How much does a Romanian freelancer keep from 100 EUR AdSense revenue?
- There are two taxes involved:
- 30% withheld in the United States (no treaty reduction for AdSense), not YouTube where is 10%
- 10% income tax in Romania, applied only to the money actually received
- Because there is no other income:
- No CASS (health contribution)
- No CAS (pension contribution)
- Step-by-step for 100 EUR example:
- Gross AdSense revenue: 100 EUR
- US withholding: 30% of 100 EUR = 30 EUR
- Amount received in bank account: 100 EUR - 30 EUR = 70 EUR
- Romanian income tax: 10% of 70 EUR = 7 EUR
- Final net amount kept: 70 EUR - 7 EUR = 63 EUR
- Summary:
- Gross: 100 EUR
- US tax (30%): -30 EUR
- Received: 70 EUR
- Romanian tax (10%): -7 EUR
- Net kept by freelancer in Romania: 63 EUR
This does NOT mean AdSense is a bad business in general.
- AdSense becomes profitable when:
- you have high traffic
- you have consistent monthly revenue
- you earn hundreds or thousands of euros per month
- At 100 EUR, the taxes look huge.
- At 1,000 EUR, you already keep around 630 EUR, which is a completely different situation.
To earn 1,000 EUR per month with AdSense, you need:
- 100,000 – 500,000 pageviews per month (depending on RPM)
- CTR between 0.5% and 2%
- RPM between 3 and 10 EUR
- real and consistent traffic
- high‑quality content
