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This article is also available in German: Wie wir Berlin Sofia Partners in Bulgarien gegründet haben: Notar, Bank, Kosten und was wir heute genauso wieder tun würden
When I first started looking into forming a company in Bulgaria, I knew almost exactly nothing about the process. A year later, my business partner Svilen Petkov and I had not only incorporated our own Bulgarian company, but documented the journey, written a book about the wider process, and turned the original research into Start in BG.
This is therefore not a theoretical formation guide. It is a reconstruction of how we actually founded Berlin Sofia Partners Limited, a Bulgarian OOD that we use as a joint investment vehicle. I will explain what we did, how long the individual steps took, what we paid, where we needed help, and what I would do exactly the same way again.
If you want the structured version rather than our story, start with our step-by-step company formation guide. If you are already comparing firms, use the independent company-formation provider comparison.
The most important distinction is this: when I say we could do the formation in one day, I do not mean the Commercial Register completed the registration that same day. I mean our personal tasks, notary, bank and document handover, fitted into one day. The legal registration followed afterwards.
Svilen and I had already been business partners across different ventures for some time. Berlin Sofia Partners had two very concrete purposes.
The first was almost an experiment. We wanted to show, from the founders' side rather than a provider's sales page, what it actually takes to open a company in Bulgaria. One of us did not speak Bulgarian, which made the experiment more relevant to the international founders we wanted to reach. We documented parts of the process in short videos on TikTok and other channels.
The second purpose was commercial. We wanted a joint vehicle through which we could make selected investments. Our first investment through Berlin Sofia Partners was in Kedi Bioscience, then based in the Netherlands and working in animal health and biotechnology. The structure was simple: we funded Berlin Sofia Partners first, and the Bulgarian company then made the investment into Kedi Bioscience.
So the company was never only a content experiment. It had a real economic purpose from day one.
Before this project I had no practical experience with the Bulgarian company-formation process. I therefore started where many German or international founders start: Google, blogs, provider websites, forums and scattered official sources.
The problem was not that there was no information. The problem was fragmentation. One page explained company forms. Another gave tax rates. A provider described its own package. Somewhere else you found a bank requirement, a notary step or an address rule. What I could not find was one place that brought the whole journey together and clearly separated general information, provider offers and first-hand founder experience.
That information gap became Start in BG. It later became our book as well, “Start in Bulgaria”. While researching the book I also interviewed international founders who had already built companies in Bulgaria. I found many of them through Facebook communities for foreigners in Sofia. You can read some of those stories on our page about entrepreneurs in Bulgaria.
Svilen had already founded several companies by then. Even so, he normally used professional support for preparing and filing the documentation. That was useful context for me: the fact that you can theoretically do something yourself does not mean spending hours decoding Bulgarian declarations and filing practice is the best use of a founder's time.
We did not plan the same company in Germany in parallel. For our use case, it was not a serious alternative. We expected both the formation and the ongoing administration to be materially more expensive and slower.
At the time I expected a German setup to take several weeks and to cost well above €1,000 to establish. Bulgaria looked much leaner. I also had a rough personal estimate that certain administrative and running-cost line items could be many times more expensive in Germany. That was not a controlled cost study, so I would not present the multiplier as a factual Germany-versus-Bulgaria benchmark.
The useful point is simpler: for our specific purpose, a jointly owned, lean investment vehicle with low ongoing administrative burden, Bulgaria was the better fit.
Because there were two shareholders, we chose an OOD, Bulgaria's multi-member limited liability company. The single-shareholder equivalent is the EOOD.
The OOD suited the investment structure we wanted. But there was a second reason: we deliberately wanted to document a route that foreign founders commonly encounter. We were not trying to prove that an unusual edge-case structure could work. We wanted to walk through a standard structure that readers could actually compare with their own plans.
If you want the differences between an EOOD, OOD, AD and the other options, see our guide to Bulgarian company types.
We had an advantage when choosing a provider: I already knew Ivaylo and Niki from Smart Tax BG. As a non-Bulgarian speaker, I also wanted a team I could work with comfortably in English. Both speak fluent English and had studied at the American University in Bulgaria.
The practical process was simple. We sent our identification details, the proposed company name and a description of the planned activities. In our case that covered consulting services and the ability to make investments through the company. Smart Tax BG prepared the formation documents from there.
If you want to look at Smart Tax BG directly, use this tagged Smart Tax BG link. The URL parameter exists only to make the source of the referral measurable. If you are selecting a provider, do not stop with our personal experience. Use the current provider-neutral formation comparison.
Transparency: Smart Tax BG waived its own service fee for our formation because Ivaylo and Niki supported our project to document the process publicly. Our actual formation cost is therefore not a market price. This article is not paid. Our personal experience with Smart Tax BG is also kept separate from the current provider comparison: payment does not influence inclusion or ordering there.
As checked on 12 October 2026, Smart Tax BG's English website advertises company registration for €400, including support for the bank-account opening and notary visit. Offers change. Check the provider's current terms and the dated Start in BG comparison entry rather than treating this paragraph as a permanent quote.
The initial information package was not huge. We provided:
For me, one useful practical point was that I did not first need Bulgarian residence, a Bulgarian telephone number or a Bulgarian personal identification number for the process we went through. My German national ID card was sufficient in our case.
That is our experience, not a guarantee that every bank, notary or ownership structure will ask for the same documents.
My first physical step was very literal: I got on a plane in Berlin and flew to Sofia.
Smart Tax BG had offered to arrange a notary and accompany us. Svilen already had a notary in Sofia he had used before, so we made the appointment there ourselves.
We met in Sofia, went together to the small notary office in the city centre and presented the documents Smart Tax BG had prepared. The documents were checked. Svilen was to be the managing director, so he signed the required manager's consent and specimen signature there.
I had expected this to be the bureaucratic part of the day. In reality, we were finished in roughly 20 minutes.
That was probably the biggest positive surprise in the process. The step I had expected to consume time turned out to be one of the fastest.
From the notary we went to a UniCredit Bulbank branch near South Park in Sofia. Svilen had used the bank for company transactions before.
There we opened the capital-deposit account and paid in the founding capital. We chose BGN 1,000 in total at the time, approximately €511 at the fixed exchange rate, with BGN 500 from each of us.
That money was not a formation cost. It was our company's own capital and remained company money.
The bank had its own forms and again required our identification documents. I used my German national ID card, which was scanned. Svilen transferred his BGN 500 from a Bulgarian account. I deposited my BGN 500 in cash. The cash deposit cost roughly BGN 10, about €5 at the time.
The entire bank appointment took roughly one hour.
If you are choosing a bank today, I would not copy our choice without checking the current market. Fees, KYC processes and accessibility change. That is why Start in BG now maintains a separate comparison of business banks in Bulgaria.
The bank issued confirmation that the capital had been deposited. At that point the core package consisted of:
We met Niki from Smart Tax BG, handed over the documents, and they handled the Commercial Register filing from there.
I no longer remember the exact registration date. My recollection is that roughly one to two weeks later we received confirmation that the company had been registered and was operational.
This is why I always separate two claims today: our active work in Sofia fitted into one day; the registration itself took longer.
Our direct formation cost was unusually low. Smart Tax BG waived its service fee. The main external formation cost I distinctly remember was around €75 for the lawyer who filed the documents. On top of that came the roughly BGN 10 cash-deposit fee at the bank. Travel and accommodation were, of course, separate.
There may have been a small notary charge, but I cannot reconstruct it confidently enough today to publish a number. I would rather leave a gap than invent a precise figure.
This is an important difference from the “I opened a company for €80” stories you sometimes see online. Our figure was distorted by the waived provider fee. If you are budgeting today, look at the full first-year cost, not just the registration.
We could use one of Svilen's addresses in Bulgaria as the registered company address, so we did not need to purchase a separate virtual-office or registered-address service.
Smart Tax BG had also offered an address solution. For a foreign founder without their own premises or a local partner, that becomes a separate recurring cost and should be checked before signing a formation package.
Smart Tax BG also became our ongoing accountant. For me, one of the practical strengths of the setup is how little friction there is in communication. We handle routine questions and document exchange through WhatsApp, email or Viber.
For our specific setup, the recurring accounting cost is below €200 per month. It covers:
We have no employees, so there is no payroll. We also did not opt for ordinary VAT registration for our current use case because the company is primarily used for joint investments. Whether you need VAT registration depends on your activity, turnover and cross-border transactions. Our guide to accounting and VAT in Bulgaria explains the issues to raise with your own accountant or tax adviser.
If you want to compare accounting firms, use our accounting provider register.
Less than I expected before forming it.
In a normal month, our own administrative work is usually under two hours. We send the necessary documents, answer questions and coordinate with the accountant when something needs attention.
That does not mean the company has no compliance obligations. It means we have organised those obligations into a clean process with a local accountant. The responsibility still exists, but the practical workload for us is low.
If I had to identify the most difficult part of the entire journey, it would not be the notary, the bank or the Commercial Register.
It was the research before the formation, especially finding a coherent explanation in German.
I wanted to understand: Which legal form do we need? Do I have to travel to Bulgaria? Which documents are required? How does the bank account work? What will accounting cost? Do we need an address? What happens if I continue to live in Germany?
The answers existed, but they were scattered across many sources and often framed through a provider's own offer. That is why the website came first and the book “Start in Bulgaria” followed. The book brings the process, background and founder interviews together. The website is the continuously updated layer when prices, laws, bank conditions or provider information change.
Surprisingly little.
If I had to form Berlin Sofia Partners again tomorrow under the same conditions, I would take essentially the same route: OOD, professional document preparation, a short notary appointment, capital deposit with an established bank and ongoing accounting with a local team we can reach quickly.
There is no dramatic mistake in our story that I can turn into a warning for effect. That is part of the point. A Bulgarian company formation does not have to become an administrative obstacle course if the structure, documents and local support are sorted out before you start.
This is where the easy formation story ends.
Registering a company in Bulgaria is one question. Determining where that company is actually managed for tax purposes and where you personally remain tax-resident is another.
I would be particularly cautious if a solo founder plans to form a Bulgarian company, continue living in Germany, keep no office or meaningful activity in Bulgaria and assume that all company profits will therefore automatically be taxed only in Bulgaria.
If key management decisions are actually made from Germany, questions around place of effective management, permanent establishment, personal residence and the double-taxation treaty can become relevant. That is why we have a separate guide: Company in Bulgaria, residence in Germany: tax and place of management.
Before you even choose a provider, you can also run through our “Is Bulgaria right for your business?” decision check.
For me, this is the key dividing line: forming the Bulgarian company can be very easy. A cross-border structure that does not fit the facts does not become correct just because the registration was easy.
Before my first flight to Sofia, I expected forming a foreign company to be mostly bureaucracy. Our experience was almost the opposite. Once the documents were prepared, the notary took about 20 minutes, the bank about an hour, and handing the paperwork to the provider only a few minutes.
The larger effort came beforehand: understanding what we actually needed. That is why Start in BG exists today.
Berlin Sofia Partners is now more than the vehicle through which we invest together. It is also practical proof that the process we write about on this website can work smoothly when the structure actually fits the founders' situation.
If you want to go deeper, start with the book, the formation guide and the provider comparison. If your first question is whether Bulgaria fits your own situation at all, start with the decision matrix.
We continue to document Start in BG and new research across our channels:
Context note: This article describes our own formation experience. Provider prices, bank fees, legal requirements and tax consequences change and differ by case. Current comparison data is maintained in the linked Start in BG registers and at the original sources.
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