cost. The special code in art. 317, the one used on Form 390 and on the special return D301, is not the art. 316 registration the order looks for. The software update of 14 April 2026 does not, in the text that could be checked, change this test. If you registered under art. 316 on 1 July 2025, invoices from January–June 2025 fall outside the code's validity and are not forwarded, even though the calendar year is 2025.

The deduction filter is double. The refunding state applies its own restrictions: catering (code 7) and entertainment (code 9) are often refused, even if you booked the amount in the Romanian accounts. You must, in addition, have a right to deduct in Romania. The pro-rata is entered on the claim. If the final pro-rata differs after you have filed, you correct the sum. If you file another Form 318 in the following calendar year, you adjust on that claim. If you file no further Form 318 that year, you use Form 319, the pro-rata adjustment statement, Ministry of Finance code 14.13.03.02/19, also from ANAF Order no. 2,810/2016. An appeal against the foreign state's refusal is brought before the authority of that state, in its form and within its deadline (point 73(17)), not by a message in SPV to ANAF.

The nature of the goods and services is coded under point 72(9), to which point 73(7) refers: 1 fuel; 2 hiring of means of transport; 3 expenditure relating to means of transport other than codes 1 and 2; 4 road tolls and road-user charges; 5 travel expenses, for example taxis or public transport; 6 accommodation; 7 food, drink and restaurant services; 8 admission to fairs and exhibitions; 9 luxury goods, amusements and entertainment; 10 other, with a mandatory description. The form also has a sub-code. For codes 1 and 3, the mirror rule requires extra coded information, because of deduction restrictions. The rate on the invoice is the refunding state's rate. You do not replace it with 21% and you do not deduct it on Form 300.

On the ANAF page for Form 318, as at 28 September 2026, the PDF program (software A) and the validation annex are updated on 14 April 2026. Software J is updated on 24 April 2025. The XSD schema listed is from 7 November 2017. Download the version on anaf.ro, validate, sign electronically and send. The 2017 PDF guide describes the path 'Certificate authentication'; the labels may have changed, so confirm the current screen under EU VAT refund. The acknowledgement of receipt is sent at once (point 73(11)). The reference number appears only if the art. 316 check succeeded and the claim was forwarded (point 4.3 of the procedure). Put it on later documents.

The four months do not run from the click in Romania. Directive 2008/9/EC gives the refunding state four months from the date it receives the claim to approve or refuse it. If it asks for further information, you have one month to reply, and the decision can reach six months from receipt; on a second round of information, the cap in the directive is eight months. Payment, under the same directive, is made within 10 working days of the expiry of the decision deadline. Points 72(21), (24) and (25) repeat the same structure when Romania is the state paying a foreign applicant. For Form 318, the other state pays, under its own transposition. Silence is not a tacit approval in every state: point 73(17) says that, where local law provides no procedure, silence within the directive's deadlines is treated as a refusal. Interest for a late payment, where it exists, is owed by the refunding state, not by ANAF, and it does not replace filing on Wednesday.

The list below is for 2025 transactions, checked on 28 September 2026. It does not replace the member-state preference list published by ANAF and it does not set the rate on the foreign invoice.

Tavoris prepares the SRL incorporation dossier for the trade register (ONRC), from the identity document and the registered-office contract. It does not obtain the art. 316 VAT code, download the Form 318 software, sign the claim or chase the reply from Germany or Italy. After registration, VAT registration, the tax vector and the EU refund sit in SPV, with you and your accountant.

If the firm does not exist yet, the 2025 claim has nothing to attach to: without an art. 316 code valid in the invoice period, ANAF does not forward Form 318. The after-incorporation guide covers SPV and the bank account. e-Factura remains the duty on Romanian invoices, within five working days, and it does not recover tax paid in another member state.

Informational text as at 28 September 2026, not legal or tax advice. Main acts: art. 302(2) and arts. 310, 316 and 292 of Law no. 227/2015, points 72 and 73 of the rules approved by Government Decision no. 1/2016, ANAF Order no. 2,810/2016, Directives 2008/9/EC and 2010/66/EU. The assistance program cited is the one displayed on anaf.ro on 28 September 2026 (software A and the validation annex of 14 April 2026). ANAF's PDF guide to the form is from 2017; where the click-path differs, follow the institution's current page. VAT rates in the examples illustrate the invoice, not a rate this article sets. Check anaf.ro and the member state's preference list before you send.