How to Open a Private Gym in Romania: CAEN 9313, DSP, ISU, VAT

To open a private gym in Romania, you register a PFA, II or SRL with the Trade Register under CAEN 9313 (fitness centres), ask the county public health directorate (DSP) which sanitary procedure applies, and check the fire-safety thresholds with the ISU. Gym access is at the standard 21% VAT. Customers pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay in lei. Then comes the paperwork question to settle with your accountant: fiscal receipts and RO e-Factura. Sparekey costs RON 6,590 for setup and RON 135 a month for Operations.

Business form

A PFA or II needs no share capital and is cheap to run, but your personal estate backs the business. An SRL separates your assets from the gym’s and starts from 500 lei of capital. For a space customers use without staff, that separation is worth considering. Register CAEN 9313 under the Rev. 3 classification. Companies can pay employees up to €100 a year for sports subscriptions tax-free from 9313 providers, which helps if you sell to employers.

DSP, ISU and the city hall

• DSP. Ask your county DSP which sanitary procedure applies to a fitness room before you sign the lease. Some charge nothing for authorisation by self-declaration.
• ISU. A fire-safety permit is required for fitness rooms from 600 m², or from 200 m² inside a block of flats, and for any room classed as crowded. Most small private gyms are below that.
• City hall. Some municipalities have their own rules for non-stop businesses, especially in residential buildings.

VAT

The 11% reduced rate does not cover sports facilities, so gym access is at 21%. Below 395,000 lei of annual turnover you can use the small-business exemption and charge no VAT.

Fiscal receipts and RO e-Factura

Two rules shape your paperwork:

• Fiscal cash register (OUG 28/1999). Services paid by card directly by the public need a fiscal receipt from an electronic cash register. Whether a card payment made online in advance through a gateway counts the same way is not clearly settled. Ask your accountant or ANAF for a written answer before launch.
• RO e-Factura for consumers. Invoices to private individuals must be sent to RO e-Factura within five working days, whether you are VAT-registered or not.

Sparekey issues an invoice for every paid booking, in Romanian and in lei, and exports a CSV file. Agree with your accountant who submits invoices to RO e-Factura and how, and we set up the booking flow to fit their decision.

Payments

In Romania we set up Stripe with cards (3-D Secure), Apple Pay and Google Pay, with payouts in lei. Payment is instant, so the code goes out even for a slot that starts in an hour. The account is in your name, and setup is included.

Door access

We recommend a 2N keypad with a maglock, installed by a professional door installer. Nuki is the cheaper option fitted to the existing lock, but it cannot be secured as well against customers tampering with it. The price of Sparekey is the same. Each booking gets a time-limited PIN by SMS under your gym’s name, and a stored backup code covers internet outages. See 2N keypad and maglock.

Cameras, insurance and house rules

Cameras need a legitimate interest, a sign before the field of view, a short retention period and no coverage of changing rooms or toilets. The authority is ANSPDCP. See cameras in an unstaffed gym. Ask a broker for general liability and equipment cover that accepts access by code without staff. Customers accept the house rules (regulament de ordine interioară) when booking. Start from our house rules template.

What Sparekey costs in Romania

No VAT is added, because Sparekey is not VAT-registered. You pay in lei by bank transfer. See pricing.

FAQ

Do I need a fire-safety permit for a small gym in Romania?

From 600 m² of fitness space, or 200 m² inside a block of flats. Smaller gyms need none.

Do invoices to private customers go to e-Factura?

Yes. Invoices to private individuals must be sent to RO e-Factura within five working days.