Consulting company in Romania for foreign founders

Who this guide is for

This guide is for management consultants, strategy and operations advisers, interim managers and start-up advisers from abroad who want a Romanian SRL to contract and invoice their clients. It explains what the consulting code covers, where other codes take over, the micro-company change that matters for consultants in 2026 and how the formation works.

We have set up SRLs for consultants in business and technology. For one individual founder advising clients, it is usually a standard formation.

What CAEN 70.20 covers

In CAEN Rev. 3, the Romanian classification in force since 1 January 2025, management consulting is 70.20, business and other management consultancy activities. It covers advice, guidance and operational help to businesses and other organisations on management questions, such as:

• corporate strategy and organisational planning;
• business process re-engineering and change management;
• cost reduction and other financial management issues;
• marketing objectives and policies;
• human resources policies, practices and planning, including compensation and retirement strategies;
• production scheduling and control planning;
• the design of accounting methods, cost accounting and budgetary control procedures;
• public procurement procedures;
• business start-up services.

The code also includes management audits and the activity of a management company that exercises the mandate of a director or manager, which is relevant for interim managers.

Where 70.20 ends

The name "consulting" covers many trades, and several of them have their own code. The boundary that matters most for technology advisers is with IT:

• IT consultancy. Advice on hardware, software and systems, cybersecurity consultancy and the planning of computer systems belong to 62.20, not 70.20. Building or customising software is 62.10. If that is most of your work, read our guide to an IT and software company in Romania.

Other boundaries, from the explanatory notes to 70.20:

• legal advice and representation: 69.10;
• accounting, bookkeeping, auditing and tax consultancy: 69.20;
• public relations and communication advice: 73.30, while marketing consulting delivered as part of advertising services sits in 73.11;
• architectural and engineering advice: 71.11 and 71.12;
• environmental, agronomy and occupational health and safety consulting: 74.99;
• market research and opinion polling: 73.20;
• executive search and staff selection: 78.10;
• educational consulting: 85.69;
• managing the other units of your own group of companies: 70.10.

Main and secondary codes

Choose the main code for the work that brings in most of the revenue and add secondary codes only for work you will really do. You can read the full notes for every code in our CAEN code search in English.

Common consulting set-ups

These examples show how the codes usually combine. Your own list depends on what your contracts actually say.

• Independent management consultant working on strategy, organisation or cost projects: 70.20 as the main code.
• Interim or fractional manager placed with a client as operations or finance lead: 70.20, which includes exercising a director's or manager's mandate through a management company.
• Technology strategy adviser who also designs clients' systems: 70.20 as the main code and 62.20 as a secondary one, or the other way round if systems work brings in more.
• Marketing strategist who advises on marketing objectives and policies: 70.20. If the company also plans and runs campaigns for clients, that part is advertising, 73.11.
• Start-up adviser helping founders set up and organise a new business: 70.20, which names business start-up services.
• Consultant who also runs paid training courses for professionals: 70.20 for the advice and 85.59 for the training.

Advice that is a regulated profession

Some advisory work that looks like consulting is reserved in Romania to regulated professions. Legal advice is given by lawyers, and accounting and tax advice have their own professional bodies and qualifications. Registering an SRL with 70.20 does not allow the company to offer these services. If your practice includes them, the professional rules come first, and they are outside our offer.

The 2026 change for consultants

From 2026, a micro-enterprise can earn all of its revenue from 70.20 and remain a micro-enterprise. The earlier limit on consulting and management revenue no longer applies, although some English-language guides still quote it.

The general micro-enterprise conditions still apply. For 2026: tax of 1% on revenue, a revenue limit of €100,000 a year counted across all the micro-enterprises in which the same person holds 25% or more of the shares, and at least one employee, among other conditions. Above the limit, the company pays profit tax at 16%.

This is general information, not tax advice. An accountant should confirm the regime for your company before you invoice. We can refer you to an accountant who works with foreign founders.

Registered office and client work

Consultants usually work at their clients' premises, in several countries, or from home. The company still needs a registered office in Romania as its legal address, and the registration file states where the activities are carried out, for example at clients' premises or outside the registered office. Our registered-office service is a legal address. It is not a meeting room or a place to receive clients.

Your structure

• One individual as shareholder and administrator is the standard case. You do not need to live in Romania to own or manage the SRL.
• Partners can share the company in any proportion; the split is set in the articles of association and quoted after review.
• A consulting firm abroad as shareholder, opening a Romanian entity for local contracts, needs corporate documents and proof of the signatory's authority. See Romanian SRL with a foreign legal entity shareholder.

What to prepare

For a standard formation, have these ready before drafting starts:

• a valid passport for each shareholder and for the administrator;
• your full home address, written exactly as it will appear in the documents;
• two or three company name options, in order of preference;
• a plain description of the advice you give and who your clients are, which becomes the list of codes;
• the registered office: your own Romanian address, or our registered-office service;
• who holds the shares, in what proportion, and who will be administrator.

The required documents page has the full checklist.

What it costs

For an eligible standard case, the fixed €490 package covers the formation, lawyer-led representation at the Trade Register, a registered office for 12 months and the ONRC fee. It applies to one individual shareholder, one administrator and an ordinary activity such as management consulting.

Formation only starts from €300, and formation with a registered office from €450. Changes to an existing company, such as new activity codes, start from €200. Several shareholders, a foreign company as shareholder or a regulated activity are quoted separately after review. See the prices page, or the €50 Case Review if you want the structure checked first.

After registration

You open a bank account in the company's name with the bank of your choice, appoint an accountant, settle the tax and VAT position and set up invoicing for clients abroad. These steps are separate from the formation and we do not handle them. Our after-incorporation checklist lists them.

Check your case

Tell us on WhatsApp what kind of advice you give, who your clients are and who will own the company. We will suggest the codes, tell you whether your case is standard and list the documents to prepare.