Company registration in Bulgaria for an online store: EOOD or ET

In short: company registration in Bulgaria for an online store is done in the Commercial Register of the Registry Agency. Most foreign founders choose an EOOD (single-member limited liability company): the state fee is €28.12 online or €56.24 on paper, the minimum capital is €1, and the application is examined by the end of the next working day. A sole trader (ET) needs a residence in Bulgaria.

This guide is written by the team behind CloudCart, the Bulgarian ecommerce platform, for foreign founders, expats and companies that want to sell online in Bulgaria or ship from Bulgaria across the EU. The fees and legal rules come from the Registry Agency, the Bulgarian Commercial Act and the NRA (Bulgaria's National Revenue Agency). It is not legal or tax advice: your accountant confirms the setup that fits your case.

Do you need a company to run an online store in Bulgaria?

Yes. To sell goods online on a regular basis in Bulgaria, you register as a trader: either a sole trader (ET, ednolichen targovets) or a company, most often an EOOD. Under Art. 1 of the Commercial Act (in Bulgarian), a trader is anyone who, as an occupation, buys goods to resell them or sells goods they produce. An online store is exactly that occupation.

Selling without a business is lawful in a narrow case: you sell your own used belongings, like a one-off listing for an old bike. Buying stock to resell is trade from the first order, and the NRA taxes the income as such even if you never registered. An online store also needs a business for practical reasons: every online store in Bulgaria is declared to the NRA under Ordinance N-18 (Bulgaria's sales-reporting rules for online stores), courier and card payment contracts are signed with a business, and CloudCart Pay accepts companies (including sole traders) and non-profits for card payments. The NRA side is covered in the guide to Ordinance N-18 and NRA registration.

Can a foreigner register a company in Bulgaria?

Yes. A foreign citizen or a foreign company can own an EOOD, and the Commercial Act sets no citizenship or residence requirement for the owner or the manager of a limited liability company. The rules that matter for foreigners are about who can be a sole trader, which documents are accepted and how you sign them.

Question	EOOD (single-member LLC)	ET (sole trader)
Can a non-resident set it up?	Yes, the owner and the manager can live abroad	No, a sole trader must have a residence in Bulgaria (Art. 56 of the Commercial Act)
Can a foreign company own it?	Yes, one natural person or one legal entity	No, only a natural person
Identification	The company gets a UIC (company ID) from the Commercial Register	The trader is identified by a Bulgarian personal number (EGN) or LNCh plus the UIC (Art. 84 of the Tax and Social Insurance Procedure Code)
Language of documents	Bulgarian; documents in another official EU language are filed with a certified Bulgarian translation (Art. 18 of the Commercial Register Act)

The LNCh (lichen nomer na chuzhdenets) is the personal number Bulgaria gives to foreigners registered as residents, the equivalent of the Bulgarian EGN. You do not need one to own or manage an EOOD. People who have neither an EGN nor an LNCh are identified by the NRA with a service number (Art. 84(3) of the same Code), which your accountant uses for your filings as owner.

The company name must be written in Bulgarian, and you may add a version in a foreign language (Art. 7(3) of the Commercial Act). A transliterated name that matches the store's brand and domain is the one customers will recognise on invoices.

Important: owning or managing a Bulgarian company does not by itself give a non-EU citizen the right to live or work in Bulgaria. Residence is a separate procedure.

EOOD or ET: which legal form is better for an online store?

For a foreign founder, the EOOD is the usual choice: it is the only one of the two open to non-residents, and the owner is liable for the company's debts only up to the capital contribution (Art. 113 of the Commercial Act). A sole trader is the person themselves, so they answer for the business debts with everything they own. With suppliers, couriers, advertising and refunds, that difference matters.

	ET (sole trader)	EOOD
Who can register	A natural person with a residence in Bulgaria	One natural person or one legal entity, from any country
Liability	With all personal assets	Up to the capital contribution
Minimum capital	None	€1, in force since Jan 1, 2026 (Art. 117 of the Commercial Act)
Business name	Must contain your full first and last name (Art. 59)	Freely chosen, written in Bulgarian (Art. 7)
State fee, online / paper	€7.67 / €15.34	€28.12 / €56.24
Tax on profit	15% personal income tax on the annual tax base, return by June 30	10% corporate tax, plus 5% tax on dividends paid out
CloudCart Pay	Yes	Yes

An ET can make sense for an expat who already lives in Bulgaria, sells alone and wants a small, low-risk test. An EOOD fits better when you invest in stock, import goods, hire people, sign supplier contracts or plan a partner. Both forms keep accounts, so add the accountant's yearly fee to the comparison. If you are still choosing what to sell, the models (own warehouse, own production, dropshipping, subscriptions) are compared in the guide to ecommerce business models. With dropshipping, you are still the seller towards the customer, even when the goods ship from the supplier.

How much does company registration in Bulgaria cost?

The state fee for registering an EOOD in Bulgaria is €28.12 when you file electronically and €56.24 on paper. For a sole trader it is €7.67 online and €15.34 on paper. The amounts come from the Registry Agency's fee tariff, restated in euro for Bulgaria's changeover to the euro on Jan 1, 2026.

Commercial Register service	Electronic filing	Paper filing
Registering a sole trader (ET)	€7.67	€15.34
Registering an EOOD or OOD	€28.12	€56.24
Reserving a company name (optional)	€10.23	€20.45
Minimum capital of an EOOD	€1, paid in before registration (Art. 117 and Art. 119 of the Commercial Act)

On top of the state fee, budget for the costs that depend on your situation: the notary for the manager's specimen signature, certified translations of any foreign documents, a qualified electronic signature (QES) if you file online, a lawyer or accountant if someone files for you, and the bank account. The "company registration price" in formation agencies' ads usually includes their own service fee.

How to register an EOOD in the Commercial Register: step by step

You register an EOOD by filing application form A4 with the Commercial Register, online through the Registry Agency portal (portal.registryagency.bg) with a QES, or on paper at one of the agency's offices in the cities with a regional court. This is the order for an EOOD; for a sole trader the steps are the same, without the articles of association and the capital.

1. Choose the name. Check in the Commercial Register that no company has the same name. If you want to hold it while you prepare the documents, file a name reservation (€10.23 online).
2. Pick a registered office address in Bulgaria. The company needs a seat and a management address in the country. It appears in the register and on your invoices.
3. Prepare the articles of association. When one person founds the company, the articles of association replace a partnership agreement (Art. 114(3) of the Commercial Act). They state the name, the seat and address, the business activity (for example "retail sale via the internet"), the capital and the manager.
4. Have the manager sign the consent and specimen signature at a notary. The manager is entered in the register on the basis of a notarised consent with a specimen signature (Art. 141(3)). The manager also signs the declarations under Art. 141(8) and Art. 142 of the Commercial Act. A foreign notarisation has to be legalised for use in Bulgaria, usually with an apostille, and comes with a certified Bulgarian translation, so many founders sign at a Bulgarian notary during a short visit.
5. Pay in the capital. Open a capital account at a bank in Bulgaria and pay in at least €1. If the capital is higher than the minimum, at least 70% of it must be paid in before registration (Art. 119(1)). The bank issues a certificate for the file.
6. Pay the fee and file the application. Attach the documents and the declaration on the truth of the stated facts (Art. 13(4) of the Commercial Register Act). Documents are filed as originals, as copies certified by the applicant, or as notarised copies (Art. 13(6)). A filing through a proxy needs an express written power of attorney.
7. Follow the company file. If something is missing, the registration officer issues instructions, visible in the company's electronic file. After registration, the company gets its UIC, which you use with the NRA, the bank and your store platform.

Documents for registering an EOOD

The full package (form A4, the articles of association, the decision appointing the manager, the notarised consent and declarations, the bank certificate, the Art. 13(4) declaration and proof of the fee) is listed on the Registry Agency page on how to register a company (in Bulgarian).

The beneficial owners of the company (the people who ultimately own or control it) are also entered in the Commercial Register under the Measures Against Money Laundering Act. When the owner is a foreign company, add its current registration extract, legalised and translated, so the chain up to the natural persons is clear.

How long does it take to register a company in Bulgaria?

An application for the initial registration of a trader is examined by the end of the next working day after it reaches the Commercial Register, and the decision follows right after the review. The deadline is in Art. 19(3) of the Commercial Register Act (in Bulgarian). An application filed on a Monday is usually registered, or returned with instructions, by the end of Tuesday.

If something is wrong, you get instructions and a deadline to fix them. For foreign founders, most of the time goes on the steps before filing: the notary, translations, apostilles and the bank account.

What your online store needs after the company is registered

Once the company is in the Commercial Register, the store needs six things before it takes the first order.

1. An accountant from day one. Both an EOOD and an ET keep accounts, and filings with the NRA start with the first transaction. For a foreign owner, the accountant is also the person who reads and answers NRA letters in Bulgarian.
2. A bank account in the company's name. Card payouts and cash on delivery (COD) amounts collected by couriers go there. Under the alternative regime of Ordinance N-18 (without a cash register), the account must belong to the company.
3. The NRA registration of the store. Every online store is declared on the NRA portal before its first sale. The documents for each payment method and the monthly XML file are covered in the guide to Ordinance N-18 and NRA registration.
4. The company details on the site. Art. 4 of the Electronic Commerce Act (in Bulgarian) requires constant access to the company name, seat and address, phone and email, the Commercial Register details and your VAT status if you are registered. In CloudCart, you fill in the company name, UIC, the person responsible, address and phone in the GDPR app (Apps → GDPR → store address), and they appear on the legal pages.
5. Terms and conditions and a privacy policy. Describe ordering, prices, delivery and the right of withdrawal: in the EU, a customer can cancel a distance purchase within 14 days without giving a reason. The privacy policy and cookie consent are set up in the same GDPR app. The steps are in the guide to GDPR and cookies in an online store.
6. Invoices and sales documents. Enter the company with its UIC in the invoicing settings. The sales document (the receipt Ordinance N-18 requires for online sales) is issued for every paid order, and the invoice is issued automatically if you turn on automatic issuing, or in one click from the order.

When a new company registers for VAT

A company established in Bulgaria must register for VAT once its annual turnover in the country exceeds €51,130. The threshold applies from Jan 1, 2026, and the application is filed within 7 days of exceeding it, according to the NRA's VAT registration page (in Bulgarian). Below the threshold you can register voluntarily. If you sell to consumers in other EU countries, sales above €10,000 a year across the EU are taxed at the customer's VAT rate and can be declared through the One Stop Shop, as explained by Your Europe, the EU's official portal. Worked examples and the VIES check are in the guide to VAT registration for an online store.

Common mistakes when registering a company for an online store

• Choosing an ET without living in Bulgaria. A sole trader needs a residence in the country. A non-resident founder registers an EOOD.
• Foreign documents without a translation or apostille. The register works in Bulgarian. A missing certified translation means instructions and a new deadline.
• Card money into a personal account. For Ordinance N-18, the account must be the company's. Change it before you turn on payments.
• Skipping the NRA registration of the store. The Commercial Register does not declare the store under Ordinance N-18. That is a separate step on the NRA portal.
• Looking for an accountant after the first sale. Filings start early, and a foreign owner needs someone who handles the NRA in Bulgarian from day one.

How to prepare the store while the registration is pending

The Commercial Register and the store setup run in parallel, so start the catalog on the day you file the application. The path from an empty admin to the first order is in the guide on how to start an online store in Bulgaria in 9 steps.

If you work with an AI assistant such as Claude Code, ChatGPT Codex or Gemini CLI, you can connect it to the store with a PAT token from the admin and let it upload the products, categories and descriptions, in English or in Bulgarian. The sentence to paste and the steps for each assistant are on the page about a store run by an AI assistant. When the UIC arrives, you fill in the company, payments and shipping. Econt, Speedy and BOX NOW (Bulgarian couriers and parcel lockers) are turned on in the admin, and couriers in CloudCart create the shipping label from the order.

Plans are on the CloudCart pricing page, from €14/month for Baby Pack billed annually, excluding VAT, and CloudCart takes no percentage of your sales: with a 0% transaction fee, you pay only for the plan.

Frequently asked questions

Have a question about setting up the store for your new company? Write to us at support@cloudcart.com.