The new year brings new changes into Romanian business environment. Among many other interesting changes, there is one that affects every company, no matter the size, the profile or any other particularity: we have a new CAEN – a new National Code of Economical Activities. Each company in Romania has a major CAEN and more minor CAENs, all from a predefined list of activities. Each company can only perform activities that are included in their selected CAEN or else they can have trouble. This year the state has changed the CAEN and also has asked all companies to update their CAEN from the new registry. This is not a problem, the problem is that companies have to pay and the price is pretty big, it is almost close to registering a new company. Let’s say that they need money, so they decided to issue a new set of codes for economical activities. Let’s say that it is normal to pay when you change CAEN, even if it is not your fault that somebody out there decided to do some major change to prove they are working for us. The problem is that most institutions already ask for the new code when you submit your taxes, they will not accept your tax submissions unless you are using a new CAEN, because their “new & improved” piece of software does not accept the old code. Their software is already using the new code. But not any company has the time and money to change CAEN overnight, some of us are struggling with productivity and competition and hard work to survive in todays Romania’s harsh business environment. Well, that’s your problem, the solution is: you must change the CAEN ASAP, even if the law does not specify at which date during current year this can be changed. But since almost all tax institutions require new CAEN, you can find out for yourself what is the deadline for registering and getting new CAEN.