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Accounting and VAT Support for Foreign-Owned Companies in Bulgaria

Whether your Bulgarian company has just been registered or has already been trading for years, the accounting setup must match its actual activity. This page shows which obligations apply, what drives the workload, and what a Bulgarian firm needs from you before it can name a fee.

The accounting engagement and the professional filings are provided directly by the accounting partner you choose, under its own engagement. Start in BG coordinates nothing and submits nothing.

Which provider that is, is your decision. Compare accounting providers →

What you need nowSee what information a firm needs

Your situation

Which situation are you in?

Pick the situation closest to yours. You get the next step that follows from it, the questions it raises, and where to read further.

Pick a situation above. What needs settling first in that case, and what the next step is, appears here.

  • Newly incorporated company

    Set accounting up before the first document exists

    The company exists, so the obligations have started. What needs settling is what the business actually intends to do, whether a VAT registration is due and which information a firm needs to take it on.

  • Existing company changing accountant

    Order the handover before anything is cancelled

    A change of accountant rarely fails on the new accountant; it fails on the records. What needs settling is what has to be handed over, which cut-off date makes sense and what the incoming firm wants to see up front.

  • VAT registration required or uncertain

    Check which registration basis applies, instead of guessing a number

    A VAT registration obligation can arise for very different reasons — turnover, intra-EU transactions, services bought from or supplied to businesses abroad, online sales, or a voluntary registration. Which basis applies decides both the timing and the obligations that follow.

  • Company with employees or payroll

    Set payroll and its reporting up together

    As soon as somebody is employed — including the managing director — registration, payroll and social security come with it. That is a workstream of its own, not an add-on to bookkeeping.

  • Inactive or low-activity company

    Clarify the minimum obligations rather than suspending them

    A company without revenue is not a company without obligations. What remains to be done depends on the company's status — usually far less work than founders fear, but not none.

  • Overdue filings or unclear compliance status

    Take stock before the backlog grows

    When filings are open, or nobody is certain what was submitted, taking stock is the first step — it decides whether a firm can judge the scope of the remedial work at all.

What an accounting engagement covers

Accounting is not a single line item but several workstreams with very different workloads. These are the ones a Bulgarian firm usually covers:

  • Monthly bookkeeping

    Recording the period's documents, reconciling the accounts and producing the reports that show where the company stands.

  • VAT registration and VAT filings

    Checking which registration basis applies, carrying out the registration, and the ongoing filings once they start.

  • Annual financial statements and tax return

    Preparing the annual accounts, the corporate income tax return and the submissions that belong to the year end.

  • Payroll and social-security administration

    Registering employees, running the monthly payroll and making the reports that go with it.

    Availability varies by partner

  • Communication with the revenue administration

    Correspondence and submissions to the National Revenue Agency, where these fall within the accountant's engagement.

    Availability varies by partner

  • Accounting onboarding after company formation

    The ordered handover straight after registration, so no gap opens up between formation and the first month.

  • Accountant transition and document handover

    Taking stock of the records, agreeing the cut-off date and supporting the move to the new partner.

    Availability varies by partner

  • Cross-border questions

    Coordinating specialist input where the facts reach beyond Bulgaria — for example services spanning several countries.

    Availability varies by partner

Not every partner provides every service. Availability and scope are confirmed in the individual proposal.

What you do and what the accountant does

The question that comes before price on any accounting engagement is: who is responsible for what? Start in BG does not appear in this table — we coordinate nothing and file nothing.

  • YouDescribe your business model and document volume

    Your accounting firmAssesses the accounting engagement

  • YouRequest and compare quotations

    Your accounting firmConfirms professional scope and fee in writing

  • YouHand over records and access

    Your accounting firmPerforms bookkeeping and filings

  • YouSupply documents completely and on time

    Your accounting firmIs responsible for content and submission

  • YouAgree up front which language you work in

    Your accounting firmCommunicates with authorities within the engagement

  • YouForward post from the authorities without delay

    Your accounting firmHandles correspondence on professional matters

  • YouKeep track of your own deadlines

    Your accounting firmMaintains the professional deadlines

  • YouKeep your original documents

    Your accounting firmMaintains the accounting records

  • YouAsk what the fee actually includes

    Your accounting firmInvoices its services directly to you

  • YouCarry the director's own responsibility

    Your accounting firmBears responsibility for its professional services

You appoint the accounting firm directly. Start in BG provides no accounting or tax services, coordinates no onboarding and submits no filings; those are performed solely by an appropriately qualified provider under its own engagement.

Information that determines the scope and fee

There is no monthly price on this page, and that is not an omission. Accounting cannot honestly be priced from a company name — the work follows what the business actually does. These are the factors that decide it:

  • Asked in the form

    Active or inactive company

    Whether transactions arise at all changes the workload more than anything else.

  • Asked in the form

    VAT registration status

    A registration brings its own recurring filing obligations with it.

  • Asked in the form

    Monthly document volume

    Purchase and sales invoices are the real unit of measure in bookkeeping.

  • Asked in the form

    Employees and payroll

    Staff is a workstream of its own, not a surcharge on the bookkeeping.

  • Asked in the form

    Domestic, EU and non-EU transactions

    Where customers and suppliers sit decides how transactions are recorded.

  • Asked in the form

    Start timing

    Whether you start retrospectively, immediately or on a planned date changes the entry effort.

What else changes the workload (6)

  • E-commerce, marketplace or cash activity

    Platform and cash business brings its own record-keeping requirements.

  • Multiple currencies or bank accounts

    Every extra account and foreign currency adds reconciliation work.

  • Overdue records

    Unprocessed periods are remedial work and are scoped separately.

  • Annual closing requirements

    The year-end close is a service of its own, with its own time requirement.

  • Language and reporting requirements

    Reports in your language and your format are additional work.

  • Shareholder and intercompany transactions

    Transactions between related people and companies need more care.

You receive a defined scope and a price before appointing the provider. Until then no engagement and no cost arises.

What happens after company registration

Between the commercial-register entry and the first accounting month sits a short but concrete sequence. This is what it looks like:

  1. Step 1: Company receives its EIK and formation documents

    With the register entry the company exists — and the ongoing obligations start with it.

    See company formation →

  2. Step 2: Activity and VAT needs are clarified

    What the company actually does decides which registrations apply and how much bookkeeping there is.

  3. Step 3: Accounting partner receives the company and owner information

    The partner gets the starting information in one place instead of spread across ten e-mails.

  4. Step 4: Engagement, scope and fee are confirmed

    The partner assesses the case and states scope and fee. Only then does an appointment arise.

  5. Step 5: The document-transfer process is agreed

    How and when records are handed over is settled once instead of improvised every month.

  6. Step 6: First deadlines are recorded

    The relevant dates are captured so the first month does not come as a surprise.

    See the operating calendar →

  7. Step 7: The monthly process begins

    From here the accounting runs on its cycle — between you and the partner.

VAT registration is not one single scenario

The most common question on this page is “when do I need a VAT number?” — and the most common answer online is a single figure. That figure is right for one of these cases and misleading for the rest. A registration obligation can arise from, among others:

  • Taxable turnover in Bulgaria
  • Intra-EU acquisitions from other member states
  • Services bought from businesses abroad
  • Services supplied to businesses abroad
  • E-commerce and marketplace sales
  • A voluntary registration
  • Activity carried on without being established in Bulgaria

Which basis applies must be checked against the current Bulgarian and EU rules for your company's actual transactions. This page names the things to check, not the outcome.

Bulgarian taxes — an overview →

Warning signs that need an urgent review

None of these is a catastrophe, but none of them waits either. If one applies to you, taking stock is the first step — not the next quarter.

  • The company has begun trading without anyone keeping the books.
  • Invoices have been issued but it is unclear whether anything was filed.
  • A VAT number is being used without a filing process behind it.
  • The previous accountant has stopped responding.
  • The annual statements may be overdue.
  • Staff are being paid without confirmed payroll administration.
  • Personal and company payments run through the same accounts.
Request an urgent compliance review

Frequently asked questions

The questions that come up most often in accounting enquiries — answered honestly, including where the honest answer is “it depends”.

Does every Bulgarian company need ongoing accounting?

For limited companies such as the EOOD and the OOD, ongoing accounting is part of the company's obligations — including where there is barely any revenue. The workload differs a great deal; the obligation itself does not go away.

Can I use my accountant at home instead?

Bulgarian accounting and the submissions to the Bulgarian authorities require knowledge of the Bulgarian rules and access to the local procedures. Many clients keep their adviser at home for personal matters and have the Bulgarian bookkeeping done locally. Whether that split makes sense in your case belongs in the clarification up front.

Can Start in BG provide accounting directly?

No. We do not keep books, submit tax filings, coordinate onboarding or refer you to a firm. This page explains the obligations; the professional service is provided and invoiced by a firm you engage yourself.

How much does monthly accounting cost?

It depends on the actual activity: document volume, VAT status, employees, cross-border business and any backlog change the workload significantly. That is why this page carries the list of factors that decide the price rather than a figure. The partner states scope and fee before you appoint them.

What if my company has no activity?

A dormant company has fewer obligations, not none. What specifically remains depends on things like whether any transactions arose in the period and whether the company is VAT registered.

Can I change accountants?

Yes. The handover is what matters: which periods are fully processed, which records exist and at what cut-off date the change happens. We take stock of that first so the incoming partner can judge the scope.

When is VAT registration required?

A registration obligation can arise from several very different bases — among them taxable turnover in Bulgaria, intra-EU transactions, services bought from or supplied to businesses abroad, and online sales. Which one applies has to be checked against your company's actual transactions.

Can payroll be included?

With many partners yes, as a workstream alongside the bookkeeping. Availability and scope are confirmed in the individual proposal.

What documents must I send each month?

Usually the period's purchase and sales invoices, the bank statements and the receipts for cash payments; where there are staff, the payroll records come with them. The partner sets out at the start in what form and by when it needs them.

Can you help if filings are already overdue?

We can prepare the stocktake and hand the case to a partner who assesses the scope of the remedial work. What follows from that is the partner's professional judgement — and in part the responsible authority's decision.

Who wrote this guide

Legal, tax and relocation information carries more weight if it is wrong than the rest of this website does. So this section says who wrote this page, whether a licensed professional reviewed it, exactly what was reviewed, and where the information comes from.

Author
Dr. Dennis Kwiatkowski — Co-founder, Start in BG
Relevant experience
Holds a PhD in biochemistry; worked afterwards in boutique strategy consulting and commercial roles with international companies before building and advising his own ventures, including a consultancy and a brewery. Researches and writes the guides on this site; the PhD is evidence of analytical work, not of legal or tax expertise.
Professional review

No professional review

This page has not yet been reviewed by a licensed tax adviser or law firm. Its statements were editorially researched and checked against the primary sources named below - that is a different thing from a professional review, and we do not want to blur the two.

Last editorial review
Next review due
Exactly what was reviewed
  • The six starting situations
  • The eight workstreams
  • Who is responsible for which step
  • What drives the cost
  • VAT registration bases
  • Warning signs
Primary sources (4)

Accessed on the date of the last review. A later visit can show a different version.

  • National Revenue Agency (NRA)

    Responsible for corporate income tax, personal income tax, VAT registration and social-security contributions.

    Accessed on

  • Ministry of Finance of Bulgaria

    Owns tax legislation and the official communication on the euro changeover.

    Accessed on

  • EU legislation (EUR-Lex)

    The legal basis for cross-border matters: the VAT Directive, social-security coordination, euro adoption.

    Accessed on

  • State Gazette (Darzhaven vestnik)

    The official gazette. Bulgarian statutes - the Commerce Act, the Corporate Income Tax Act, the Personal Income Tax Act, the VAT Act - apply in the version published there.

    Accessed on

Change history (3)

  1. Confirmed the page states plainly that Start in BG does not itself sell accounting or VAT registration as a service.

  2. Rewritten in the voice of a guide rather than a seller; sales-style wording and references to the ended SmartTaxBG partnership removed.

  3. Page published: ongoing accounting and VAT given their own destination, with situations, workstreams and cost drivers.

Found an error?

Tell us what is wrong, what is correct instead, and where that can be checked publicly. A report never changes anything automatically - it is checked before anything changes.

Report a correction

Next step

What you need now

You now know which obligations apply and what drives the effort. That is enough to request and compare quotes — and to notice when one of them leaves out something you need.

You appoint the accounting firm directly. Start in BG provides no accounting or tax services, coordinates no onboarding and submits no filings; those are performed solely by an appropriately qualified provider under its own engagement.

Provider Comparison →

Where to go next

Your result above is complete — nothing here sits behind a form. These pages go deeper on what you have just told us.

In the book

The Germany–Bulgaria tax comparison with worked examples, and what depends on where you are resident, is in the book.

About the book →Compare providers →

Related pages and guides

Further pages and articles about running a Bulgarian company:

What's changing in Bulgaria right now

  • BULGARIA'S STATISTICAL FILINGS NOW RUN THROUGH ONE PORTAL

  • BULGARIA'S REVENUE AGENCY PLANS A SYSTEM UPDATE

  • BULGARIA'S EU EXPORTS ARE GROWING

See all updates →

Keep up with practical accounting and VAT developments in Bulgaria.

Join the WhatsApp community for updates when they are relevant to how you run the books — not generic news.

Join the WhatsApp community

Community information only. No legal, tax or accounting advice. Your phone number/profile may be visible to other WhatsApp members. Community guidelines & privacy

The company is running. The obligations run with it from day one.

Work through the points above before you request quotes. Knowing which workstreams apply and what a firm needs from you is what gets you a firm fee instead of a range.

Request a review

Last editorial review: 2026-07-31 · Tax and filing obligations change. We review this page regularly — it still does not replace accounting or tax advice.

Request a review

What we can confirm

  • Registering for Bulgarian VAT becomes mandatory once the statutory turnover threshold is exceeded; below it, registration is generally voluntary.

    Official

  • A Bulgarian company comes into existence on entry in the Commercial Register kept by the Registry Agency.

    Official

  • Limited companies must keep ongoing accounts and file their annual financial statements with the Commercial Register.

    Official

  • The common legal forms for small businesses are the OOD (several members) and the EOOD (single member), both with limited liability.

    Official

  • Start in BG coordinates nothing on your behalf and refers no providers. We research and explain the process; the engagement is directly between you and the provider you choose, and final decisions remain with the responsible institution.

    About us

What depends on your situation

  • Monthly accounting cost depends on transaction volume and VAT status, and is invoiced by the accountant.

These turn on your own circumstances - a website cannot answer them, and neither do we: that needs a tax adviser or the responsible authority.

Compare the providers

Sources and verification

How we verify →

The statements this page relies on, each labelled with where it comes from. The superscript number refers to the source list below.

Editorially reviewed
Sources
2 of 6 statements checked against the primary source

4 statements are still awaiting a check against their primary source.

Statements on this page

  • Registering for Bulgarian VAT becomes mandatory once the statutory turnover threshold is exceeded; below it, registration is generally voluntary.1, 2

    Source check outstanding

  • A Bulgarian company comes into existence on entry in the Commercial Register kept by the Registry Agency.2, 3

    Source check outstanding

  • Limited companies must keep ongoing accounts and file their annual financial statements with the Commercial Register.1, 2, 3

    Source check outstanding

  • The common legal forms for small businesses are the OOD (several members) and the EOOD (single member), both with limited liability.2, 3

    Source check outstanding

  • Start in BG coordinates nothing on your behalf and refers no providers. We research and explain the process; the engagement is directly between you and the provider you choose, and final decisions remain with the responsible institution.4

    Checked against the source ·

  • Monthly accounting cost depends on transaction volume and VAT status, and is invoiced by the accountant.4, 5

    Checked against the source ·
Show sources (5)
  1. 1.

    National Revenue Agency (NRA)Authority

    Responsible for corporate income tax, personal income tax, VAT registration and social-security contributions.

    Open source →
  2. 2.

    State Gazette (Darzhaven vestnik)Legal basis

    The official gazette. Bulgarian statutes - the Commerce Act, the Corporate Income Tax Act, the Personal Income Tax Act, the VAT Act - apply in the version published there.

    Open source →
  3. 3.

    Registry Agency (Commercial Register)Authority

    Keeps the Commercial Register. A Bulgarian company comes into existence on entry there, and annual financial statements are filed there.

    Open source →
  4. 4.

    Start in BG operational experienceOur own experience

    What we observed in the formations Start in BG accompanied itself, up to August 2026. That service no longer exists; the observations remain citable as first-hand knowledge and are labelled as such.

    No public address - this source is either us, or a body that decides case by case.

  5. 5.

    Accounting and legal partnersProfessional partner

    Professional assessment from Bulgarian accounting and law firms Start in BG worked with up to August 2026. Such an assessment is not an official ruling and does not replace individual advice.

    No public address - this source is either us, or a body that decides case by case.