SRL Form 394 in 2026: 30 September deadline, nil returns and RON 2,000–3,500 fines

Tavoris’s blog already covers VAT registration (RON 395,000 threshold, 21% rate, D300 in one paragraph), the RO e-TVA pre-filled return (P300 vs D300, 30 September for cash VAT) and e-Factura (5 working days, XML in SPV). Form 394 appears there as a sentence. Searches for “Form 394 SRL 2026 who files”, “D394 deadline 30 September vs 25 D300”, “D394 nil return”, “Form 394 fines RON 2,000–3,500” and “reconcile D394 with e-Factura D300 P300” are a different topic: the informative return on supplies, services and purchases on national territory. D394 does not compute VAT payable, does not replace D300 and is not P300. The e-Factura XML does not “file” 394 for you.

Five dominant topics: (1) who files — persons registered under art. 316, not the non-payer under the exemption threshold, (2) the deadline of the 30th inclusive of the following month, Wednesday 30 September 2026 for August, versus Friday 25 September for D300, (3) the nil filing, with the NO tick, (4) fines of RON 2,000–3,500 (RON 12,000–14,000 for medium and large taxpayers) and half the minimum within 48 hours, not 15 days, (5) reconciliation on invoice date with e-Factura, D300 (chargeability) and P300. Data updated as of 21 September 2026, a Monday. Until Wednesday 30 September 2026 there are 9 calendar days. The practical premise remains the SPV opened after the certificate: without a qualified electronic signature you cannot send the PDF with XML.

D394 is filed by taxable persons registered for VAT in Romania under art. 316 of Law no. 227/2015 (the Fiscal Code). The legal basis is ANAF Order no. 3,769/2015 (Official Gazette no. 11/7 January 2016), with the model and instructions replaced by ANAF Order no. 77/2022 and, for operations from 1 August 2025, by ANAF Order no. 2,194/2025 (Official Gazette no. 852/17 September 2025). ANAF’s September 2026 calendar restates the scope: supplies of goods and services taxable in Romania where the person liable for the tax is the supplier (art. 307(1) or (7)) or the customer (art. 331), plus purchases of goods or services with the place in Romania (art. 275 and art. 278), including reverse charge (art. 307(2), (3), (5) and (6) and art. 331), regardless of the date on which the tax becomes chargeable.

You do not file D394 if your SRL is not registered under art. 316 — for example you stay under the RON 395,000 exemption threshold and have not opted in. You remain obligated to use e-Factura. The special registration in art. 317 (a VAT ID for intra-Community operations, without becoming a “normal” payer) does not open D394: there you run the special return D301 and the recapitulative statement D390, not the domestic 394. If you already hold art. 316, you do not request a second code; the same RO-CUI validates both VIES and D394. A 1% micro-enterprise that is also a VAT payer files D394 like any other registered taxable person — the income-tax rate does not cancel the informative return.

The filing format is a PDF with an attached XML, validated with the assistance programme on anaf.ro (the “394” page), signed with a qualified certificate and sent through SPV. The correct version in September 2026 is the one published on 15 September 2025, “used starting with tax obligations for August 2025” — it reflects the 21% and 11% rates from ANAF Order no. 2,194/2025. Do not reuse a 2022 Java/PDF. The form also asks for a CAEN code: the February 2025 build moved to CAEN Rev. 3; the ONRC recoding deadline is Friday 25 September 2026. A D394 still showing Rev. 2 on a certificate already moved to Rev. 3 is an identification mismatch, not a “small nomenclature slip”.

The legal deadline, in the instructions annexed to ANAF Order no. 3,769/2015 as amended by ANAF Order no. 77/2022, is the 30th inclusive of the month following the end of the reporting period declared for the VAT return — month, quarter or another period under art. 322 of the Fiscal Code. It is not the 25th. D300 (the return with VAT payable or refundable) stays on the 25th; D394, an informative return, sits on the 30th. If the 30th falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, the deadline moves to the next working day (art. 181 of the Code of Fiscal Procedure, Law no. 207/2015). 30 September 2026 is a Wednesday: it does not move. The express exception: when the period is the calendar month, for January the deadline is 28 or 29 February, not the 30th.

Example as of 21 September 2026, a Monday, for an SRL on a monthly period. August operations: D300 on Friday 25 September 2026; D394 on Wednesday 30 September 2026; SAF-T D406 also on Wednesday 30 September 2026 (last calendar day of the following month); P300 lands in SPV by Monday 5 October 2026. From today until D394 there are 9 calendar days; until D300, 4 days. Friday 25 September also coincides with Form 112 and the CAEN Rev. 3 update — three calendars, not one. For September 2026 (and the third quarter, if you are quarterly): 25 October 2026 is a Sunday, so D300 moves to Monday 26 October 2026; D394 stays Friday 30 October 2026, a working day.

D394 periodicity follows the VAT vector, not micro or profit tax. Monthly, as a rule, if turnover exceeds the equivalent of EUR 100,000 or you have intra-Community operations that force the month; quarterly if you are under the threshold and the vector says T. You change the period through Form 700, not “off your own bat” inside 394. Do not wait for P300 before filing D394: P300 is generated after D300 and uses, among other sources, the previous 394. Do not file D394 on the 25th “to get it over with”: an early filing is allowed, but it does not replace the check on the 30th if you still issue invoices in the last days of the reporting month. Invoices dated 30 August 2026 sit in the August D394, due 30 September, even if you sent them in e-Factura on 2 September (inside the 5 working days).

The instructions require filing even if, in the reporting period, there were no operations of the kind covered by the return. On the first page you tick “Were operations carried out in the reporting period? NO” and you transmit the form. Skipping a nil 394 is a contravention just like a 394 with wrong amounts. An August with no clients, but with rent paid by bank to an individual landlord not registered for VAT, may still have purchase rows — then it is not nil. Nil means zero operations in the 394 sphere, not “zero VAT payable on D300”.

The month-allocation rule is the date of the invoice issued or received, not the moment VAT becomes chargeable. Invoices mentioning “reverse charge” or “cash VAT”, advances, credit notes and simplified invoices that carry the customer’s VAT ID all go in. That is why a D300 under the cash-VAT scheme (the P300 pre-fill suspension runs to 30 September 2026 inclusive) and a D394 for the same months need not show the same tax totals: 394 photographs the document, the return photographs chargeability. You do not “fix” 394 so that it matches the output-VAT row.

What you do not refile: invoices received in a reporting period other than the month the supplier printed on the invoice are not the subject of a correcting return for the issue month — you declare them in the month you received them, per the instructions. A correcting return replaces the original; the order does not set a separate fine merely for correcting. Pure intra-Community supplies of goods and services sit on D390, not D394. Import and export are not “national territory” in the 394 sense. If you have suspended activity at ONRC but the art. 316 VAT vector is still live, the nil D394 remains due until you update the vector; do not confuse a mention pause with cancellation of the informative duty.

Failure to file on time, or supplying incorrect or incomplete D394 data, is treated in dominant ANAF practice as failure to provide on time the periodic information requested by the tax authority (art. 336(1)(h) of Law no. 207/2015, read with art. 59). The penalty in art. 336(2)(c): RON 12,000–14,000 for legal persons classed as medium or large taxpayers; RON 2,000–3,500 for other legal persons — almost every new SRL — and for individuals. A small SRL that misses 30 September 2026 therefore risks a RON 2,000 minimum, not RON 500.

Some minutes of finding invoke letter (b) (failure to file tax returns) with the band in paragraph (2)(d): RON 1,000–5,000 for medium/large taxpayers and RON 500–1,000 for others. Do not merge the two letters into one “unique fine”: the finding body classifies the concrete act. The High Court registered on 28 July 2026 referral 1,445/1/2026 (a communiqué on the interpretation of art. 336(1)(h) read with art. 59 and points 3.1–3.3 of Annex 3 to ANAF Order no. 3,769/2015): whether the offence is complete when the legal day-30 deadline expires, or only after a compliance notice. As of 21 September 2026 there is no published decision. Do not delay D394 waiting for a notice — the instructions’ deadline is the 30th, not “the 30th plus ANAF’s letter”.

Art. 338(3) allows payment, on the spot or within 48 hours of drawing up or communicating the minutes, of half the minimum fine: RON 1,000 for the RON 2,000–3,500 band, RON 6,000 for the RON 12,000–14,000 band. The officer must note this option in the minutes. Law no. 296/2023 took Fiscal Procedure Code offenders out of the 15-day rule in Government Ordinance no. 2/2001; do not wait two weeks. Paying half the minimum does not wipe the duty to file 394. SAF-T (D406) has a different legal basis and different ceilings (RON 1,000–5,000); a D406 receipt on 30 September does not cover D394 on the same day.

The order of the month, not of instinct: close the ledgers on invoices issued and received; send the e-Factura XML within 5 working days; file D300 on the 25th; file D394 on the 30th; open P300 by the 5th of the following month. D394 must be reconstructable from e-Factura (CUI, name, base, rate, tax, credit note). Errors that generate mismatches at audit: an invalid CUI or one without the tax attribute, a 19% or 9% rate on a supply that from 1 August 2025 is 21% or 11% (Law no. 141/2025), omitted advance invoices, a doubled credit note, a partner ticked as a VAT payer when they are exempt. For eligible dwellings, the transitional 9% rate holds for supplies until 30 September 2026 inclusive (Law no. 161/2026) — August may still show it; from October check whether the row still belongs on the documents.

D300 and D394 are not two copies. The return groups by chargeability and by type of operation (output, input, exempt, reverse charge). 394 groups by partner and by invoice, on national territory. A tax difference between them is not automatically an error: cash VAT, invoices received late, exempt operations with no right of deduction. P300, built by ANAF from e-Factura, SAF-T, AMEF and from 394, will show these lags. Do not edit D394 to “smooth” P300 if your books are right; correct the source (XML, ledger, D406) or, if 394 is wrong, file a correcting return.

Control checklist before 30 September 2026: the same L or T period as on D300; CAEN Rev. 3 aligned with the certificate; every B2B partner from e-Factura appears with a CUI; B2C without a CUI are not “forgotten” if the instructions require aggregation; reverse charge has both a supply and a purchase row where you are both supplier and customer; you do not mix an EU acquisition into 394. The e-Factura guide remains XML discipline; the e-TVA guide remains P300 discipline. This is the file ANAF cross-checks with your partners: their 394 must see your invoices, and yours theirs.

Work through the steps before Wednesday 30 September 2026. The figures are those in force on 21 September 2026, a Monday.

Tavoris prepares the SRL incorporation dossier at ONRC, from the identity document and the registered-office contract. It does not complete Form 394, generate D300 or P300, transmit XML in SPV or reconcile VAT ledgers.

After the certificate, the post-incorporation checklist covers SPV and e-Factura; the VAT guide covers the threshold and art. 316 registration. This article covers only the day-30 informative return and its fines.

Informational guide as of 21 September 2026. ANAF Order no. 3,769/2015, ANAF Order no. 77/2022, ANAF Order no. 2,194/2025, Law no. 227/2015, Law no. 207/2015 arts. 59, 181, 336 and 338, Law no. 141/2025, Law no. 161/2026, Law no. 296/2023 and High Court referral 1,445/1/2026 may be updated. Check anaf.ro (the Form 394 page) and legislatie.just.ro. This is not tax, accounting or legal advice.