In brief

  • Parliament approves, without a single amendment, the 2024 ordinance that postponed the reform of building taxation and set up a new directorate inside the Ministry of Finance for the fiscal valuation of property.
  • The National Agency for Cadastre and Land Registration must give the Ministry of Finance access to e-Terra, to the national electronic register of street names and to the central spatial database of cadastral sectors.
  • Those concerned are every property owner in Romania, the town halls that collect the building tax and the Ministry of Finance, which is adding posts to its staffing scheme for the new structure.
Act: Law no. 143/2026
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 588 of 20 July 2026
In force from: 23 July 2026

The Ministry of Finance is building a database of real estate in Romania, fed straight from the land register, so that it can work out for itself what the home of each owner is worth for tax purposes. Law no. 143/2026, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 588 of 20 July 2026, approves Government Emergency Ordinance no. 124/2024, the act that laid the foundations of this mechanism. It is the second piece in a string of measures through which the tax authority is bringing its record of property closer to real value, after the tripling of the tax on luxury homes and cars.

The law has a single article and changes nothing in the ordinance. It approves Government Emergency Ordinance no. 124 of 23 October 2024 on the extension of certain deadlines and the strengthening of administrative capacity in the field of property taxation, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 1069 of 24 October 2024. That is all.

What matters, therefore, is the content of the approved ordinance. It has two articles. The first pushes back in time the application of the building tax reform set out in Government Ordinance no. 16/2022, while the second creates the administrative structure meant to make that reform possible.

What it changes in practice

The first effect is that Parliament confirms the postponement. Article I of the ordinance amends letter i) of Article IX of Government Ordinance no. 16/2022 and provides that point 106 and points 107 to 116 apply from 1 January 2026. Those points contain the new method of calculating the building tax, built on the value of the property rather than on the floor area and construction materials used in the old scale.

The second effect is institutional. Article II sets up within the Ministry of Finance a specialised structure at directorate level, with a minimum of four management positions. Its role is to deliver the commitment made under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan on public policies for property taxation and to implement specific models for valuing real estate.

The tasks listed in the ordinance are broad: managing data of fiscal relevance on real estate in Romania, working with the administrative and territorial units and with other holders of such data, building the taxation models, providing methodological coordination for local tax authorities and drawing up the specific forms.

The third effect, the most concrete one for owners, is access to data. The National Agency for Cadastre and Land Registration must give the Ministry of Finance access and the resources needed to connect to the systems it runs: the integrated cadastre and land register system e-Terra, the national electronic register of street names and the central system covering the spatial database of cadastral sectors. The ordinance also allows interconnection with other relevant databases, should the need arise during implementation.

The fourth effect concerns the budget. The additional tasks are carried out by increasing the number of posts at the Ministry of Finance, and the total number of posts in the new structure is set by the act governing the organisation and functioning of the ministry.

The ordinance states expressly that the data is used in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation and with national legislation in the field.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

Compared with the text of the ordinance, nothing. The approving law adds nothing, removes nothing and alters not a word. What does change is the legal status of the measures: from an emergency ordinance going through parliamentary procedure, they become rules approved by law.

The practical difference is that an ordinance which has not been approved can be rejected by Parliament, with consequences for the acts issued on the basis of it. Approval closes off that uncertainty for the directorate inside the Ministry of Finance and for the data access protocols on cadastre records concluded in the meantime.

Compared with the regime in place before the 2024 ordinance, the substantive change remains the one made back then: the building tax reform in Government Ordinance no. 16/2022, originally designed for an earlier deadline, was moved to 1 January 2026, and instead of applying it straight away the state first built the administrative capacity.

One thing is worth noting: the approving law appears in July 2026, that is after the 1 January 2026 deadline set by the ordinance had already passed. Seen from that angle, the approval confirms what has happened rather than scheduling what is to come.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • It closes off the legal uncertainty in which the specialised directorate of the Ministry of Finance had been operating since 2024, together with the legal basis for access to cadastre data.
  • The obligation of the National Agency for Cadastre and Land Registration to grant access to e-Terra is written into law, not left to a protocol between institutions.
  • Methodological coordination of local tax authorities by a single structure may reduce the differences in application from one town hall to another.
  • The text refers expressly to the General Data Protection Regulation, so the processing of information about property has a stated framework.

What remains a problem

  • Approval comes after the deadline set by the ordinance had passed, which shows how slowly parliamentary procedure moves on acts with a direct fiscal effect.
  • The ordinance does not say what the IT system costs, nor how many posts are actually being added; both are left to the act on the organisation of the ministry.
  • Interconnecting the property databases concentrates in one place sensitive information about the assets of every individual, and the general reference to data protection describes no concrete safeguards.
  • From this text an owner learns nothing about how to challenge the value assigned to their property by the valuation models now being built.
  • The building tax reform remains dependent on an IT system that was not finished at the time of the postponement, and the law adds no guaranteed deadline.

Practical advice

  1. Check what the land register says about your property. The e-Terra data reaches the Ministry of Finance, and a wrong floor area or a wrongly recorded use can cost you in tax.
  2. If you have carried out works that change the floor area or the use of the building, update the cadastral documentation. The gap between the site itself, the tax records at the town hall and the land register becomes visible once the two systems are connected.
  3. Keep in mind that the building tax is still paid to the town hall, not to the Ministry of Finance. The new structure handles valuation and methodology, not collection.
  4. If you own a non-residential building, follow the calculation rules separately: the reform in Government Ordinance no. 16/2022 treats residential and non-residential buildings differently.
  5. For legal persons, reporting the taxable value of buildings correctly remains the safest way to avoid retroactive recalculations.
  6. As an owner, you have the right of access to the personal data processed about you. The request goes to the controller, meaning the institution that processes it.

Frequently asked questions

Will my house tax go up because of this law?
Not directly. The law approves an ordinance that postpones the application of a reform and creates an administrative structure. The level of the tax is set by the Tax Code and by local council decisions, not by this act.
What does it mean that the Ministry of Finance gets access to e-Terra?
The National Agency for Cadastre and Land Registration must connect the Ministry of Finance to the integrated cadastre and land register system, to the register of street names and to the spatial database of cadastral sectors, for the purpose of valuing real estate for tax.
From what date does the new method of calculating the building tax apply?
The ordinance approved by this law sets 1 January 2026 for point 106 and points 107 to 116 of Government Ordinance no. 16/2022. The approving law does not change that deadline.
Who staffs the new structure at the Ministry of Finance?
It is a specialised directorate with at least four management positions. The total number of posts is set by the act governing the organisation and functioning of the ministry, and the staff are taken on by increasing the number of posts of the ministry.
What has this to do with the National Recovery and Resilience Plan?
The ordinance expressly invokes component 8 of the plan, fiscal reform, and states that the measures are needed in order to meet the commitments made on revising the property taxation framework.
Is my property data protected?
The ordinance provides that the information is used in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation and with national legislation in the field. The concrete processing safeguards are not spelled out in the text.
What happens if Parliament rejects an ordinance?
Rejection by law makes the ordinance cease to produce effects, and the legal situations that arose while it was being applied are dealt with separately. In this case Parliament chose approval, so the ordinance stays in force exactly as published.

Original text of the legal act

The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.

The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania

Official Gazette of Romania no. 588 of 20 July 2026 16 pages PDF, 110 KB the act starts on page 3

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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.