Court Stamp Duties

The judicial stamp duty is the payment made to the state by natural and legal persons to resolve legal issues through judicial action. The services covered include court proceedings and petitions, as well as requests directed to the Ministry of Justice and the Prosecutor's Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice (ÎCCJ). In certain legally defined situations, these proceedings and petitions may be exempt from court stamp duty payments.

Regulations for court stamp duties

The current judicial stamp fees are regulated by [The relevant authority or legislation]. Note: The translation of the third sentence is assuming that "In addition to their core services, Incorpo.ro also provides valuable resources..." is the correct version, as the original sentence structure seems incorrect. Emergency Ordinance no. 80 of June 26, 2013. Through the enactment of this normative act by the Romanian Government and its publication in the Official Gazette no. 392 on June 29, 2013 – Law no. 146 of July 24, 1997, regarding judicial stamp duties.

The emergency ordinance concerned the adequacy of the judicial stamp tax system within the Romanian legal system, together with the modification of the legal framework for conducting the civil process through the adoption of the Civil Procedure Code, as well as the implementation of the new institutions adopted by the Civil Code.

What stamp duties are payable?

Judicial stamp duties are paid in advance and are determined differently - according to whether or not their object is quantifiable in money, with the exceptions provided by law. The payment of judicial stamp fees is due for the trial in the first instance, but also for the exercise of appeals, under the conditions provided by law.

According to current legislation, as per art. 3 paragraph (1) of GEO 80/2013, the judicial stamps for monetary actions and claims filed in court are charged as follows:

• up to 500 lei in value - 8%, but no less than 20 lei;
• between 501 lei and 5,000 lei - 40 lei + 7% for what exceeds 500 lei;
• between 5,001 lei and 25,000 lei - 355 lei + 5% for what exceeds 5,000 lei;
• between 25,001 lei and 50,000 lei - 1,355 lei + 3% for what exceeds 25,000 lei;
• between 50,001 lei and 250,000 lei - 2,105 lei +2% for what exceeds 50,000 lei;
• over 250,000 lei - 6,105 lei + 1% for the amount over 250,000 lei.
• When the request made by way of presidential ordinance is quantifiable in monetary terms, it incurs a charge of 50 lei if its value does not exceed 2,000 lei, and 200 lei if its value surpasses 2,000 lei.
• In the case of an appeal against enforced execution, the judicial stamp duty is calculated based on the value of the assets being disputed or the value of the debt owed, whichever is lower. The fee for this appeal must not go beyond 1,000 Romanian lei, regardless of the contested sum.
• Requests for the return of enforced execution are subject to a fee of 50 lei if the value of the request does not exceed 5,000 lei, and 300 lei if the value exceeds that amount.
• Requests to appeal court decisions incur a charge of 50% of the fee applicable to the disputed amount for requests and actions that are quantifiable in monetary terms, with a minimum amount of 20 lei.
• For requests and actions that can be evaluated in monetary terms, if a violation or incorrect application of the rules of substantive law is invoked, the appeal shall be subject to a fee of 50% of the fee due on the disputed amount, but not less than 100 RON.
• Claims of a patrimonial nature, which also request the reparation of damages suffered through an administrative act: 10% of the claimed amount, but not more than 300 lei.

The value of the judicial stamps for actions and claims that cannot be evaluated in money are to be presented and explained in detail, in the content of this article.

Court stamp duty facilities

As a natural person, you can benefit from discounts, deferrals, postponements or exemptions for the payment of the judicial stamp duty, including the one due during the enforced execution phase. These facilities are granted under the conditions of the Government's Emergency Ordinance no. 51/2008 regarding public judicial aid in civil matters, approved with amendments and additions by Law no. 193/2008, with subsequent amendments and additions.

Public judicial aid can be granted to natural persons under the following conditions:

• The total annual cap on judicial stamp duties is equivalent to twelve times the gross minimum wage of the country for that year.
• If your average net monthly income is less than 500 lei per family member in the two months before making the request, the state will cover all judicial stamp fees;
• If your average net monthly family income is less than 800 lei per person in the two months before submitting the request, the state will cover 50% of the required judicial stamp fees.
• In other situations, proportionate to your needs as an applicant. If the certain or estimated costs of the process are likely to limit your effective access to justice.

As a legal entity, you may benefit from reductions, waivers, or deferrals for judicial stamp fees upon request. According to Article 42, Paragraph (2) of GEO 80/2013, these benefits apply in the following scenarios:

• When the tax amount exceeds 10% of the average net income from the last 3 months of activity.
• When full payment of the tax is not feasible because the legal entity is in liquidation or dissolution proceedings, or its assets are inaccessible as per the law;
• In exceptional cases where the current activity of the legal entity would be significantly impacted by the payment of the stamp duty, as assessed by the court, taking into account the economic-financial situation.

How do I find out the amount of court stamp duty?

The value of the judicial stamp fees is established by the court, according to the provisions of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 80/2013 . The value of the judicial stamp fees for actions and requests that can be evaluated in money is calculated at the value provided in the action or in the request. If this value is contested or is considered derisory by the court, the assessment will be made under the conditions of art. 98 para. (3) of the Civil Procedure Code.

When the application pertains to the right of ownership or other real rights over immovable property, the judicial stamp duty is computed based on the taxable value of the property in question. If this value is disputed or deemed unrealistic, the court will assess the request by referring to notary grids for indicative real estate values.

Exemptions from judicial stamp duty

According to art. 29 of GEO 80/2013, actions and requests, including appeals, are exempt from judicial stamp duty fees.

• the establishment and payment of pensions, as well as other rights provided by the social insurance systems;
• establishment and payment of unemployment benefit, professional integration aid and support allowance, social aid, state child allowance, rights of disabled persons and other forms of social protection provided for by law;
• Maintenance-related legal and contractual obligations, encompassing actions of nullity, annulment, resolution, or termination of the maintenance contract.
• establishing and awarding damages arising from wrongful conviction or taking preventive measures;
• adoption, protection of minors, guardianship, conservatorship, judicial prohibition, assistance to people with mental disorders, as well as the exercise by the guardianship authority of its duties;
• protection of consumer rights, when natural persons and associations for consumer protection have the capacity of plaintiff against economic operators who have harmed the legitimate rights and interests of consumers;
• capitalizing on the rights of the National Red Cross Society;
• exercise of electoral rights;
• Criminal cases, encompassing civil reparations for tangible and intangible harm resulting from them.
• establishing and awarding civil compensation for alleged violations of the rights provided for in art. 2 and 3 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, ratified by Law no. 30/1994, with subsequent amendments;
• The rights and legitimate interests claimed by former detainees persecuted for political reasons during the communist regime in Romania.
• any other actions, petitions, or procedural documents for which special laws provide exemptions from judicial stamp duty;
• requests, actions and appeals filed by the prefect or mayor for the annulment of legal acts made or issued in violation of the provisions of the Land Fund Law no. 18/1991, republished, with subsequent amendments and additions;
• applications for the dissolution of companies regulated by Law no. 31/1990, republished, with subsequent amendments and additions, and of economic interest groups, formulated by the National Trade Registry Office;
• the actions and requests regarding the service reports of civil servants and civil servants with special status are assimilated, in terms of the judicial stamp duty, to labor conflicts;
• for the issuance of simple copies of the documents on file, if the copying services are not performed by the court, but by private providers operating in the court premises, no judicial stamp duty is charged.

According to Article 29 of GEO 80/2013, actions and claims, including appeals filed in accordance with the law by the Senate, the Chamber of Deputies, the Presidency of Romania, the Government of Romania, the Constitutional Court, the Court of Accounts, the Legislative Council, the People's Advocate, the Ministry of Public Affairs, and the Ministry of Public Finance, regardless of their object, as well as those formulated by other public institutions, regardless of their procedural capacity, when they concern public revenues.

In what situations are court stamp fees refunded?

The situations in which the sums paid for judicial stamp duties can be returned to you, as the case may be – in full, in part or in proportion, are the following:

• when the tax paid was not due;
• when more than the legal amount was paid;
• when the action or request remains without object during the process, as a result of legal provisions;
• when the correctly stamped action was canceled under the terms of art. 200 para. (3) from the Code of Civil Procedure (does not meet the prescribed requirements) or when the plaintiff waived the judgment until the summons was served on the defendant;
• when, during the divorce proceedings, the parties waived judgment or reconciled;
• when the challenge to execution was admitted, and the decision remained final;
• in case the court declares itself incompetent, sending the case to another body with jurisdictional activity, as well as in the case of rejection of the request, as not being within the competence of the Romanian courts;
• when the evidence was administered by lawyers or legal advisers;
• if the participant in the process who was recused abstains or if the request for recusal or displacement was admitted;
• in other cases expressly provided by law.

What you need to know about court stamp duty:

• An action that has several claims, with different purposes, will be judicially charged for each claim separately, according to the nature of each one, except in cases where the law provides otherwise;
• If only part of the application heads were stamped when the application was registered, the action will be canceled in part, only for those application heads for which the court stamp fee was not paid;
• Counterclaims, requests for main intervention, and calls on a guarantee are charged following the rules pertinent to the object of the request as if it had been made in the principal action.
• In the case of requests or actions brought jointly by several people, if the subject of the process is a joint right or obligation or if their rights or obligations have the same cause or if there is a close connection between them, the judicial stamp duty is owed jointly ;
• Claims submitted during the trial that do not alter the taxable amount or nature of the initial claim are not subject to taxation unless stipulated otherwise by law.
• The staggered payment of judicial stamp duties can be arranged over a period of up to 24 months, with a maximum of 12 installments.

Court stamp fees in force for actions and claims not assessed in money:

• Possessory action: 20% of the value of the asset ;
• Action whose object is a dismantling of the property right: 20% of the value of the asset ;
• Request for servitudes: 20% of the property's value;

JUDICIAL PARTITION

• Establishing the assets subject to division and addressing the claims that co-owners have against each other arising from joint ownership, requests for reports, reduction of excessive liberalities, or the sharing process itself: 3% of the value.
• Establishing the quality of co-owner and determining the share due to each: 50 lei for each . If these requests are made within the same action, it is charged with a single fee of 5% of the value of the shareable mass ;
• Requests for eviction from buildings used or occupied without right: 100 lei ;
• Requests made by way of presidential ordinance: 20 lei ;
• Actions regarding the establishment and granting of compensation for moral damages caused to the honor, dignity, or reputation of a natural person: 100 lei
• Applications for establishing the existence or nonexistence of a non-patrimonial right: 100 RON
• Requests for the annulment or declaration of nullity of a non-patrimonial legal act: 100 lei ;
• Requests concerning the right to use rented or leased property, if they do not also involve the payment of certain sums of money: 100 lei.
• Demarcation actions, if a portion of land is not also claimed through the same application: 100 RON;
• The request to restore parties to their previous situation, when not accessory to establishing the nullity, annulment, resolution, or termination of a patrimonial legal act: 50 lei if the request value is under 5,000 lei, and 300 lei for requests over 5,000 lei.

REQUESTS MADE DURING THE TRIAL:

• Requests for recusal in civil cases, for each party requesting recusal: 100 lei;
• Requests for relocation in civil matters: 100 lei ;
• Late reinstatement requests: 20 RON ;
• Expiry requests: 20 lei;
• Requests for re-examination against the conclusion by which the judicial fines and compensations were established according to art. 190 of the Civil Procedure Code: 20 lei ;
• Requests for re-examination against the annulment of the summons request, formulated according to art. 200 para. (4) from the Civil Procedure Code: 20 lei ;
• Applications for reinstatement, when the suspension of the trial is due to the parties: 50% of the judicial stamp duty for the application or action whose trial was suspended;
• Requests for the recovery of missing documents and decisions: 50 lei ;
• Requests for the release of simple copies of on-file documents by the court: 0.20 lei/page
• Requests for the legalization of copies of the documents on file, for each copy: 1 leu/page ;
• Requests for the issuance of any other certificates certifying facts or situations resulting from court records or regarding the files in their archives: 1 leu/page ;
• Requests for the release by the courts of copies of final court decisions: 5 lei/copy;

ENFORCEMENT

• Requests for approval to proceed with enforced execution, per enforceable title: 20 lei;
• Requests for suspension of enforcement, including provisional enforcement: 50 Romanian lei;
• Appeal against forced execution - with the object of forced execution not valuable in money: 100 lei ;
• Requests by which the parties ask the court to hand down a decision confirming the parties' understanding, including when it results from the mediation agreement: 20 lei; if the settlement or mediation agreement concerns the transfer of ownership or other real right over immovable assets, 50% of the fee that would be due for the action to claim the asset with the highest value among those subject to the transferred right is added. For agreements on sharing, 50% of the value of the sharing fee is added to the fixed fee;
• Requests related to insurance measures: 100 lei; when the requests aim to establish precautionary measures on ships and aircraft: 1,000 lei; requests for a European insurance order to block bank accounts: 100 lei;
• The appeal fee for delaying the trial and filing a complaint against the appeal decision is 20 lei.

AUTHORIZATION AND REGISTRATION OF LEGAL ENTITIES

• Requests regarding the registration of political parties or modifications to their status: 300 lei
• Applications for the acquisition of legal personality by the organizations provided for in the Social Dialogue Law no. 62/2011, republished, with subsequent amendments, as well as for the amendment of their constitutive acts: 200 lei ;
• Applications for the acquisition of legal personality by non-profit associations, foundations, unions and federations of non-profit legal persons, as well as for the amendment of their constitutive acts: 100 lei ;
• Requests for the jurisdiction of the courts having as their object registrations in the trade register: 100 lei (Business registration / National Trade Registry Decision Appeals / Complaint);

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHT

• Actions for the recognition of copyright and related rights, for the finding of their infringement and the reparation of damages, including the payment of copyright and the amounts due for works of art, as well as for taking any measures to prevent the occurrence of imminent damages, to ensure reparation to them or for the restoration of the achieved right: 100 lei ;
• Actions for recognizing the quality of inventor, patent holder, rights arising from the invention patent, assignment and license contracts, including the patrimonial rights of the inventor: 100 lei;
• Requests (non-evaluable) regarding the rights conferred by trademarks, designs, and industrial models: 300 RON;
• Actions, petitions, objections, and appeals brought before the courts as per Law no. 85/2006 concerning insolvency procedures, along with subsequent amendments and addendums, of EGO no. 10/2004 regarding the bankruptcy of credit institutions, approved with revisions by Law no. 287/2004 and its subsequent modifications, and Law no. 503/2004 on financial recovery, bankruptcy, dissolution, and voluntary liquidation in the insurance sector, also with subsequent amendments: 200 lei.

FAMILY RELATIONS

• The request for divorce by the consent of the spouses, at the request of both spouses or of one of the spouses accepted by the other spouse - request based on the provisions of art. 373 lit. a) from Law no. 287/2009 regarding the Civil Code, republished, with subsequent amendments, hereinafter referred to as the Civil Code: 200 lei ;
• The request for divorce when, due to valid reasons, the relations between the spouses are seriously damaged and the continuation of the marriage is no longer possible or at the request of one of the spouses, after a de facto separation that lasted at least 2 years - request based on the provisions of art. . 373 lit. b) and c) of the Civil Code: 100 lei ;
• Divorce application at the request of one spouse, whose health condition makes it impossible to continue the marriage, based on Article 373 (d) of the Civil Code: 50 lei.
• The request regarding the granting of compensation or the establishment of a compensatory benefit: 50 Romanian lei;
• Requests unrelated to a divorce petition that seek to establish the child's residence, the exercise of parental authority, the financial contribution of parents to the child's upbringing and education, the right of a parent or non-parent to maintain personal relationships with the child, or matters concerning the family home: 20 lei/application;
• Any request that is not exempt from stamp duty by law and cannot be assessed in terms of money: 20 lei;

ADMINISTRATIVE LITIGATION

• Requests for the cancellation of the administrative act, or, as the case, the recognition of the claimed right, and requests for issuing a certificate, an attestation, or any other document: 50 RON;

NOTARY ACTIVITY

• Appeal against the decision of the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Notaries Public or, as applicable, of the Executive Office of the Council of the Union of Notaries Public regarding the resolution of conflicts of competence between notaries public: 100 lei;
• Complaints regarding the decision to deny the request for a notarial act: 20 lei;

Bailiffs

• Requests for the resolution of jurisdictional conflicts between bailiffs' offices: 20 lei ;
• Complaints against the bailiff's refusal to perform his legal duties: 20 lei;
• Requests for the legalization of the bailiff's signature and stamp: 20 lei ;

Offenses

• Complaint against the record of finding and sanctioning the contravention and appeal against the decision: 20 lei;

LAND REGISTRY

• Actions and requests in land deed matters, when they do not question the substance of the right: 50 RON;

ASSOCIATIONS OF OWNERS

• The request regarding the registration of owners', tenants', or mixed associations and the appeal against the decision of the judge-delegate: 20 lei ;

MINISTRY OF JUSTICE

• Requests for legalization of documents or copies of documents, intended to be used abroad: 10 lei/document or copy ;
• Requests for the authorization of translators and interpreters: 300 lei ;
• Requests for attestation of official Romanian qualifications as a legal advisor, along with experience gained in Romania, for recognition and practice in other European Union or European Economic Area member states; attestation of qualifications as an authorized translator and interpreter for practice in EU/EEA member states or the Swiss Confederation; attestation of qualifications as a judicial technical expert for practice in EU/EEA member states or the Swiss Confederation: 100 lei.
• Requests addressed to the Ministry of Justice in order to recognize the professional qualification of authorized translator and interpreter or judicial technical expert, under the conditions of Law no. 200/2004 on the recognition of diplomas and professional qualifications for regulated professions in Romania, with subsequent amendments and additions: 100 lei ;

APPEAL AGAINST JUDICIAL DECISIONS

• Requests to appeal court rulings incur a charge of 50% of the fee applicable to the request or non-evaluable action in monetary terms, as determined by the first instance, but no less than 20 lei.
• The incident call and the challenged call are charged according to the same rules;

APPEAL AGAINST JUDICIAL DECISIONS

• Appealing court decisions if one or more of the grounds provided in Art. 488 para. (1) points 1-7 of the Civil Procedure Code: 100 lei;
• Request for appeal for non-evaluable actions in money, in the event of violation or incorrect application of material law rules: 100 lei;
• The incident appeal and the challenged appeal are charged according to the same rules;

EXCEPTIONS for exercising the appeal or lodging a complaint against the following court decisions

• The conclusion by which the sale of goods was ordered in the sharing action: 20 lei ;
• The decision to suspend the trial for this case: 20 RON (Romanian Lei)
• Decisions to cancel the application as unstamped, unsigned, or lacking representative quality: 20 lei
• Decisions rejecting the request as premature, inadmissible, time-barred or res judicata: 50 lei ;
• The decision by which the waiver of the claimed right/entitlement was observed: 50 RON ;
• The decision in which the waiver of judgment was noted: 50 RON;
• The decision approving the consent of the parties: 50 Romanian lei ;
• The request for the exercise of the right of appeal that concerns only the considerations of the decision: 100 lei ;
• Formulating the cancellation appeal: 100 RON ;
• Request for review: 100 lei/reason for review cited;
• The action for annulment of the arbitration decision: 100 lei/each reason cited

OTHER COURT STAMP FEES for actions or claims not assessable in money

• Any other actions or requests that cannot be evaluated in money, except for those exempted from the payment of the judicial stamp tax according to the law: 20 lei