Plovdiv

Salary from a foreign employer or fees from foreign clients

Taxed10% flat; freelancers pay it on 75% of their fees after a 25% statutory deduction

Residents pay 10% on salary from a foreign employer and on fees from foreign clients, with no tax-free allowance and no brackets. A foreign employer without a Bulgarian presence does not withhold, so you pay quarterly advance tax yourself and settle in the annual return due by 30 April. Freelancers register their activity (a liberal profession, such as IT or consulting) and must declare its start to the revenue agency within 7 days. They deduct 25% of fees as deemed expenses without receipts, so the tax is effectively 7.5% of gross fees before contributions. Self-employed people must insure for pensions, disability and death, and sickness and maternity cover is optional. They pay contributions monthly on an income they choose: from 1 August 2026 between €620.20 and €2,300 a month (€550.66–€2,111.64 before then), trued up to actual income after the annual return. Health insurance is 8% of that base. Summaries put the full rate at about 27.8% (31.3% with sickness cover), but we could not load the Social Insurance Code to confirm the pension share. Employees of a foreign employer usually owe contributions where they work, subject to EU rules (form A1) or a social security agreement; that case is not covered here. The catch for short stays: if you stay non-resident, Bulgaria taxes only Bulgarian-source income, and we could not confirm from the Act whether pay for work physically done in Bulgaria counts as Bulgarian-source, so do not assume a short stay is tax-free. Bulgaria's tax treaties give credit for tax paid abroad.

On the nomad visa

Bulgaria created a long-stay residence permit for digital nomads by amending the Foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria Act (State Gazette no. 52 of 27 June 2025; Art. 24(1)(23), Art. 24s and §1(36) of the Act). It is for non-EU/EEA/Swiss nationals who work remotely through information technology for employers or clients abroad and do not take jobs in Bulgaria; the Council of Ministers then amended the implementing rules on the documents required. The permit carries no tax regime of its own, and we found no special rule for nomads in the income tax law. Holders who live in Bulgaria more than 183 days in any 12 months, or whose centre of vital interests moves there, become resident and pay 10% on worldwide income, 5% on dividends, and social contributions where they apply. Your home country may still tax your salary too.

Dividends, interest, gains, rent and pensions from abroad

Taxed5% on dividends; 8% on bank interest; 10% on other interest, taxable gains and rent

Dividends, including foreign ones, are taxed at a final 5%. The government's November 2025 budget bill proposed raising this to 10%, but the bill was withdrawn in December 2025 and the budget adopted in July 2026 did not bring the rise back. Interest on bank accounts pays a final 8%. Gains on shares and fund units sold on a regulated market in the EU or EEA are exempt, and since 2026 so are gains on EU growth markets. Other share and crypto gains are added up for the year and taxed at 10%. Rent is taxed at 10% after a 10% deemed-expense deduction. Some property sales are exempt (for example one home held for more than three years); check the Act's holding-period rules for others. Pensions under compulsory social insurance are not taxed; we could not confirm whether every foreign pension, especially private or occupational ones, qualifies, so check with the revenue agency. Foreign income is declared in the annual return, and foreign tax is credited up to the Bulgarian tax on the same income, limited by treaty.

Net wealth and inheritance

No wealth taxInheritance tax applies

There is no net wealth tax. Inheritance and gift taxes are local taxes: the Local Taxes and Fees Act sets the ranges and each municipality picks its rate. A surviving spouse, children, grandchildren and parents pay no inheritance tax. Siblings and their children pay 0.4%–0.8%, and everyone else 3.3%–6.6%. Summaries report that the tax applies only to the part of each heir's share above BGN 250,000 (about €127,823 at the fixed rate); we could not confirm this against the Act. Gifts between spouses and lineal relatives are also exempt, with 0.7%–1.4% for siblings and their children and 3.3%–6.6% for others. Property owners pay annual property tax of 0.01%–0.45% of the property's tax value, and buyers pay a transfer tax of 0.1%–3% of the price; both are set by the municipality. We could not load the Ministry of Finance's copies of the Act or its inheritance-tax page on 27 October 2026, so these ranges were not re-checked.

Tax resident after

183 days a year

Top income tax rate

10%

When you become tax resident

Under the Personal Income Tax Act you are resident if you stay in Bulgaria more than 183 days in any 12-month period, or if your centre of vital interests (family, property, place of work or business) is in Bulgaria. A permanent address in Bulgaria also makes you resident unless your centre of vital interests is elsewhere. So a nomad who rents a flat and lives in Bulgaria for most of the year will be resident, and someone who moves with family and work can be resident before reaching 183 days. A tourist stay under 183 days with your life based abroad normally keeps you non-resident. Where another country also treats you as resident, the tie-breaker in its tax treaty with Bulgaria decides. We could not load the Act's official text on 27 October 2026, so check the exact wording before relying on a borderline day count.

Top income tax rate

Bulgaria has a single flat rate of 10% on employment and freelance income from the first euro, and no regional or municipal income tax, so Sofia residents pay the same 10% as everyone else. Sole traders registered as an ET pay 15% on business profit instead. Social security contributions are separate.