Guide

Forming a company in Bulgaria

By Svetlana Junge · updated August 29, 2026

The formation itself is the easy part. What decides matters is what follows: where the company is actually run, which duties apply and whether the structure would survive scrutiny.

Which legal form fits

Bulgaria has both partnerships and capital companies. The common one is the OOD, equivalent to a German GmbH; with a single shareholder it is called an EOOD. For larger ventures with several investors the AD, a joint stock company, comes into consideration, and for small individual activity the sole trader. For buyers from outside the EU the company serves a second purpose: they usually acquire land not directly but through a Bulgarian company. Buildings and apartments, by contrast, are generally available for direct purchase.

Where registration takes place

The Registry Agency is responsible and maintains the commercial register. The entry is publicly accessible and shows the company with its identification number, the EIK. That number accompanies the company everywhere thereafter: at the revenue authority, at the bank, in contracts. Our own company carries EIK 208924667 and is seated in Kamenar in the municipality of Pomorie.

What runs permanently afterwards

A Bulgarian capital company keeps books under the accountancy act, prepares annual accounts and files them with the commercial register. The annual corporate tax return is submitted to the National Revenue Agency between 1 March and 30 June of the following year, and the tax is due by the same date. Advance payments only arise once net turnover of the year before last exceeds around 153,000 euros, then quarterly; above around 1.53 million euros, monthly. The managing director additionally has obligations under social insurance law.

The substance question decides everything

Section 10 of the German Fiscal Code looks to the centre of senior business direction, not to the register entry. If the day-to-day decisions of some weight are taken in Germany, management lies there, with unlimited German corporate tax liability as the consequence. Added to that are the controlled foreign company rules in sections 7 to 14 of the Foreign Tax Act, which attribute certain passive income of a controlled foreign company directly to the German shareholder. A sound structure therefore needs premises, staff and decisions in Bulgaria, not merely an address.

Currency and payments

Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 January 2026. Since 1 February 2026, euro banknotes and coins have been the sole legal tender in the country. For companies this means no currency risk between the Bulgarian business and a distribution into the rest of the euro area, and accounting, tax filing and banking all run in the same currency as in Germany and Austria.

What we take on

We bring the formation together with the other steps, because separately they rarely work. Through our network of tax advisers, lawyers and notaries we accompany the registration, the filing with the revenue authority, the opening of an account and the building of a genuine local presence. In parallel we look for the home or the office, because without an address and without presence no structure holds.