Income Tax on Rent in Moldova: The Rate and How to Pay It

14 June 2026 · updated 2 August 2026 · KX Estate Team

Income earned by an individual from leasing immovable property in Moldova is subject to a final income tax. The rate most commonly applied is 7% of the amount stated in the contract. Confirm the current rate and your situation with the State Tax Service (Serviciul Fiscal de Stat / SFS) or an accountant. Companies follow a different regime.

How much rental tax does an individual pay in Moldova?

If you lease out a property as an individual, your rental income is subject to income tax that, for an individual landlord, is usually treated as final. Once it is paid, the income is not added to your other income and is not recalculated. The commonly applied rate is 7% of the rent set in the contract.

Important: rates and procedures change, and every case is different. A one-off rental and a systematic activity, for example, may be treated differently. Always verify the current rate and your specific obligation with the SFS (Serviciul Fiscal de Stat) or an accountant. This article is not individual tax advice.

How and when do you pay rental tax?

The basic procedure for an owner who leases property as an individual looks like this:

1. Sign a written lease agreement (contract de locațiune, the local term for a lease contract) with the full details of both parties: an individual provides their IDNP, a company its IDNO/CUI.
2. Register the contract with the SFS within 7 days of signing it. This is a set deadline, not a formality the parties can treat as optional.
3. Calculate the tax on the contract amount. The taxable base is the rent fixed in the contract, so the contract and the actual receipts should match.
4. Pay monthly, by the 25th of the current month. This is a recurring payment, not a single declaration at year end.
5. Keep proof of payment and the contract itself. During reconciliation, the tax authority increasingly matches registered contracts against actual receipts.

Two deadlines get missed most often: the 7 days to register the contract and the 25th for the monthly payment. Forms and specifics for your own case are still worth confirming with the SFS, since they depend on the status of the parties and on who remits the tax.

What changed: the SFS now calculates the tax for you

Since 8 May 2026, the liability on registered lease contracts is generated automatically. The SFS creates the charge through its “e-Cerere” module, and it appears in the taxpayer’s account and on the EVO government portal (source: SFS, 2026).

In practice this means two things. The charge appears on its own, without you filing for it, but only for a contract that has been registered. And because the liability is now visible in the system, any gap between the contract and actual receipts shows up faster than it used to.

Tip: keep the contract, the payment schedule, and the receipts in one place, linked to the property. When the tax authority requests a reconciliation, you will have the full history for each unit at hand.

Individual or company: what is the difference for tax?

These are two different regimes, and comparing 7% against the company rate head-to-head can mislead. A company has a different base (profit, not revenue) and different rules.

* The company figures are indicative only. A company’s actual liability depends on deductions, expense structure, and VAT registration, and it is always calculated with an accountant, not “from a table.”

For a simple lease of one or two properties, many owners find the individual regime with a final tax more convenient. But as soon as you take on staff, expenses, renovations “for deduction,” or several properties in rotation, sit down with an accountant to compare scenarios using your own numbers.

What the statistics say: the rental market is going legal

The tax authority is increasingly matching lease contracts against actual payments, and the figures confirm it. In January to June 2026, 19,229 lease contracts were registered, 33.7% more than in the same months a year earlier, and rental income tax receipts reached 58.9 million lei (source: SFS, 2026).

For comparison, the whole of 2024 saw 26,086 contracts registered (up 5.3% on 2023) and 74.9 million lei collected (up 30%) (source: SFS, 2026). The 2026 pace is markedly faster: half a year has already produced roughly 74% of the previous full year’s contract count.

The SFS also points out separately that income from short-term letting through platforms such as Booking and Airbnb has to be declared.

A simple calculation example (hypothetical)

Suppose a property is leased for €1,200/month, i.e. €14,400/year (figures are illustrative, not market data).

• Annual income under the contract: €14,400.
• At a 7% rate, the tax for the year: €14,400 × 7% = €1,008.

If the contract is denominated in euros, the amounts are converted to lei for reporting at the National Bank of Moldova (BNM) rate, for example at an EUR/MDL rate of about 19.4 (an illustrative value). Confirm the exact conversion mechanism and the rate date with the SFS.

How KX Estate simplifies this

When you have more than one property, the hard part is not the rate but reconciling contracts, payments, and currencies into one clear picture for reporting. KX Estate runs the full cycle: lease contract, automatic payment schedule, statuses and overdue items, then reconciliation with the bank (MAIB/Victoriabank via Open Banking). IDNO/CUI details, multi-currency support for EUR/MDL/USD/RON at BNM rates, and an interface in Russian and Romanian come out of the box, so that by the time you declare, your contracts and actual receipts line up.

In short: an individual’s rental income is subject to a final income tax at a rate currently most often cited as 7%; it is calculated on the contract amount; companies fall under a separate regime. Confirm the current rate and your deadlines with the SFS, and keep your contracts and payments reconciled so the review goes smoothly.

Frequently asked questions

How much tax does an individual pay on rent in Moldova? An individual’s rental income is subject to a final income tax; the rate most commonly applied is 7% of the contract amount. Confirm the exact current rate for your situation with the SFS or an accountant.

Is the tax calculated on the contract or on the actual payments? The taxable base is the rent fixed in the contract. That is why the contract and the actual receipts should match; during a review, the tax authority compares one against the other.

Do I need to register the lease agreement, and by when? Yes. The contract is registered with the SFS within 7 days of signing. The tax liability is now generated automatically from the registered contract, so without registration no charge appears at all and the letting simply stays undeclared.

By what date is rental tax paid? Monthly, by the 25th of the current month. This is not an annual return: the payment recurs and tracks the monthly amount in the contract.

Is tax due on letting through Booking or Airbnb? Yes. The SFS specifically notes that income from short-term letting through online platforms is declared and taxed in the same way.

Is it better to lease as an individual or as a company? It depends on scale. For one or two properties, the individual regime with a final tax is often simpler; with staff, deductible expenses, and several properties, compare scenarios with an accountant using your own numbers.