← Tax Optimization · Individuals
Dividends — how to plan distribution around CASS thresholds
CASS on investment income doesn't rise smoothly with income — it jumps in fixed brackets. With a bit of planning around the distribution timing, the difference can be thousands of lei.
What the law says
CASS on dividends — cumulated with rental income, interest, and other investment income — is calculated on three annual net-income brackets (6, 12, and 24 minimum wages), each with a fixed amount owed: 2,430 / 4,860 / 9,720 lei. It's not a percentage applied to each leu earned — it's a fixed amount for the whole bracket.
The consequence: net income just one leu over a bracket's threshold pays exactly the same CASS as a much higher income, anywhere within that same bracket.
Art. 170 Cod fiscal — CASS thresholds on investment income.
How it applies, in numbers
Illustrative example: annual net income of 24,000 lei (below the first bracket) pays a fixed 2,430 lei CASS. Net income of 24,400 lei (over the threshold, by just 400 lei more) jumps straight to 4,860 lei CASS — a 400-lei income difference costs an extra 2,430 lei of CASS.
Common mistakes
The common mistake is treating CASS like an ordinary progressive tax that rises proportionally — in fact it jumps abruptly at each threshold crossed. If you're close to a threshold near year-end, it's worth calculating whether you stay comfortably under it or clearly go over — not right at the edge.
