What accounting obligations does an association or foundation have?

An NGO does not get a lighter accounting regime than a company, however small it is. It has its own accounting regulation, its own forms and two separate annual deadlines, and both changed recently.

Short answer

An association or foundation keeps double-entry books, regardless of the revenue it has.
The applicable regulation is Finance Ministry Order 3103/2017, in force since 1 January 2018.
Single-entry bookkeeping is reserved for religious units and owners associations.
The annual financial statements for 2025 are filed with ANAF by 30 April 2026, electronically only.
The profit-tax return 101 for 2025 is filed by 25 June 2026.

What the law says

Accounting Law 82/1991 art. 5 para. (1): entities required to keep accounts use double entry and prepare annual financial statements.
Order 3103/2017 governs the accounting of non-profit legal persons and replaced Order 1969/2007.
Annex 2 to Order 3103/2017 allows single entry only for religious units, owners associations and entities obliged by a special law.
Entities on single entry do not prepare annual financial statements; an ordinary association does.
Law 82/1991 art. 36 para. (1) letter b), as amended by GEO 138/2024: the filing deadline is 30 April of the following financial year.
An organisation with no activity files a self-declaration instead, within 60 days of the financial year end.
Supporting documents are kept for 5 years, counted from 1 July of the year following the financial year end.

Practical examples

An NGO with no economic activity files an abridged balance sheet and an abridged statement of the result for the year.
An NGO selling handmade products files a balance sheet and the statement of the result, on the forms for economic activity.
An association with 300,000 lei of non-taxable income has a 30,000 lei exemption ceiling, because 10% is less than the equivalent of EUR 15,000.
An association with 2,000,000 lei of non-taxable income has its ceiling at the equivalent of EUR 15,000, because 10% would be 200,000 lei.
An association set up in 2025 with no transaction at all files the inactivity declaration, not financial statements.
The 2026 documents are kept until 1 July 2032, because the 5 years run from 1 July 2027.

Common mistakes

Single entry is used because the organisation is small, although single entry is not allowed for associations and foundations.
The old 120-day deadline is used, replaced by 30 April through GEO 138/2024.
Return 101 is not filed because the organisation had only non-taxable income.
The NGO that received a sponsorship files return 107, although that is the obligation of the sponsoring company.
Documents are destroyed after 3 years, although the term is 5 years from 1 July of the following year.

How 4ong helps

Keeps records separated by income type: membership fees, donations, sponsorships, grants and income from economic activity.
Flags when you approach the exemption ceiling, computed as the lower of the EUR 15,000 equivalent and 10% of non-taxable income.
Generates automatically numbered receipts, attached to the matching donation and donor record.
Gives the accountant the breakdown by project and expense line, with the supporting documents linked to each amount.
4ong does not replace your accountant: the journal, the trial balance and the financial statements stay with them, and the ecosystem has 4conta.ro for bookkeeping.