5 common accounting mistakes at Moldovan LLCs (and what each costs you in 2026)

In LLC accounting, mistakes never come alone and are never free. Whether it’s a tax audit, a reclassification by the State Tax Service, or expenses denied as deductions, every oversight turns into a concrete sum that the director pays out of the business’s bottom line.

2026 brought substantial changes to the Tax Code — from the new regime for independent entrepreneurs (Law no. 228/2025) to the adjustments in Law no. 318/2025 published in the Official Gazette on 31 December 2025. In this context, certain mistakes that used to be tolerated or easily fixed have become significantly more expensive.

This article reviews the five accounting mistakes we most often encounter at LLCs in the Republic of Moldova, focusing on the real cost of the loss and on how they can be prevented.

1. Mixing personal assets with the LLC’s assets

The most common mistake — and, paradoxically, the one least often recognized as such by directors — is using the company’s accounts and cards for personal expenses: fuel outside of business travel, personal restaurants, purchases unrelated to the activity, cash withdrawals without a documented decision.

The LLC is a separate legal entity. Its assets do not overlap with those of the shareholder, even when there is a sole shareholder. In practice, a personal expense paid from the company’s account creates two problems: the expense becomes non-deductible (increasing the taxable base) and, on top of that, the amount can be reclassified by the STS as a disguised dividend or as unrecorded remuneration.

What it costs, concretely:

Suppose 50,000 MDL was withdrawn during a year on the company’s cards for undocumented expenses. The typical calculation looks like this:

• Non-deductible expenses → income tax recalculation: 50,000 × 12% = 6,000 MDL
• Reclassified as dividend (more favorable scenario) → 50,000 × 6% dividend tax = 3,000 MDL
• Reclassified as remuneration (unfavorable scenario) → income tax 12% + employer CAS 24% + CNAM 9% + employee CAS 6% = over 25,000 MDL
• Penalties for incorrect bookkeeping and late-payment surcharges — accrued daily until the obligation is settled

How to avoid it: keep accounts entirely separate, document every withdrawal with a written shareholders’ decision (dividend, loan to shareholder, remuneration) and record transactions on time. Lack of documentation turns any tax audit into a predictable risk. For a correct framework for recording transactions, see our accounting services.

2. Late registration as a VAT payer

The mandatory threshold for registering as a VAT payer in the Republic of Moldova was raised by Law no. 318/2025 to 1,500,000 MDL, and from 1 March 2026 to 1,700,000 MDL — turnover accumulated over 12 consecutive months (Tax Code, art. 112). Many directors monitor this threshold only at year-end, by which point it has already been far exceeded.

The consequences of silent overrun are severe. The STS can register you retroactively from the moment the threshold was crossed, and the VAT on sales made between the overrun and its discovery is owed in full to the budget — even if it was not collected from clients.

What it costs, concretely:

A firm that crosses the threshold in June but is registered only in December (by the STS following an audit), on sales of 700,000 MDL made during the six unregistered months:

• VAT owed retroactively: 700,000 × 20% = 140,000 MDL (out of the firm’s bottom line, not from clients)
• Fine for failing to register on time under the Tax Code
• Late-payment surcharges accrued daily until full payment

In addition, clients who were VAT payers can no longer claim the deduction, which damages commercial relationships and the firm’s credibility.

How to avoid it: monthly monitoring of cumulative turnover over the last 12 months is mandatory, not optional. At roughly 1,300,000 MDL cumulative (80% of the ceiling), start the registration procedure — don’t wait for the exact threshold. An accounting system that doesn’t issue an automatic alert at 80% of the ceiling is an incomplete one.

3. Misclassifying contractors: service agreements vs. employment relationships

This mistake has become particularly expensive starting 1 January 2026. The amendment to article 88 of the Tax Code expressly provides that the relationship between an individual providing services and a company qualifies as an employment relationship when the conditions set out in art. 24 of the Tax Code are not met, and is taxed similarly to a salary.

In other words: if a “contractor” works exclusively for you, on an imposed schedule, at your premises, with your equipment, then they are not a contractor — they are an employee, and the STS will treat them fiscally as such. The reclassification can be done retroactively, with all the resulting consequences.

What it costs, concretely:

A specialist paid 30,000 MDL/month on a service agreement for a year, if reclassified as an employee:

• Employer CAS (24%): 30,000 × 24% × 12 months = 86,400 MDL
• Employee CAS (6%) and CNAM (9%) — withheld from the amount paid, owed retroactively: approximately 54,000 MDL
• Income tax withheld at source (12%, after deducting CNAM and personal allowances): approximately 35,000 MDL
• Total: approximately 175,000 MDL retroactively for a single “contractor”
• To which late-payment surcharges and fines are added

For a company with 3–4 such “contractors” per year, the sum becomes devastating. And this is an area the STS is monitoring intensely in 2026, precisely because of the new regime for independent entrepreneurs.

How to avoid it: a real legal analysis of the relationship before signing the contract. Subordination, fixed schedule, exclusivity, use of the company’s equipment — all are indicators that tilt the balance toward an employment relationship, regardless of what the signed document is called. Our legal services team reviews collaboration contracts before signing, precisely to prevent these reclassifications.

4. Missing primary supporting documents

Payments without invoices, lost receipts, expense reports without supporting documents, cash purchases without a receipt — all are banal situations in the practice of many LLCs, and each has the same tax effect: the expense cannot be deducted.

Under the Tax Code and the Law on Accounting and Financial Reporting, every business transaction must be documented through primary records at the time it is performed. The absence of these documents is not a problem you “fix later” — during an audit, the STS rejects the expense and recalculates the tax, with a direct effect on the fiscal result.

What it costs, concretely:

An LLC with annual improperly documented expenses of 100,000 MDL:

• Income tax recalculation: 100,000 × 12% = 12,000 MDL
• Fine for breaching bookkeeping rules under the Tax Code, art. 257 (multiplied based on severity and the number of breaches identified)
• Late-payment surcharges for the period between the fiscal year in question and the audit date

Important: even primary documents issued correctly but recorded late or lost generate the same consequences as their total absence. A single missing file during a substantive audit can trigger extended checks across other fiscal periods.

How to avoid it: monthly accounting discipline (not quarterly, not annual), systematic digital archiving of all documents, and training employees on the obligation to provide supporting documents for any expense incurred on the company’s behalf. A simple expense-report approval process dramatically reduces this risk.

5. Distributing dividends without following the legal procedure

Paying dividends looks like a simple operation, but it is strictly regulated by Law no. 135/2007 on limited liability companies and by the Tax Code. Distributions before annual financial statements are approved, without a formal shareholders’ resolution, or to shareholders who have not fully paid in their contribution — all are practices that may be reclassified by the STS and trigger director liability.

In 2026, this area has gained additional relevance: Law no. 318/2025 extended by one year the period of income-tax deferral for small and medium-sized enterprises that do not distribute profits as dividends or shares. The benefit is real and substantial, but available only to companies that follow the procedure and properly document non-distribution decisions.

What it costs, concretely:

A shareholder receiving 200,000 MDL as “dividends” without a valid shareholders’ resolution and without withholding at source:

• The STS reclassifies the amount as untaxed remuneration → differential in income tax, CAS and CNAM = between 70,000 and 90,000 MDL
• Director liability for unlawful distributions, under Law no. 135/2007
• Loss of the tax-deferral benefit provided by Law no. 318/2025, if the company’s procedures are not in order
• 6% dividend tax owed by the company (when not withheld at source)

How to avoid it: any dividend distribution is preceded by approval of the annual financial statements, by a formal shareholders’ resolution recorded in the minutes book, and by withholding the 6% tax at source. The procedure is simple but non-negotiable from the STS’s perspective.

Conclusion

The five mistakes analyzed share a common denominator: they are the result of reactive, not proactive, bookkeeping. None of them appears because the director is acting in bad faith — they appear because the pace of business outruns financial discipline, and small gaps accumulate until they become structural problems.

The cumulative cost of these errors for an average LLC can reach several hundred thousand MDL per year — a sum that is, in most cases, ten times higher than the cost of a professional accounting service that would have prevented them.

2026, with its new provisions on independent entrepreneurs and the reclassification of employment relationships, raises the bar even for companies that until now were operating “satisfactorily.” Updating internal bookkeeping policies and checking compliance with the changes that took effect on 1 January 2026 are no longer optional.

How ExpertCont can help

The ExpertCont team works with LLCs, sole traders, joint-stock companies, and Moldova IT Park residents. Our accounting services fully cover all five points addressed in this article: monitoring the VAT threshold, correctly classifying collaboration contracts, managing primary documents, dividend distribution procedures, and asset separation.

For legal aspects — reviewing collaboration contracts, drafting shareholders’ resolutions, compliance with the new 2026 provisions — we work through our legal services team, so that the client’s entire tax and legal operation is covered from a single point of contact.

Schedule a free consultation for an individual review of your company’s situation:

📞 +373 60 82 55 81 📍 str. Alexandru cel Bun 51/A, et. 5, Chișinău, MD-2012

ExpertCont — your trusted partner for accounting and legal consulting in the Republic of Moldova.