VAT in Bulgaria 2026: the EUR 51,130 Threshold, Registration and VAT Number

A Bulgarian company must register for VAT in 2026 once its taxable turnover in the calendar year reaches EUR 51,130, and earlier if it buys services from businesses in other EU countries. A draft from the Ministry of Finance would raise the threshold to EUR 75,000 from 1 January 2027; it has not been adopted yet.

As of 23 October 2026.

	2026 figure	Legal source
Registration threshold	EUR 51,130 per calendar year, apply within 7 days	Art. 96 ЗДДС
Draft from 1 January 2027	EUR 75,000, not yet adopted	draft amendment to the ЗДДС, consultation until 23 October 2026
Services from or to EU businesses	register before the first service, no threshold	Art. 97a ЗДДС
Intra-community acquisitions of goods	from EUR 10,000 per calendar year	Art. 99 ЗДДС
Standard / reduced rate	20% / 9%	Art. 66, 66a ЗДДС
Return and payment	monthly by the 14th of the following month	Art. 125 ЗДДС

VAT is the Bulgarian ДДС, governed by the VAT Act (ЗДДС) and administered by the tax authority НАП. For a Bulgarian company with a foreign owner it is the tax with the most deadlines and the one trap almost every founder from Germany walks into first.

The rates

The standard rate is 20%. A reduced rate of 9% applies to a short, fixed list: hotel and similar accommodation, books and periodicals, and baby food and baby hygiene products. Restaurant and catering services have been back at 20% since 1 January 2025. Intra-community supplies to businesses with a valid VAT number and exports to non-EU countries are taxable at 0%, with input tax deduction.

When registration is mandatory

By turnover. Registration is mandatory once taxable turnover in the calendar year reaches EUR 51,130. Since 1 January 2026 the calendar year from 1 January to 31 December counts; the earlier rolling twelve-month test no longer applies. The application must be filed within 7 days of reaching the threshold. Missing it means paying the tax for the period in which you should have been registered, without input tax deduction, plus a fine.

Regardless of turnover. Three situations trigger the obligation from the first euro:

• Services received from businesses in other EU states (article 97a ЗДДС): a Bulgarian company receiving a service from an EU business that is taxable in Bulgaria must register before receiving it. No threshold.
• Services supplied to businesses in other EU states (also article 97a): the same obligation, before the first supply.
• Intra-community acquisitions of goods above EUR 10,000 in the calendar year (article 99): application before the acquisition that crosses the threshold.

Distance sales to consumers in other EU states fall under the EU-wide EUR 10,000 threshold; above it, tax is due in the destination country, in practice through the OSS scheme, which can also be applied for in Bulgaria.

From 2027: the EUR 75,000 draft

On 23 September 2026 the Ministry of Finance put amendments to seven tax laws out for consultation. They raise the mandatory threshold to EUR 75,000 from 1 January 2027, using the EU small-business scheme (Directive (EU) 2020/285). The registration duties that apply regardless of turnover, for EU services and intra-community acquisitions, stay as they are; a new one would be added for sellers of new buildings and building plots. The draft goes to Parliament with the 2027 budget, and until then EUR 51,130 applies. The details are in Bulgaria’s Draft 2027 Tax Package.

The trap for founders from Germany

The article 97a rule is where almost every new EOOD with a German owner stumbles. Google ads, software subscriptions, a freelancer from Germany, the German tax adviser invoicing without VAT: all services from an EU business to a Bulgarian company, and all of them trigger the registration obligation before the invoice even arrives.

Registration under article 97a is a limited registration. The company owes Bulgarian VAT on the service received under the reverse-charge mechanism, but has no input tax deduction and charges no tax on its own domestic sales. It therefore pays 20% on everything it buys from the EU and recovers nothing. For a company that will reach the turnover threshold soon anyway, or buys a lot from the EU, voluntary full registration is usually the better choice, from the start.

Voluntary registration: when it pays

Below the threshold any company may register voluntarily. It pays when

• customers are mainly businesses, for whom VAT is a pass-through item,
• the company has investments or ongoing purchases carrying input tax, such as equipment, rent with VAT, software, advice,
• services to or from EU businesses occur regularly, because full registration then replaces the limited one under article 97a.

It does not pay when customers are private individuals in Bulgaria and prices would have to rise by 20%, and when the monthly filings outweigh the benefit.

The Bulgarian VAT number

The VAT identification number consists of the country prefix BG and the company number from the Commercial Register (ЕИК, nine digits); for natural persons the ten-digit personal number follows. It is issued with the registration and is retrievable in the EU VIES system from that day. German and other EU suppliers need it to supply you intra-community without their domestic VAT; check your own number and your partners’ with our VIES checker.

Important in practice: a company registered on the limited basis of article 97a also has a BG number in VIES. EU suppliers may then supply without their VAT even though the company bears the tax in Bulgaria, without deduction.

After registration: every month

• VAT return with purchase and sales ledgers, filed electronically by the 14th of the following month, even at zero turnover. There are no quarterly returns in Bulgaria.
• Payment of the tax due by the same day.
• VIES return for any month with intra-community supplies or services to EU businesses.
• Excess input tax is first offset against future liabilities for two months; the remainder is then normally refunded within 30 days.
• Invoices must carry the mandatory content of article 114 ЗДДС, or the recipient’s input tax deduction is at risk. The list is in What a Bulgarian Invoice Must Contain.

What the application needs

We file the application electronically with НАП. It includes the company’s details from the Commercial Register, the Bulgarian business bank account, a declaration of turnover for the current period and, depending on the ground for registration, the contracts or invoices from which the obligation arises. НАП examines it within 7 days and grants the registration by decision; the number applies from the date of that decision.

Calculate and read on

For gross-to-net calculations at the Bulgarian rate there is our VAT calculator, and for supplies between EU states the EU VAT calculator. VAT is only one part of your obligations; all of them are set out in Tax Obligations for Companies in Bulgaria.

Whether your company must register, or whether voluntary registration pays, is something we check in the initial call: VAT registration by ConsulTax.