CAEN Rev.3 codes for Romanian SRLs owned by foreigners

What CAEN codes are and why they matter

Every company registered in Romania must declare what it actually does, and it does so through CAEN codes — the national classification of economic activities. CAEN is the Romanian equivalent of the EU's NACE system, a four-digit code attached to each recognised line of business, from software publishing and management consultancy to retail trade, construction, and hospitality. When you set up a Romanian SRL, the Trade Register expects your incorporation documents to list the activities your company intends to carry out, expressed in this codified language rather than in free text.

For a foreign founder, understanding CAEN Rev.3 for a Romanian SRL is not a formality you can skim past. The codes you declare define the legal scope of your company, influence how banks and tax authorities perceive your business, and in some cases determine whether you need a specific authorisation before you can trade. Choosing them carelessly is one of the more common avoidable mistakes we see, and correcting them afterwards means a formal filing rather than a quick edit. If you are still mapping out the whole process, our overview for the Romanian SRL for foreigners sets the wider context around these activity codes.

CAEN Rev.3: the current classification

Romania moved to the CAEN Rev.3 classification, which aligns with the updated European NACE Rev.2.1 structure. In practice this means some older codes were renumbered, merged, or redefined, and a number of newer activities — particularly in digital services and the green economy — are now reflected more precisely. If you are working from an older guide or a translated list, double-check that the activity codes for Romania you are relying on actually correspond to the current revision, because the Trade Register registers companies under Rev.3.

The reclassification mostly affects how an activity is labelled and grouped rather than what you are legally allowed to do. Still, when you describe your intended business activities for a Romanian company, it is worth confirming the exact code rather than assuming the number from a previous version still applies. After document review we can confirm which Rev.3 codes correspond to the work you actually plan to do.

Primary code versus secondary codes

A Romanian SRL declares one primary CAEN code and may declare any number of secondary codes. The primary code represents your company's main economic activity — the one that should generate the bulk of your turnover — and it is the code most often referenced by banks, accountants, and authorities when they assess your business. Choosing it well matters because it sets the tone for how your company is classified and, in some regulated fields, what conditions attach to it.

Secondary codes cover everything else you might do alongside the main activity. There is generally no hard limit on how many you can list, and many founders add a reasonable spread of related codes at formation so they have room to grow without an immediate filing. A measured approach tends to work best: list the activities you realistically expect to pursue rather than copying long blocks of unrelated codes, which can look incoherent to a bank during onboarding. A few points worth keeping in mind:

• The primary code should genuinely reflect your main source of revenue, not an aspirational one.
• Secondary codes can be declared at formation and later added or removed.
• A literal translation of your foreign business description does not always map to a single Romanian code.
• Some codes are authorised only at the registered office; others can be authorised at third-party locations.

Activities that require authorisation

Declaring a CAEN code is not the same as being cleared to perform that activity. Many codes can be registered and then operated freely, but certain regulated fields — financial services, food handling, some transport and construction activities, healthcare-adjacent services, and others — may require a specific licence, permit, or notification from the relevant authority before you can lawfully begin. The code on your incorporation file simply records intent; the authorisation, where applicable, is a separate step that depends on the activity and sometimes on your premises.

For most standard service and trade activities the path is straightforward, and no special permit is needed beyond ordinary registration. Because the answer depends entirely on what you plan to do and where, we treat this as a case-by-case question rather than a blanket rule. If your intended activity falls into a regulated category, we will flag it during the initial review so there are no surprises after the company exists.

Changing or adding codes later

Your CAEN list is not fixed for the life of the company. If your business evolves, you can add new secondary codes, change the primary activity, or remove codes you no longer use through a standard filing at the Trade Register. This is handled as one of the routine company changes we manage for foreign-owned SRLs, with pricing for changes from €200, though the final quote depends on your citizenship, your documents, the number of shareholders, whether translations are required, and whether the shareholder is an individual or a foreign legal entity.

Getting the initial selection reasonably right still saves time, since each later amendment is a formal procedure rather than an instant update. Registering a complete Romanian SRL for foreign citizens starts from €300, and a remote SRL bundled with a registered office starts from €450, subject to the same case-specific caveats above.

Check your case

If you are weighing up which CAEN Rev.3 codes your Romanian SRL should declare, the most useful thing you can do is describe your real business in plain terms and let us map it to the correct primary and secondary codes. Send us your citizenship, your current country of residence, whether you will need a registered office, and the business activity you intend to carry out — via WhatsApp or the contact form — and we will tell you whether your case looks standard or whether any of your activities may require authorisation.