In short
- VAT return, ledgers and VIES declaration by the 14th. Payroll declarations and contributions by the 25th.
- Corporate tax return and payment: 1 March to 30 June. Financial statements published by 30 September.
- An audit starts above two of three limits: €2,045,168 of assets, €4,090,335 of net sales, 50 staff.
- A late VAT return costs €255.65 to €5,112.92, a late corporate tax return €255.65 to €1,533.88.
In this guide
Accounting requirements for a Bulgarian company
The Accountancy Act applies to a company from its entry in the Trade Register, whether it sells anything or not. The books are double-entry, in Bulgarian and in euros, and the reporting period is the calendar year. A deal agreed in another currency with a foreign partner may be documented in that currency, and the books take its euro value at the Bulgarian National Bank rate of that day.
- Financial statements follow the National Accounting Standards. A company may choose IFRS.
- The director and the preparer sign the statements. The preparer is an accounting firm or a person with an economics education and two to eight years of practice.
- Ledgers and statements are kept for 10 years, payroll records for 50 years and other accounting documents for 3 years.
- A company with net sales above BGN 200,000 in the year, which is €102,258, counts its assets and liabilities in a yearly inventory.
The books have been in euros since Bulgaria's euro adoption on 1 January 2026. We keep the books and file every return named below.
Tax calendar 2026: filing dates for a Bulgarian company
Seven filings carry the year. Three repeat every month or quarter, and four come once a year.
| What is filed | Date | Where |
|---|---|---|
| VAT return, sales and purchase ledgers, VIES declaration | By the 14th of the next month | National Revenue Agency |
| Payroll declarations 1 and 6, contributions, payroll tax | By the 25th of the next month | National Revenue Agency |
| Dividend tax of 5% and its declaration | By the end of the month after the quarter of the decision | National Revenue Agency |
| Declaration of advance corporate tax, where it is due | 1 March to 15 April | National Revenue Agency |
| Corporate tax return, annual activity report, payment | 1 March to 30 June | National Revenue Agency |
| Declaration of no activity | By 30 June | Trade Register |
| Annual financial statements | By 30 September | Trade Register |
A date that falls on a weekend or a public holiday moves to the next working day. Advance corporate tax is due from a company whose net sales two years earlier passed BGN 300,000, which is €153,387.56, and a company in its first two calendar years pays none. The calculation is in the guide to corporate tax in Bulgaria.
Who files: the director, the accountant and the electronic signature
Returns reach the National Revenue Agency online, signed with a qualified electronic signature. A director who lives abroad needs none: the accountant files under an authorisation, with the firm's own signature.
The Act ties its qualification rule to the financial statements. They are prepared and signed by a person with the education and the practice the Act names, or by an accounting firm. The one exception is a micro-enterprise with no activity, whose owner may prepare them.
The director stays responsible for the books, the statements and their publication, even when an accountant does the work.
VAT returns and ledgers
A VAT-registered company files a return for every calendar month with two ledgers, one for sales and one for purchases. Sales to businesses in other EU states add a VIES declaration. A month with no sales and no purchases still needs a return, and the VAT of the month is paid by the same date as the return.
Registration becomes compulsory when turnover in Bulgaria passes €51,130 in a calendar year, and the application is due within 7 days. We watch the turnover of our clients and file in time: VAT number in Bulgaria.
Payroll and social security
What a salary costs at the minimum, the average and €3,000 is in salaries in Bulgaria. On each salary the employer's contributions start at 18.92% of the gross amount. The employer also withholds 13.78% in contributions and 10% income tax from the employee and pays all three by the 25th of the next month. Contributions are counted on no more than €2,300 a month from 1 August 2026.
A gross salary of €1,000 costs the company €1,189.20. The employee's contributions are €137.80, the income tax on the remaining €862.20 is €86.22, and €775.98 reaches the employee.
The employer enters each new employment contract into the employment register of the National Revenue Agency within three days of signing. The employee receives a copy of the entry before the first day of work. Each month declaration 1 reports every insured person and declaration 6 reports the amounts due. An owner who works in the company is insured under different rules, set out in the guide to the EOOD and the OOD.
We do this for you Accounting in Bulgaria from €150 a month
Annual financial statements and the audit threshold in Bulgaria
Every company publishes its financial statements in the Trade Register by 30 September of the following year. A full set is a balance sheet, an income statement and notes. The owners adopt it first, and form G2 carries it to the register with a declaration of that adoption. Publication has carried no state fee since 2022. The size of the company at 31 December decides how much it prepares and whether an auditor checks it.
| Limit at 31 December | Micro-enterprise, up to | Audit, above |
|---|---|---|
| Assets | €460,163 | €2,045,168 |
| Net sales | €920,325 | €4,090,335 |
| Average staff | 10 | 50 |
A company is a micro-enterprise while it stays within two of the three limits, and it may prepare a short balance sheet and a short income statement. An audit by a registered auditor is compulsory for a company that passes two of the three audit limits. The Act states the limits in leva: BGN 900,000 of assets and BGN 1,800,000 of net sales for a micro-enterprise, BGN 4,000,000 of assets and BGN 8,000,000 of net sales for the audit. The euro figures are the same amounts at the fixed rate.
A company with no activity in the year files a declaration in place of statements: once, by 30 June of the following year, with no state fee. It files no corporate tax return until it trades again. We file the declaration for €120.
SAF-T in Bulgaria: who files and from when
SAF-T is a standard audit file for tax: the ledgers, the invoices, the payments and the fixed assets in one electronic format. A company sends it to the National Revenue Agency each month, by the end of the next month. The duty arrives in five steps.
| From | Who files |
|---|---|
| 1 January 2026 | Large enterprises with 2023 net sales above BGN 300 million, or taxes and contributions above BGN 3.5 million |
| 1 January 2027 | Large, medium and small enterprises above the same limits on 2024 figures |
| 1 January 2028 | Those with 2025 net sales above BGN 15 million, or taxes and contributions above BGN 1.5 million |
| 1 January 2029 | Every large, medium and small enterprise, by its size at 31 December 2026 |
| 1 January 2030 | All others, which means micro-enterprises with a VAT number |
A micro-enterprise without a VAT number stays outside SAF-T. A VAT-registered company within the micro limits starts on 1 January 2030, or on 1 January 2029 if it is larger at the end of 2026. In its first 12 months a company may replace a file it has sent with a corrected one.
What a missed deadline costs
| Missed filing | Sanction for the company | In euros |
|---|---|---|
| VAT return or VIES declaration | BGN 500 to BGN 10,000 | €255.65 to €5,112.92 |
| Corporate tax return | BGN 500 to BGN 3,000 | €255.65 to €1,533.88 |
| Application for VAT registration | BGN 500 to BGN 5,000 | €255.65 to €2,556.46 |
| Publication of financial statements | 0.1% to 0.5% of the year's net sales, no less than BGN 200 | From €102.26 |
The Acts state the sums in leva, and the euro figures are the same sums at the fixed rate. When statements are missed, the Registry Agency sends the National Revenue Agency a list of the companies by 31 October, and checks follow within two months. Unpaid tax also carries statutory interest from its due date.
What accounting in Bulgaria costs, and how to change accountant
Our tariff starts at €150 a month before VAT for a company with up to 30 documents a month and payroll for two people. A VAT number adds €30 and each further employee €8, and the price is fixed in the contract for 12 months.
A VAT-registered company with 40 documents a month and three employees pays €190, €30 and €8: €228 a month and €2,736 a year, or €2,462.40 when the year is paid upfront.
You can change accountant in any month. We review your filed returns and balances free of charge, list what is filed, what is due and what needs fixing, and file from the next deadline. Bank movements are part of the books, so we ask for the statements of every account each month: business bank account in Bulgaria.
The full tariff and the way we work are on the page about keeping the books of a Bulgarian company.
