Setting up a new company in Bulgaria

In this article business owners will learn all needed information to create a new company in Bulgaria. Once you have decided to open a new business is important to choose the best accountant who will suit your needs.

1. Getting started

The first thing you need to know is what will be the type of activity of your new company. Once you
have chosen the type of activity of your company, you should research the market.

2. Choosing your legal form of the company

The second step is to form a company. To open a company in Bulgaria in the legal form LTD or LLC is cheapest and is not necessary to have a residence permit.

Formation of LTD and LLC can be done with a foundation capital of only 2 BGN (about 1 EUR). LTD (EOOD) can be formed with one shereholder. LLC. (OOD) can be formed by one or more shareholders. If a company shall be a shareholder there will be additional expenses for translation and its legalization depending of content of Certificate/s that we will need.

Once you have chosen the legal form of your company you should choose a company name that is not taken. There are some specific requirements for the names of the companies. For more information contact us.

All companies must be registered in the Commercial Register in Bulgaria.
The new companies can be register for one day in the Commercial register. All applications for company registration will be processed until the following working day and same day will be the decision on registration of the company. Only there may be a delay if there is an instruction to remove the irregularities in the documents.

3. Choosing a start date

You can choose when to open your company according to your plans for the realization of your services /
goods. The new companies can be register for one day in the Commercial register. All applications for company registration will be processed until the following working day and same day will be the decision on registration of the company. Only there may be a delay if there is an instruction to remove the irregularities in the documents.

We will need at least 2-3 days to prepare the documents, necessary for the initial company registration. Please, bear in mind that some of them will need notary attestation, apart from signature. There are two possible ways to do get a documents notary attested:
- in Bulgaria;
- abroad

When you choose to come in Bulgaria to verify the documents the only thing that must be done is to go to the nearest notary address and to get the attestation. This option is cheaper than verifying the documents in front of a notary abroad. If you choose it this will be the first time when it will be necessary to come in Bulgaria for not longer than a day.

When you decide to get notary attestation abroad apart from the notary signature and stamp the documents will need also you must get them notary attested and then you must go to the Bulgarian Embassy in your country to verify these documents (Declarations, Power of Attorneys, etc.) by Apostle as later they will need to be legalized in Bulgaria. The procedure abroad is more expensive and takes more time.

4. Tax address

You will need to have the official address for tax administration, which will be visited by the National Revenue Agency authorities in connection with the VAT registration.

If you do not have an office in Bulgaria we can offer this service. For more information contact us.

5. Starting a new company

You can start work after your company is registered in the Commercial Register.

6. Opening a bank account

As for the bank account it is obligatory to have bank account in Bulgarian currency. In Bulgaria we could help you to open bank account, if you provide us Power of Attorney. This bank account(s) must be on the name of your Bulgarian company.

Each new company has to open a bank account in Bulgaria so that the company could receive the payments from its clients and make payments to the suppliers and national tax agencies such as National Revenue Agency (NRA) etc.

Then you can choose between two possible ways to open company’s bank account.
- With our assistance for which we will need Power of Attorney
- Personally

We could help you to open bank account without the necessity to come in the country but we could provide you this service only for one particular bank as the have already provided us sample Power of Attorney which when verified by you gives us the rights to provide the service. This bank account(s) must be on the name of your Bulgarian company. Private bank accounts when you want to register company here are not obligatory requirement.

7. Authorization of accounting

Once the company is ready we will need several more Power of Attorneys to be notary attested. The procedure here is the same like with the first documents that need verification (abroad or in Bulgaria). If you choose to complete this procedure in Bulgaria this will be the second and last time that you’ll have to come.

8. VAT registration

In Bulgaria there are two types of VAT registration – mandatory and voluntary. If you plan to trade with European Union countries we recommend you register the company for VAT voluntarily. The VAT registration takes 14 working days.

9. Monthly accounting services

Your Accounting Ltd assists with your monthly accounting and bookkeeping needs. Our accounting service entails everything from balance statements, payroll services, free consultations and tax planning for your business. We have answers for everything your questions.

10. Financial year – closing

The financial year in Bulgaria for the period from 01/01 to 31/12. If you register your company in December your financial year will be only for the period of December.

In Bulgaria it is not possible to have a financial year for the period of 13 months.

The corporate tax return declarations must be filed no later than 31 March of the year following the tax year and should be delivered to the NRA office where the taxable entity is registered.

The annual corporate income tax must be paid no later than 31 March of the year following the tax year.