Bulgaria tax for an online business: corporate, dividend, VAT

In short: an online business set up as a Bulgarian company (EOOD or OOD) pays 10% corporate tax on its profit, and the owner pays 5% tax on dividends paid out, about 14.5% in total on profit you take home. A sole trader (ET) pays 15% on the annual tax base. VAT is 20% once you register, and an owner who works in the company pays social contributions on at least €620.20 a month since Aug 1, 2026.

This guide is written by the team behind CloudCart, the Bulgarian ecommerce platform, for foreign founders, expats and companies that run an online store in Bulgaria or sell from Bulgaria across the EU. The rates come from the Corporate Income Tax Act on lex.bg (in Bulgarian), the Personal Income Tax Act on lex.bg (in Bulgarian), the VAT Act and the pages of the NRA (Bulgaria's National Revenue Agency) and the NOI (the National Social Security Institute), in the versions in force in November 2026. It is not tax advice: your accountant confirms what applies to your business.

Which taxes does an online business pay in Bulgaria?

An online store in Bulgaria deals with five taxes and contributions: tax on profit, tax on dividends, VAT, social security contributions of the owner and, if you hire people, payroll taxes and contributions. Which ones apply depends on the legal form you chose and on your turnover.

Tax	Rate in 2026	Who pays it	Law
Corporate tax	10% of the taxable profit	EOOD, OOD and other companies	Art. 20, Corporate Income Tax Act
Tax on dividends	5%, withheld by the company	The owner (individual, Bulgarian or foreign) when profit is paid out	Art. 38(1) and 46(3), Personal Income Tax Act; Art. 200(1), Corporate Income Tax Act
Tax on a sole trader's income	15% of the annual tax base	ET (sole trader)	Art. 48(2), Personal Income Tax Act
Personal income tax on a salary	10% flat	Employees, including a manager paid a salary	Art. 48(1), Personal Income Tax Act
VAT	20% standard, 9% for a few goods (books, baby food, nappies)	Businesses registered for VAT	Art. 66 and 66a, VAT Act
Social security of the owner	27.8% or 31.3% of the chosen monthly income, between €620.20 and €2,300	An owner who works in the company, a sole trader	Social Security Code; 2026 Social Security Budget Act

Two things do not depend on the legal form. Every online store in Bulgaria is declared to the NRA under Ordinance N-18 (Bulgaria's sales-reporting rules for online stores), and every sale is documented with an invoice or a sales receipt. The NRA side is covered in the guide to Ordinance N-18 for online stores.

Corporate tax in Bulgaria: 10% on profit

The corporate tax rate in Bulgaria is 10% of the taxable profit (Art. 20 of the Corporate Income Tax Act). The rate is flat: a store with €5,000 of profit and one with €500,000 pay the same 10%. The taxable profit is the accounting result, corrected for the items the law adds back or deducts, which is your accountant's job.

Deadlines for the annual return and payment

The annual corporate tax return is filed between March 1 and June 30 of the following year (Art. 92(2)), together with the annual activity report. The tax for the year is paid by June 30 of the following year, minus the advance payments already made (Art. 93(1)).

Advance payments: when a new store has none

Larger companies pay corporate tax in advance during the year, monthly or quarterly. A new online store usually pays no advance tax, because two exemptions apply (Art. 83(2)):

• New companies. A newly founded company makes no advance payments in the year it is founded and the following year.
• Small companies. A company whose net sales in the year before the previous one were up to BGN 300,000 (€153,387.56 at the fixed rate) makes no advance payments.

Quarterly advance payments apply above that, and monthly advance payments apply when net sales in the year before the previous one exceed BGN 3,000,000 (€1,533,875.64), under Art. 84 and 85.

Important: the thresholds for advance payments are still written in leva in the text of the law. The euro amounts here are converted at the fixed rate of 1.95583 and rounded to the cent.

Dividend tax in Bulgaria: 5%

When an EOOD pays its profit out to the owner, the dividend is taxed at 5%. For an individual owner, Bulgarian or foreign, the tax is final and the company withholds it (Art. 38(1) and 46(3) of the Personal Income Tax Act). The company pays it to the NRA by the end of the month after the quarter in which the owner decided to distribute the dividend (Art. 65(2)).

For a foreign company that owns your EOOD, the withholding tax is also 5% (Art. 194 and 200(1) of the Corporate Income Tax Act), and dividends to a company that is tax resident in another EU or EEA country are generally exempt (Art. 194(3)). A double tax treaty with the owner's country can also lower the rate. Proposals to raise the dividend tax to 10% were discussed for 2026, and the text in force on lex.bg in November 2026 still says 5%.

Example: €20,000 of profit in an EOOD

Step	Amount
Taxable profit of the EOOD	€20,000
Corporate tax, 10%	€2,000
Profit left to distribute	€18,000
Dividend tax, 5% of €18,000	€900
Net dividend to the owner	€17,100
Total tax on the profit	€2,900, or 14.5%

You do not have to pay the profit out. Profit you keep in the company to buy stock or pay for advertising carries only the 10% corporate tax until you distribute it.

Sole trader or EOOD: which pays less tax?

A sole trader (ET) pays 15% tax on the annual tax base from the business (Art. 48(2) of the Personal Income Tax Act) and files the annual return between March 1 and June 30 of the following year (Art. 53(1)). An EOOD pays 10% on profit plus 5% when you pay it out, so the two forms are close on tax alone: 15% for the ET and about 14.5% for the EOOD on profit you take home.

	ET (sole trader)	EOOD (single-member LLC)
Tax on profit	15% of the annual tax base	10% corporate tax
Tax when you take the money out	None on top	5% on dividends
Annual return	March 1 to June 30	March 1 to June 30
Profit left in the business	Taxed at 15% in the year earned	Taxed at 10% until distributed
Who can register	A person with a residence in Bulgaria	Anyone, also from abroad

For a foreign founder who does not live in Bulgaria, the choice is made already: only the EOOD is open to non-residents. How to set one up, with the fees in euro, is in the guide to company registration in Bulgaria for an online store.

Social contributions for the owner and manager in 2026

An owner who works in their own company, and every sole trader, is a self-insured person in Bulgaria and pays social security and health contributions on a monthly income they choose between the minimum and the maximum. From Aug 1, 2026, the minimum monthly insurable income for self-insured persons is €620.20 and the maximum is €2,300, under the 2026 Social Security Budget Act (State Gazette No. 68 of July 28, 2026). From Jan 1 to Jul 31, 2026 the limits were €550.66 and €2,111.64, as shown on the NOI page on the new insurable income (in Bulgarian).

Contribution (born after 1959)	Rate	On €620.20	On €2,300
Pension fund	14.8%	€91.79	€340.40
Universal pension fund (DZPO)	5%	€31.01	€115.00
Health insurance	8%	€49.62	€184.00
Total, minimum package	27.8%	€172.42	€639.40
Sickness and maternity, if you choose it	3.5%	€21.71	€80.50
Total with sickness and maternity	31.3%	€194.12	€719.90

The rates come from the NRA page for self-insured persons (in Bulgarian). A person born before 1960 pays 19.8% to the pension fund and nothing to the DZPO. The sickness and maternity contribution gives you sick pay and maternity benefits; without it you keep pension and health cover.

Owner, manager or both?

The Social Security Code treats three cases differently, and your accountant registers you in the right one:

• Owner who works in the company. Self-insured (Art. 4(3)(2) of the Social Security Code): you choose the monthly income between €620.20 and €2,300 and pay the contributions yourself.
• Manager paid under a management contract. Insured through the company (Art. 4(1)(7)), with contributions on the remuneration, split between the company and the manager, plus 10% income tax on the pay.
• Sole trader. Self-insured, and the contributions for the year are settled on the actual income with the annual return.

Dividends are not insurable income: the 5% dividend tax is the only charge on them. For an expat who is insured in another EU country, the EU coordination rules decide which country you pay contributions in, so check that before you register.

VAT for an online store in Bulgaria

The standard VAT rate in Bulgaria is 20% (Art. 66 of the VAT Act). A reduced rate of 9% covers a short list that matters for some stores: books, food for babies and young children, and nappies (Art. 66a). Registration becomes mandatory once your turnover for the calendar year exceeds €51,130, a threshold in force since Jan 1, 2026, and you apply within 7 days.

After registration, you file a VAT return and the sales and purchase ledgers by the 14th of the month after each month (Art. 125(5)), and your invoices show VAT. How to count turnover and when voluntary registration pays off is in the guide to the VAT number in Bulgaria for an online store.

Sales to consumers in other EU countries add one more rule: above €10,000 a year of EU distance sales, VAT is charged at the rate of the customer's country, usually declared through OSS. How OSS works is in the guide to OSS and VAT on EU cross-border sales. Selling across the EU from Bulgaria is covered in the guide to cross-border ecommerce in the EU.

Tax calendar for an online store in Bulgaria

The deadlines for a small EOOD that runs an online store fit in one list:

1. By the 14th of every month. VAT return and ledgers for the previous month, if you are VAT-registered (Art. 125(5) of the VAT Act).
2. From the 1st to the 15th of every month. The monthly XML file for the NRA under Ordinance N-18, if you accept card payments under the alternative regime.
3. By the 25th of every month. Declarations and contributions for yourself as a self-insured person and for employees, for the previous month.
4. By the end of the month after the quarter of a dividend decision. The 5% dividend tax withheld by the company (Art. 65(2) of the Personal Income Tax Act).
5. From March 1 to June 30. Annual corporate tax return and payment of the corporate tax for the previous year (Art. 92 and 93 of the Corporate Income Tax Act), or the annual return of a sole trader.

Most founders give these to an accountant from the first month. The accountant needs the same thing every time: a complete list of what you sold, invoiced and refunded, and the documents for your expenses.

Invoices and reports for your accountant in CloudCart

CloudCart prepares the documents the accountant needs from your orders, so you do not retype sales. What is in the admin:

What the accountant needs	Where it is in CloudCart
Invoices and credit notes	Settings → Invoicing: numbering, issuer details (company name, VAT number, UIC, manager) and the templates
All invoices as PDF	Invoices → Download: a ZIP of invoice PDFs
Invoice register	Invoices → Export: a CSV with invoice number, order, customer, total and credit-note reference
Sales for a period	Orders → Export: a CSV of the orders that match your filter, for example one month
Monthly N-18 file for the NRA	Apps → N18 Audit: one XML per month, which you upload to the NRA portal
Invoices for card payment fees	Settings → Payment methods → CloudCart Pay → Tax Invoices

The bulk download and export ask for a one-time code when two-factor protection is on, and a large export arrives by email. If your accountant works in Microinvest, the Microinvest integration syncs orders, customers and stock with the store. More on invoices is on the invoices page, and sales by day and month are in Analytics.

Tax mistakes new online stores make in Bulgaria

• Taking money from the EOOD account as if it were yours. Money leaves the company as a salary, a management fee or a dividend, each with its own tax. A withdrawal without one of them causes trouble with the NRA.
• Forgetting your own contributions. An owner who works in the company owes contributions from the first month, on at least €620.20 since Aug 1, 2026.
• Missing the VAT threshold. Since 2026 turnover is counted per calendar year, and registration is due within 7 days after you pass €51,130.
• Pricing without tax. Work out the margin after VAT, courier costs and payment fees before you set a price. The method is in the guide to pricing and margin for an online store.
• Leaving the books for June. A monthly export of invoices and orders for the accountant keeps the annual return quick.

The full cost of running a store, from the plan to couriers and accounting, is in the guide to the cost of an online store in Bulgaria. For questions about the store settings, write to support@cloudcart.com.

Frequently asked questions

Create a store for €1 and send your accountant clean invoices and reports from the first month.