What should you know about tips and paying taxes on tips in the hospitality sector in Romania?

From the beginning of 2023, bars and restaurants will have the obligation to highlight the tip on both the bill and the fiscal receipt. The amounts derived from tips must be distributed in full to employees, and the money from this source is considered income with withholding at source, without being included in the calculation base of the social security contribution and without falling within the scope of VAT.

Tipping means any amount of money voluntarily offered by the customer, in addition to the value of the delivered goods or services provided by economic operators carrying out activities corresponding to NACE codes: 5610, "Restaurants" and 5630, "Bars and other beverage serving activities". These new rules regarding the tip will stay in force for the above-mentioned business codes.

As for the declaration of taxes, the tax is declared using the form D100, "Declaration on payment obligations to the state budget—a tax on income from other sources.

In the event of failure to comply with the provisions related to tipping, it will be considered non-compliance with the regulations and sanctioned with a fine between 2,000 lei and 4,000 lei (approximately a little over 800 EUR) according to the current rules. For the economic operators provided, the tip received from customers is highlighted on the fiscal receipt, regardless of the method of collecting it.

Economic operators have the obligation to hand over to the customer a payment note before issuing the fiscal receipt, in which fields are provided for  the customer to choose the level of tips offered, between 0% and 15% of the consumption value.

The bill must also contain another field in which the customer can enter the amount offered as a tip, in absolute value, if he chooses this way of determining the amount of the tip granted. Economic operators are prohibited from making the supply of goods or services conditional on tipping in any form since tips are always optional and giving tips depends on the customers' choice.