Romania: November 1 QR Code Deadline Could Be Postponed as Fiscal Cash Registers Remain Unprepared

Romanian retailers could face fines from November 1, 2026, for issuing Fiscal Receipts without mandatory QR codes. The Chamber of Tax Consultants warns that technical specifications have not been published, preventing fiscal cash register manufacturers from implementing the requirement. 

Romanian retailers and other businesses using electronic fiscal cash registers could face penalties from November 1, 2026, because the technical requirements for printing mandatory QR codes on Fiscal Receipts have still not been finalized.

On October 12, 2026, the Romanian Chamber of Tax Consultants (Camera Consultanților Fiscali, CCF) sent an official letter to the Ministry of Finance, requesting urgent clarification and intervention before the current suspension of sanctions expires.

According to the CCF, hundreds of thousands of businesses could be affected because fiscal cash register manufacturers and distributors do not yet have the technical specifications required to implement and obtain approval for the QR-code functionality.

The issue does not concern a newly introduced obligation. Romania established the QR-code requirement in 2024, but the implementation of the necessary technical rules has remained unresolved.

Under Government Emergency Ordinance No. 28/1999 (OUG 28/1999), as amended by OUG No. 69/2024, fiscal receipts issued through electronic fiscal cash registers must include additional identification information.

Article 4(2¹) requires the following information to appear in the form of a QR code:

• The date and time when the Fiscal Receipt was issued.
• The identification number of the Fiscal Receipt.
• The fiscal serial number of the electronic fiscal cash register.

The legislation also introduced requirements concerning the identification of the customer and the receipt.

These provisions apply to electronic fiscal cash registers, known in Romania as Aparate de Marcat Electronice Fiscale (AMEF).

However, although the primary legislation establishes which information the QR code must contain, the technical implementation requirements have not been finalized.

According to the CCF, the main difficulty is the absence of updated Methodological Norms under Government Decision No. 479/2003 (HG 479/2003).

These norms must establish how the legally required QR-code information should be technically implemented.

The unresolved details include the structure and format of the encoded data, encoding rules, QR-code size and positioning on the printed Fiscal Receipt, and any applicable verification address.

Without these specifications, manufacturers and distributors cannot finalize a standardized implementation that satisfies the regulatory requirements.

The issue also affects technical approval.

Romania's National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics, ICI Bucharest, is responsible for the technical assessment of fiscal cash registers.

According to the president of the CCF Fiscal Committee and former vice president of the Romanian Tax Authority (ANAF), ICI Bucharest cannot issue a favourable supplement to an existing technical approval until the relevant technical standards have been established.

The CCF therefore reports that no AMEF currently available on the Romanian market can issue fiscal receipts containing QR codes with the required data in an officially approved format.

Romania has already postponed the application of sanctions relating to the additional fiscal receipt information several times.

The latest suspension was introduced through OUG No. 68/2025, which suspended the application of the relevant provisions of Article 10(f) and Article 11(1)(h) of OUG 28/1999 until November 1, 2026.

This suspension covers specified omissions, including the required QR-code information.

Under Article 11(1)(h), the relevant infringement may be punished by a fine ranging from RON 2,000 to RON 4,000.

Unless the authorities adopt another extension or other legislative measure, the existing suspension is scheduled to expire on November 1.

The expiry would restore the application of the relevant sanctions, even though businesses may still be unable to obtain fiscal cash registers meeting the outstanding technical requirements.

However, this does not mean that penalties have already been imposed or that all businesses will automatically be fined on November 1.

In its official letter No. 12177, dated October 12, 2026, the CCF asked the Ministry of Finance to clarify how the QR-code requirements will be enforced after November 1.

The organization emphasized that businesses cannot implement the required functionality because the Methodological Norms under HG 479/2003 have not yet been amended.

The CCF requested an urgent assessment of the situation and appropriate action to address the approaching deadline.

One possible solution raised in the public discussion is a further legislative extension of the suspension of sanctions until the technical requirements are published and implementation becomes possible.

Impact on retailers and fiscal device providers

The unresolved requirements directly affect retailers, retail chains, hospitality businesses and other operators using electronic fiscal cash registers.

For retailers, the immediate problem is that compliance depends on technical functionality that they cannot independently introduce into an approved Fiscal Device.

Even businesses using properly registered and approved fiscal cash registers may be unable to produce receipts containing the prescribed QR-code information.

For fiscal cash register manufacturers and authorized distributors, the missing technical specifications prevent them from completing development and obtaining the necessary technical approvals.

The distinction is important: this issue concerns QR codes on fiscal receipts, not a general obligation to replace printed fiscal receipts with electronic receipts.

Nor does the reported problem remove the existing obligations to record and fiscalize retail transactions correctly.

What should businesses do?

Retailers should monitor official communications from the Ministry of Finance and the Tax Authority concerning the QR-code requirement and the November 1 deadline.

Businesses should also contact their authorized fiscal cash register distributors to confirm the implementation status of their devices and retain relevant communications.

Fiscal device manufacturers and POS providers should monitor amendments to HG 479/2003 and technical approval requirements published by ICI Bucharest.

Until further legislation is adopted, businesses should not assume that the existing suspension will be automatically extended.

The immediate priority is obtaining an official resolution before November 1, 2026, so that businesses are not exposed to penalties for technical requirements that remain impossible to implement.

From a fiscalization perspective, the current situation illustrates the difference between establishing a legal obligation and making technical compliance possible.

The QR-code requirement has existed since 2024, but the missing implementing rules prevent manufacturers from developing and obtaining approval for the required functionality.

Retailers cannot independently resolve this problem because changes to approved fiscal cash registers depend on manufacturers, authorized distributors and the applicable technical approval procedures.

The source for this article is the Chamber of Tax Consultant’s Official letter No. 12177 to the Ministry of Finance requesting clarification on the QR-code requirement after November 1, 2026. Source

Ivana Picajkić, Medior Legal Consultant at Fiscal Solutions

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