Late payment penalty calculator

How the penalty for a late payment is counted

1. The amount of the penalty is set by the contract: as a multiple of the NBU discount rate, or as a per cent per day or per year. For a money obligation it cannot exceed double the NBU discount rate in force during the delay (Arts. 1 and 3 of the Law on Liability for Late Performance of Money Obligations). When the contract sets more, the double discount rate applies (item 2.9 of Resolution No. 14 of the Plenum of the Higher Commercial Court of 17.12.2013). With no term in the contract there is no penalty.
2. The penalty is counted for each day: debt × rate × days / days in the year. When the discount rate changes, each period has its own rate; a year of 366 days is counted apart. In each period the calculator compares the contract rate with double the discount rate and takes the lower: a rate per day is compared with double the rate divided by the days of the year. The table shows which rate applies.
3. The first day and the day of payment. The penalty runs from the day after the last day the obligation was due (item 2.5 of Resolution No. 14). The day of the actual payment is not in the period (item 1.9). A partial payment lowers the sum the penalty is charged on from the day of payment. A payment that covers the rest of the debt ends the charge.
4. Six months. For a delay that started before 28.08.2025, the charge stops six months after the day the obligation was due, unless a law or the contract says otherwise (Art. 232(6) of the Commercial Code). The term is counted under Arts. 253 and 254 of the Civil Code: for a delay from 07.11.2023, the penalty runs from 07.11.2023 to 06.05.2024 inclusive (Commercial Cassation Court of the Supreme Court, 30.09.2026, case No. 910/15635/24). The contract can set another term: an event (the day of actual payment, of full performance, the whole time the debt exists) or a term longer or shorter than six months. A term on a penalty "for each day of delay" sets no other term: it only says how the penalty is counted (item 2.5 of Resolution No. 14; Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court, 16.10.2024, case No. 911/952/22, items 90-93). When the contract sets another term, tick it in the contract terms.
5. The quarantine. During the COVID-19 quarantine (12.03.2020 to 30.06.2023 inclusive), the terms of Art. 232 of the Commercial Code were extended for the time of the quarantine (item 7 of Section IX "Final Provisions" of the Commercial Code). The Joint Chamber of the Commercial Cassation Court kept the conclusion that the penalty could then run for more than six months (19.06.2026, case No. 910/22/24). The courts have not settled whether the term only stops for the days of the delay inside the quarantine or grows by the whole quarantine. The calculator uses the first reading: the days of the delay inside the quarantine do not count toward the six months.
6. After 28.08.2025. The Commercial Code lost force on 28.08.2025 (Art. 17(3) of Law No. 4196-IX), and no law set another limit. For a delay that started earlier, the calculator applies the six-month cap to the whole delay: a right whose exercise began under a law ends under the rules in force when the right arose (Commercial Cassation Court of the Supreme Court, 15.07.2026, case No. 911/437/25). This is the reading of the calculator: no position of the Supreme Court rules on the days after 28.08.2025. A delay that starts on or after 28.08.2025 has no six-month cap.
7. A fine is charged once, as a per cent of the debt, if the contract sets one. The penalty and the fine can be recovered together.
8. The limitation period for a forfeit (fine, penalty) is one year (Art. 258(2)(1) of the Civil Code).

The calculator does not check the contract: the amount of the penalty, its base and its term. It leaves out the six-month cap only when the form says the contract sets another term of the charge; enter a term shorter than six months as the last day of delay. 3% per annum and inflation losses under Art. 625 of the Civil Code are counted apart.