Five common mistakes in calculating the judicial stamp tax and how to avoid them.

Calculating the judicial stamp tax is, in theory, a mechanical operation. In practice, a series of mistakes appears in every third file we review. Here are the five we encounter most often and how to avoid them.

The first mistake is confusing evaluable and non-evaluable actions. A claim with a clearly stated value is evaluable and is taxed on brackets. A bare declaratory action without a patrimonial value is non-evaluable and carries a flat fee (100 Lei). Confusion arises when the declared right has a later patrimonial value. Check article 5 OUG 80/2013 before classifying.

The second mistake is forgetting the 20 Lei floor on the first bracket. For a 200 Lei claim, the fee is not 200 × 8% = 16 Lei, but the floor of 20 Lei. Article 3(1)(a) expressly sets this lower bound.

The third mistake is applying the percentage to the whole value in the upper brackets. The OUG 80/2013 brackets are cumulative: for the third bracket, the formula is not 5% × total value, but 355 plus 5% of the portion above 5,000 Lei. For a 10,000 Lei claim, the correct fee is 605, not 500.

The fourth mistake is forgetting that appeals and second appeals have their own tariffs. The appeal is taxed at 100% of the first-instance fee, the second appeal at 50%. Paying the full fee for the second appeal is a frequent error, but refundable under article 45(1).

The fifth mistake is attaching a payment proof with a different case number. Article 8(1) provides that the proof is filed together with the claim and that the court verifies the match. For payments through Sigilia, the case number is automatically populated in the transaction description — but only if it is entered at the moment of payment.