Correction — September 2026. This article, published in March 2025, described VAT changes that did not happen. There is no quarterly VAT return regime in Bulgaria, so nothing moved to monthly; electronic invoicing has not been made compulsory; and no new reporting platform replaced the existing one. The real change for small businesses came a year later, on 1 January 2026, and it is genuinely worth knowing about. The text below replaces the original.
Two things changed for small businesses on 1 January 2026, and neither is the one people expected. The registration threshold moved to a calendar-year basis, and a European exemption arrived that lets you sell into other member states without registering there.
The threshold is now measured over the calendar year
You must register for VAT once your taxable turnover reaches EUR 51,130. That figure is simply the old BGN 100,000 at the fixed euro rate, so the amount has not really moved. The measuring period has: it used to be any twelve consecutive months, and it is now 1 January to 31 December, with the count restarting each New Year.
You have seven days from the day you cross it to file the application, and you are registered from the day after you crossed. Missing that window is expensive: the revenue agency can register you retroactively and charge the VAT you should have been collecting the whole time.
One trap in the reset: if you exceeded the threshold last year, you cannot deregister part-way through this year, even if your turnover falls. You stay registered until the calendar year ends.
Selling to other EU countries below EUR 100,000
The cross-border small-business scheme is new in Bulgaria from 1 January 2026. If your EU-wide turnover stays under EUR 100,000 across the current and previous year, and you stay under each destination country’s own threshold, you can supply customers in other member states without registering for VAT there. You apply in advance, receive an identifier ending in -EX, and file a short turnover report each quarter.
If you buy from a supplier using this scheme, note the other side of it: there is no input VAT to reclaim on those invoices.
What did not change
- VAT returns are monthly, filed with the sales and purchase ledgers by the 14th of the following month. There is no quarterly alternative. A nil return is still required.
- Electronic invoicing is voluntary between businesses. No general mandate has been enacted. The exception is public procurement, where contracting authorities have been obliged to receive electronic invoices since 2019.
- The filing portal is the same one you already use, with a qualified electronic signature.
What did change quietly, and helps
The cash-accounting scheme, where VAT falls due when your customer actually pays rather than when you invoice, is open to businesses with taxable turnover up to EUR 500,000. The limit itself has not moved — it has been the lev equivalent of that same figure since the scheme began in 2014, and euro adoption simply removed the words “lev equivalent of”. It is worth mentioning because it is far higher than most owners assume, and it is the single most useful VAT option for a small company with slow-paying customers. Note that this threshold is measured over the last twelve consecutive months, not the calendar year used for registration.
Work out where your turnover stands with the VAT calculator, check the filing dates on the tax calendar, or ask us whether the cash-accounting scheme would suit your business.