Software product development engineer added to occupations exempt from personal income tax: Joint order no. 21,813/6,421/2,246/4,433/2022

The takeaway

The Joint Order issued by the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalisation (MCID), the Ministry of Education (ME), the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity (MMSS) and the Ministry of Finance (MF) no. 21,813/6,421/2,246/4,433/2022 entered into force on 1 January 2023. The Order added software product development engineer to the list of occupations and activities related to the creation of computer programs which are exempt from the payment of personal income tax on salary income and other income treated as such. 

The Order of the Ministry of Communications and Information Society, the Ministry of National Education, the Ministry of Labour and Social Justice and the Ministry of Public Finance no. 1,168/2017/3,024/2018/492/2018/3,337/2017 has been repealed as of 1 January 2023.

In detail

The main aspects of interest in joint order no. 21,813/6,421/2,246/4,433/2022 issued by the MCID, ME, MMSS and MF regarding the inclusion of software product development engineer on the list of occupations and activities related to the creation of computer programs exempt from personal income tax on salary income and other income treated as such are as follows:

• The list of occupations and activities related to creating computer programs was completed with the occupation of “software product development engineer”, which involves the analysis and assessment of requirements for existing or new IT applications and operating systems, including the design, development, testing and maintenance of software solutions to meet these requirements.

• The exemption from paying personal income tax on salary income and other income treated as such applies, under certain conditions, to Romanian citizens and citizens of the member states of the European Union, the European Economic Area and the Swiss Confederation.

• The exemption also applies, under certain conditions, to employees in public institutions, for employer-approved periods spent creating computer programs if the job specifications include at least one of the eligible activities.

Source: [Common order no. 21,813/6,421/2,246/4,433/2022 of the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Labor and Social Solidarity and the Ministry of Finance, published in the Official Gazette no. 1,252 dated 23 December 2023]