Services of Romanian Business Plaza.

Services of Romanian Business Plaza.

Just a short piece on the kind of services you need when starting to work in Romania, either as a private persona or as a company. Of course some of these we provide and for others we can point in the right direction.



Financial Bookkeeping;
It is mandatory to have an external bookkeeper (contabil) and compared to the Netherlands the 'correct' way to do the bookkeeping is different, it is closer to the French system. One note here, we have been explained that God is perfect, after that follows the Romanian state and then you. Therefor if the Romanian state comes to inspect the books they will find an error and give a fine, because a) nobody is perfect and b) the rules are so complex and sometimes contradictory that there is no way to follow them all. Do not be upset about fines, take it as part of regular business expenses.

Financial Taxes;
Next to that it has to be clear how and where you pay your taxes, so either you have a Romanian company and pay taxes in Romania, with possibility of invoicing to yourself from the Netherlands and vice verse or you work here as a Dutch tax-payer private or business in both cases you need to provide a certificate of fiscal residence which your Dutch tax office can provide when requested so in writing. Just send a request for "woonplaatsverklaring" (certificate of residence) to your own tax office, if not sure where to, call the "belastingdienst" and they will inform you to which tax office you belong and what the address is.

Financial Advice;
This is a good thing in Romania, as you already need to have a bookkeeper you already have your financial adviser, a decent bookkeeper here sees him/herself (lots of ladies in this profession) as a financial business adviser and do not charge extra for this (it is in their interest that you company does well and does not go belly up). Make sure you have a modern, fast thinking bookkeeper who charges a normal not exuberant fee for the services. If needed we can check if our own bookkeeper can take on more clients.

Location; Renting or buying both can be cheap or really expensive. Take your time to write down what you need from your location, only work or also housing? short term or long term? in the city or preferably outside, etc etc. Then based on that ask some agencies to present objects to you and do not rent or buy any of these. These are just meant to improve your search criteria, for in Romania good houses are of the market fast and sometimes not even on the market. the houses shown to you by an agency have an issue over 80% of the time. Also the cheaper places are either a bit older and might be damp or out of the way. The modern in the right location places are pricey and move very fast. When you have your set of criteria sharp and your budget realistically then ask around in your network and from us to go and look for proper houses suitable for you. From that time recon about 2 to 4 weeks with looking at 5 houses per week before finding your gem. It is regular to pay one month as guarantee and one month to the agency, do not however expect the guarantee back in the end, there are always reasons why they had to pay something for which you should have paid etc etc. Once money is given in Romania it is gone.


Personnel;It is great to have people working for you, it is even better to have great people working for you. The difference between the two in Romania can be huge for your business and does not necessarily come with a better pay. The attitude and habits of certain people are just not what we expect from professionals, there is both a cultural gap as well as a communistic influence and now also a generation gap. In the beginning I would not openly hire my own personnel but let a trusted party find people for you. For example us, but also your bookkeeper.


Land;One of the most interesting and difficult subjects in our experience. Yes there is land, the price is about 1/10 of what you would pay in the Netherlands, however good pieces of land readily for sale are a challenge to find. Also much of the land is parceled in to very small strips, it is like in the Netherlands from before the 'ruilverkaveling'. Next to that there are enough areas where neither electricity nor water is available which can make agriculture or living difficult. So when looking for land just contact us, and based on the purpose and the preferred location we'll help you further. We have at this moment no own interest in trading pieces of land, we are thinking of finding good pieces and then leasing them to interested parties which could be a plus as then the initial investment costs go down and other challenges can be solved whilst not having to think about the land.


Translations;Before coming here have formal papers (marriage, birth, living, health, insurance, tax, company ownership etc etc) with the needed stamps and signatures. Then have them translated as soon as you come into the country, this will save you a lot of time later on when doing business. We can put you in touch with an approved translator, the same the Honorary Consulate in Timisoara uses. For translations which are just about content and do not need a formal sign-off just contact us and we'll work something out either with us or with the formal translator.

ICT; 
Use local Romanian designers to improve and translate websites when needed, use Dutch or international hosting services. 
For having a reliable office environment set-up just discuss with us the best partner at that point in time. I find this market very volatile. The best and most reliable individuals to support your office might be having a regular job at a multinational doing that work full-time and the companies providing the services might not have these top individuals.