Changes to the application of the tax exemption
Order no. 409/4020/737/703 on software development activities of 11 May 2017 has been replaced by Order no. 3024/3337/1168/492, of 8 January 2018, published in the Official Journal of Romania, no.52 on 18 January 2018.
Under the first article of this Order, employees who have completed undergraduate studies, as well as those who have completed secondary education and are currently enrolled at an accredited university, will benefit from exemption from salary income tax. (This exemption was previously only available to employees who held at least a Bachelor’s degree).

Two new occupations which are eligible for the examption, and for which higher education studies are not a condition have been added to the appendix to the Order:

• Deputy Programmer, defined as an employee who carries out activities to ensure technical support for software development, according to pre-specified requirements and their incorporation into coherent systems, including testing to ensure conformity with specifications.
• Deputy Analyst, defined as an employee who carries out activities to ensure technical support for software development consisting of the necessary analysis to define specifications to build information systems able to meet users’ requirements.

This extension of the tax exemption with respect to employees who do not have a higher education degree only covers the occupations of Deputy Programmer and Deputy Analyst as defined above. All the other eight occupations included in the appendix to the Order are listed in the Romanian Occupational Code as being only open to those with higher education qualifications (Skill Level 4 in the International Standard of Occupations).