How to Start a Company in Bulgaria as a Foreigner (and Why 10% Tax Is Only Half the Story)

Why Bulgaria, beyond the tax rate

Search “best country to register a company” and Bulgaria shows up fast, usually next to a single number: 10% corporate tax, the lowest flat rate in the EU (Corporate Income Tax Act, Art. 20). That number is real, and it is a genuinely good reason to look at Bulgaria. But it is only the first half of the picture, and agencies selling incorporation packages rarely walk you through the second half.

The full tax math looks like this: your company pays 10% on profit. If you then pay yourself a dividend out of what is left, that dividend is taxed again at 5% (Corporate Income Tax Act, Art. 194 and 200). Combined, roughly 14.5% leaves the company before the rest is genuinely yours: still one of the lowest combined rates in the EU, but not literally “10%.”

What actually makes Bulgaria attractive for a remote founder or freelancer is the whole package: EU membership (a Bulgarian company can invoice and trade across the EU like any other member-state business), low running costs compared to Western Europe, and a formation process that, done right, takes days rather than months. None of that shows up in a headline number, but it is the real reason a lot of foreign founders end up here.

What you're actually forming: the EOOD

When people say “open a Bulgarian company,” they almost always mean an EOOD (Еднолично дружество с ограничена отговорност), a single-owner limited liability company. It is the Bulgarian equivalent of a single-member LLC: one owner, liability limited to the capital contributed, its own legal identity separate from you.

If there is more than one owner, the same structure is called an OOD (multi-owner LLC). Everything below applies to both; the paperwork just lists more than one founder.

Can a foreigner own one? Yes, without qualification. EU citizens and non-EU citizens alike can own 100% of a Bulgarian EOOD, and you do not need to live in Bulgaria, hold Bulgarian citizenship, or speak Bulgarian to do it. Company ownership and immigration status are two separate legal questions: owning and managing a company does not by itself grant you the right to live in Bulgaria, and a Bulgarian residence permit is a different application under different rules (the Aliens Act). If long-term residency matters to you, that is a question for an immigration lawyer, not an accounting one, and we will not pretend otherwise here.

The formation steps, in the order they actually happen

Strip away the marketing and the process is six steps, and only one of them requires you to physically show up somewhere:

• Documents. Articles of association, the manager's declarations, the manager's consent with a specimen signature, and a power of attorney if someone else is filing on your behalf. A formation service or lawyer typically prepares these print-ready; you check the name is free in the Commercial Register first.
• Open a capital deposit account. At any Bulgarian bank, in the company's name-to-be. You deposit the founding capital: the legal minimum is symbolic (€1 since the euro changeover, formerly BGN 2), the actual amount is otherwise your choice. The bank issues a certificate of deposited capital.
• Notary. This is the one in-person step the law actually requires: certifying the manager's consent and specimen signature, and the power of attorney if you are using one. It takes about fifteen minutes and a small fee. If you cannot travel to Bulgaria, this can typically be done at a Bulgarian consulate abroad, or through a locally notarized and apostilled/legalized power of attorney letting someone in Bulgaria sign on your behalf; check the specifics with whoever is handling your filing.
• Send the documents. By courier or in person, to whoever is filing your registration.
• Electronic filing with the Commercial Register. Filing electronically is both cheaper and faster than filing on paper. Registration typically completes in 1–3 business days, and your company receives its EIK (Единен идентификационен код), the unique company ID number that appears on every invoice, contract, and filing from that point on.
• Activate the account. After registration, the bank converts the temporary capital deposit account into a normal current account, and the company can actually start operating.

If your Bulgarian is limited, plan for translation. Every document filed with the Commercial Register is in Bulgarian, and while you can sign with a certified translation attached, someone still needs to produce and check that translation.

Realistic costs and timeline

Approximate state-level costs, current as of this writing:

• State fee for electronic filing with the Commercial Register: about €30.
• Notary certification: €10-25.
• Bank fee for the capital deposit account: €10-25, depending on the bank.
• Minimum capital: symbolic, from €1.

So the hard costs of the registration itself land under €100, before any professional help with the documents or a lawyer's time. On top of that, budget for translation if you need it, and for travel if the notary step means a trip to Bulgaria or a consulate.

Timeline: once your documents and capital deposit are ready, the Commercial Register step itself is 1–3 business days. The variable part is everything before it: getting documents prepared, the notary appointment booked, and the bank account opened, which can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks depending on how quickly you can act and how responsive your bank is.

The honest half: what happens after you get the EIK

Here is the part most formation guides skip, because they are selling the registration, not living with what comes after it. Getting your EIK is the easy part. Staying compliant is the actual job, and it runs on a Bulgarian calendar whether or not you live in Bulgaria:

• If your company is VAT-registered, a monthly VAT return and ledgers are due to the National Revenue Agency (NRA) by the 14th of the following month, every month, even when the result is zero (VAT Act, Art. 125).
• An annual corporate tax return is due by 30 June of the following year, along with the corporate tax payment (Corporate Income Tax Act, Art. 92).
• Annual financial statements must be published in the Commercial Register by 30 September (Accountancy Act, Art. 38).
• Even a company with zero activity still has to file a declaration saying exactly that. “Nothing happened” is not the same as “nothing to file.”
• Every one of these is filed in Bulgarian, through Bulgarian government portals, on Bulgarian deadlines. There is no English-language version of the NRA portal or the Commercial Register for filings.

Then there is the part nobody puts in writing: the bank account. Opening, and later just maintaining, a business bank account as a non-resident can be the slowest, least predictable step in the whole process. Banks apply their own KYC (know-your-customer) checks under Bulgarian anti-money-laundering rules, and policies toward non-resident owners vary a lot between banks and change over time: some want an in-person visit, some ask for extra documentation on the source of funds, some are simply faster than others with foreign founders. Ask early, ask more than one bank, and do not assume the first quote you get is the norm.

Where FreeMe.bg fits in

We are not a law firm and we are not building an immigration product; if residency is the real question behind your move, talk to an immigration lawyer first. What we are building is the accounting side: FreeMe.bg prepares your print-ready incorporation documents so the paperwork above is one afternoon, not one month, and once your company exists, the same certified accountants and software handle the monthly and annual filings above, including actually filing your VAT and tax declarations with the NRA, not just calculating what you owe and leaving the submission to you.

FreeMe.bg is built for exactly the kind of company most foreign founders end up running: a lean EOOD with a handful of invoices, no local staff, and zero patience for chasing Bulgarian-language deadlines from another country.

A few more useful reads:

See the full formation process, step by step
Running more than one Bulgarian company
When you actually need an expert, and what's included

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