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The calculators below estimate Bulgarian corporate income tax, dividend outcomes, country comparisons and EU VAT or OSS scenarios. This guide explains what the numbers mean, where they are reliable and where a real file needs professional review.
Interactive calculators
Bulgaria has the lowest corporate tax in the EU — a flat 10%, plus just 5% on dividends. Enter your numbers and compare with your country, in seconds.
Same profit, two countries. Compare the total tax bite — corporate tax plus dividends — and see the difference in euros.
10% flat corporate tax — the lowest in the EU. See exactly what your company keeps.
Your Bulgarian company pays you a dividend. See what actually lands in your account, wherever you live.
Selling across the EU? Find out which country's VAT applies and how much to charge — OSS rules included.
What this tool does
The Bulgaria Tax Calculator on this page is built to estimate four things that people usually muddle together: Bulgarian corporate income tax, dividend outcomes after company profit is taxed, broad country-to-country tax comparisons, and EU VAT or OSS scenarios for cross-border trade. That is useful. It is also only a starting point.
This is planning territory, not an official assessment from the Bulgarian National Revenue Agency. If you enter clean figures, you will get a useful estimate. If the business has mixed personal spending, foreign management, related-party payments, VAT complications, treaty questions or a permanent establishment outside Bulgaria, the neat headline number can drift away from the final legal answer rather quickly.
That gap matters. Bulgaria’s 10% corporate tax draws attention for good reason, but the grown-up work sits in classification, documentation, tax residence and compliance.
The short version: the calculators apply the standard Bulgarian headline rates — 10% corporate income tax on taxable profit, generally 5% dividend withholding where applicable, and 20% standard VAT — to simplified inputs. Real liability depends on the legal facts behind those inputs.
Rates in the model
| Tax category | General rate | What it normally applies to | Important qualification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate income tax | 10% | Taxable profit of Bulgarian companies | Applies to taxable profit, not automatically to revenue |
| Personal income tax | Generally 10% | Many categories of personal income | Exceptions, special rules and reporting can apply |
| Dividend withholding tax | Generally 5% where applicable | Certain dividend distributions | Outcome depends on shareholder type, residence, treaty and exemption rules |
| Standard VAT rate | 20% | Most taxable domestic supplies | Registration status and place-of-supply rules still matter |
| Reduced VAT rates | Only where legally applicable | Certain specific supplies | Category-specific and confirmed per period against the VAT Act |
| Cross-border EU B2C VAT and OSS | Destination-country VAT may apply | Certain consumer sales within the EU | OSS does not replace a full legal review of the transaction chain |
| Social security contributions | Not included in the basic result | Payroll, management contracts, self-insurance | Separate analysis is usually required |
Corporate tax logic
A Bulgarian company is generally taxed on taxable accounting profit, not on total turnover. That distinction is where many first estimates go wrong.
Revenue is money coming in. Accounting profit is the result under the accounts. Taxable profit is the figure after Bulgarian tax adjustments. Those are not always the same number. Some expenses are deductible, some are limited, some are disallowed, and some sit in timing rules such as depreciation.
If you enter revenue and ignore costs, the calculator may still produce a number, but that number may tell you more about your optimism than your tax bill.
Annual revenue of €100,000. Deductible costs of €40,000. Estimated taxable profit of €60,000. Corporate tax at 10% comes to €6,000. Profit after corporate tax is €54,000.
Annual revenue of €250,000. Deductible costs of €150,000. Estimated taxable profit of €100,000. Corporate tax is €10,000. Profit after corporate tax is €90,000.
A company may have revenue and still have no taxable profit for the year because allowable costs, depreciation, prior adjustments or other valid tax items reduce the taxable result to zero. Corporate income tax in Bulgaria is generally calculated on taxable profit, not on gross receipts.
Inputs that matter
The broad rule is simple enough. Expenses normally need a genuine business purpose, proper supporting documents, correct accounting treatment, a real connection to the company’s economic activity, and compliance with Bulgarian tax and accounting rules. Miss one of those and an apparently ordinary cost can become a non-deductible headache.
That still does not mean every invoice helps you reduce tax. Substance matters. Paper matters. Timing matters. Anyone who has tried to run personal spending through a company and call it “administrative support” usually learns this the expensive way.
Personal expenses paid by the company are a classic problem. So are mixed-use costs, director or shareholder spending, related-party payments, undocumented cash purchases, excessive representation costs, penalties, sanctions and transactions lacking commercial substance.
Those items do not automatically fail, but they are where accountants start asking harder questions.
This is also where decent bookkeeping services for Bulgarian companies stop being optional and start looking like basic self-preservation.
Dividend logic
Dividend planning comes second, not first. The company generally pays corporate income tax on taxable profit. Only the remaining distributable profit is available for a lawful dividend, and even then the withholding result depends on who receives it.
Use the usual €100,000 example. Taxable company profit is €100,000. Bulgarian corporate tax is €10,000. Post-tax distributable profit is €90,000. Indicative 5% dividend tax is €4,500. Net amount after both taxes is €85,500.
The combined effective burden in that simplified example is 14.5%, not 15%. The arithmetic is plain. The dividend tax is charged on the post-corporate-tax amount, not on the original profit figure.
A separate caution, because founders trip over this constantly. Dividends cannot simply be pulled out whenever the owner feels like it. Lawful distribution normally requires sufficient distributable profit, proper accounts, corporate documentation and a shareholder decision. Advance withdrawals, private spending from the company account, or treating company money like a personal wallet can create accounting and tax risks fast.
Cross-border shareholders
Foreign ownership changes the analysis. Sometimes a little. Sometimes completely. A Bulgarian company does not automatically make its foreign owner taxable only in Bulgaria.
The withholding position may depend on whether the shareholder is an individual or a company, the shareholder’s tax residence, Bulgarian domestic rules, an applicable double-tax treaty, beneficial ownership, and in some cases EU Parent-Subsidiary conditions such as minimum holding thresholds or holding periods. Reporting in the shareholder’s home country may still be required.
A foreign individual may need to declare the dividend where they are tax resident and may, depending on local law and treaty relief, claim a credit or other relief for Bulgarian tax suffered. An EU corporate shareholder does not automatically qualify for a zero rate merely because it sits inside the EU. That assumption is far too casual for cross-border money.
Extraction strategy
Some founders fixate on extraction before the company has even settled into ordinary trading. Odd instinct. Retaining profit is often the cleaner move if the business needs working capital, inventory, software spend, staff or market expansion. Salary, management remuneration, expense reimbursement and dividends do not do the same job.
| Method | Company deduction | Possible personal tax | Possible social security | Main documentation issue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retained profit | No deduction for the retained amount itself | None at shareholder level until distribution | None from retention alone | Profit remains in company reserves and accounts |
| Dividend to individual shareholder | No | Often dividend taxation or withholding analysis | Usually not treated like salary contributions | Corporate approval and distributable profit |
| Dividend to corporate shareholder | No | Depends on domestic law, treaty or exemption | Usually no salary-type contributions | Eligibility for reduced or exempt withholding |
| Director’s salary or management remuneration | Often potentially deductible if properly structured | Personal income tax may apply | Contributions may apply depending on arrangement | Contract, payroll or management documentation |
| Reimbursement of genuine company expenses | Normally linked to the underlying expense | Usually no personal tax if properly reimbursed | Usually no if genuine business expense | Strong supporting documents |
Country comparison
A comparison tool is useful because it gives you a first-pass contrast. Fine. Just do not confuse it with final structuring advice.
Headline comparisons may not fully reflect progressive personal taxation, local surtaxes, municipal levies, tax-free allowances, participation exemptions, imputation systems, social contributions, CFC rules, mandatory salary requirements, exit taxes, dividend credits, treaty relief or anti-avoidance rules in the other country. Two jurisdictions can share a low company rate and still produce very different personal outcomes.
A company incorporated in Bulgaria may still face tax exposure elsewhere if it is effectively managed from another country or if it creates a permanent establishment there. Board control, contract negotiation, key commercial decisions, staff presence and fixed business premises all matter.
The comparison calculator helps frame the conversation. It does not end it. That point is especially relevant for founders using Bulgaria as a remote gateway into the EU market while actually living and managing the business somewhere else.
VAT and OSS logic
VAT is where simple pages become dangerous if they oversimplify. This calculator should be read as an orientation tool for net and gross amounts, domestic Bulgarian supplies, some cross-border EU scenarios and the basic logic behind OSS.
For B2B transactions, treatment depends on the nature of the supply, the place-of-supply rules, whether the customer has a valid EU VAT number, reverse-charge conditions, and in goods cases whether there is evidence of transport and an intra-Community supply framework that actually fits the facts. VIES verification is part of the picture, not the whole picture.
For B2C transactions, customer location matters much more. For qualifying cross-border EU consumer sales, VAT may need to be charged at the customer’s member-state rate and reported through the Union OSS scheme.
The EU-wide €10,000 threshold applies only to certain cross-border B2C supplies and distance sales. It is not a universal VAT-registration threshold for all business activity. People blur that line constantly.
Exports, imports and services involving non-EU countries need separate analysis. Customs, import VAT, local registration triggers and special place-of-supply rules can all intervene. The simplified OSS calculator is not built to decide those cases on its own.
This tool is useful precisely because it simplifies. That also means it may not calculate:
That is not a flaw. It is transparency. A calculator should tell you what it knows, and what it very deliberately does not know.
A foreign founder considering a Bulgarian EOOD can use it to test whether the broad company tax profile matches their expectations before a company formation decision. An existing owner of an EOOD or OOD can use it for annual planning. An e-commerce seller can test preliminary VAT or OSS mechanics.
A consultant can run a comparison between Bulgaria and another jurisdiction. A shareholder can estimate a dividend. An investor can compare retention versus distribution. An accountant can use it as a fast first-pass number before the file goes into proper review.
For anyone at the setup stage, the tax side only makes sense alongside Bulgarian company formation, banking reality and basic legal compliance.
Worked scenarios
Input figures are simple enough. Revenue €80,000. Deductible expenses €20,000. Estimated taxable profit €60,000. Corporate tax at 10% is €6,000. Post-tax profit is €54,000. If the owner distributes all of it and the 5% dividend rate applies, indicative dividend tax is €2,700 and net dividend is €51,300.
The calculator can estimate the company tax and the broad dividend number. It cannot decide whether any particular expense is fully deductible, whether the owner should instead be on salary, or whether social insurance enters through another route.
Say revenue is €300,000 and documented deductible costs are €220,000. Estimated taxable profit is €80,000. Corporate income tax is €8,000. Post-tax profit is €72,000. If profit is retained, there is no dividend event at that stage.
The VAT issue is the real complication. If the company sells to EU consumers, customer-state VAT may apply for qualifying B2C sales and reporting may shift into OSS. The calculator can estimate gross and net VAT outcomes by rate. It still needs professional review if the business stores goods in other member states, uses marketplace fulfilment, or creates extra registration points.
Assume taxable company profit of €100,000. Corporate tax is €10,000. Post-tax profit is €90,000. If all is distributed to a foreign individual and the domestic 5% withholding position applies, indicative Bulgarian dividend tax is €4,500 and net cash is €85,500.
The calculator estimates that cleanly. The part requiring review is the shareholder’s home-country reporting, treaty relief, credit availability and tax residence. The Bulgarian side is only one half of the picture.
Take taxable company profit of €200,000. Corporate tax is €20,000. Post-tax profit is €180,000. A simple calculator might show a 5% dividend layer if the amount is distributed. Real life may be different if the recipient is an EU company and the statutory conditions for exemption or treaty relief are met.
That is precisely why this scenario needs a separate review. Beneficial ownership, legal form, minimum holding thresholds, holding period rules and anti-abuse provisions can all matter.
Suppose taxable profit is €150,000. Corporate tax is €15,000. Post-tax profit is €135,000. The company keeps the money inside the business for inventory, software development or expansion into the EU market. At that stage, no dividend withholding should arise merely because profit exists on paper and remains retained.
The calculator is helpful here because it shows the difference between profit after company tax and cash personally extracted by the owner. Professional review is still sensible if the shareholder later draws loans, uses company funds privately or mixes director remuneration with dividend planning.
Compliance calendar
Bulgarian companies normally have annual accounting and corporate tax compliance obligations even when activity is low. For most companies, the annual corporate tax return and the corporate income tax payment are generally due by June 30 of the following year, with the filing window opening on March 1. Some companies also make monthly or quarterly advance payments during the year.
Keep the obligations separate in your head, because the law does. The annual corporate tax return is not the same thing as annual financial statements. Publication in the Commercial Register is another step. Statistical reporting may apply depending on company status. VAT-registered companies face recurring VAT returns. Dividend withholding can trigger its own declaration and payment steps where relevant. Even a dormant-looking company may still owe paperwork.
For a wider compliance view, this page sits naturally beside guidance on bookkeeping and monthly accounting for foreign-owned Bulgarian companies.
How this calculator is maintained: this calculator is maintained as an educational and preliminary planning tool for international entrepreneurs, investors and owners of Bulgarian companies. The rates used are standard headline rates in force for the relevant review period, the assumptions are simplified to keep the output understandable, and the explanatory content is checked against Bulgarian and EU legal sources. Outputs are estimates, not official assessments. Complex cases should be reviewed by a qualified Bulgarian accountant, tax adviser or attorney.
Last reviewed: July 13, 2026
Reviewed for general accuracy by: Daniel Malbasic, Bulgarian.LLC — company formation and cross-border business structuring
Official sources and legal framework
This page should be read against official materials from the Bulgarian National Revenue Agency, the Bulgarian Ministry of Finance, the Corporate Income Tax Act, the VAT Act, European Commission VAT and OSS guidance, VIES validation tools and relevant treaty resources. Those are the right sources when the estimate starts touching real money.
Official English portal of the Bulgarian tax administration.
Bulgarian tax policy, rates and legislative resources.
NRA resource page for the Bulgarian corporate tax framework.
NRA resource page for VAT registration, returns and rates.
EU-level VAT rules, place-of-supply logic and guidance.
Official EU guidance for the Union OSS scheme and thresholds.
EU VAT number validation system for B2B transactions.
Directive 2006/112/EC, the legal backbone of EU VAT, on EUR-Lex.
Bulgaria’s treaty network via the Ministry of Finance.
Frequently asked questions
The general Bulgarian corporate income tax rate used by this calculator is 10% on taxable profit. That is the headline rate. The final bill still depends on deductible expenses, tax adjustments, losses, special regimes and whether the company is actually taxable only in Bulgaria.
Start with taxable profit, not turnover. A simplified formula is revenue minus deductible business expenses, adjusted for tax items, then multiplied by 10%. If taxable profit is €60,000, estimated corporate tax is €6,000. The weak spot is usually not the formula. It is whether the inputs are legally correct.
Generally on taxable profit. Revenue on its own does not tell you the tax result. A company can have strong turnover and little or no taxable profit if documented business costs, depreciation or other tax adjustments reduce the base. That is why a Bulgaria company tax calculator should never be used by entering revenue alone and pretending costs do not exist.
A Bulgarian EOOD may pay corporate income tax on taxable profit, VAT if registered and making taxable supplies, payroll-related charges if it has staff or management remuneration, and possibly dividend withholding when profits are distributed. There is no single universal number. The calculator gives a first estimate, not a complete compliance profile.
The calculator uses a generally applicable 5% dividend withholding rate where relevant. That does not mean every shareholder always pays 5%. The result can change because of the shareholder’s status, residence, treaty relief, domestic exemptions or EU rules.
Not in the usual arithmetic. If a company pays 10% corporate tax on profit and then 5% dividend tax on the remaining post-tax profit, the combined effective burden in that simplified example is 14.5%. People round it up and call it 15%. That is convenient, but not mathematically exact.
Using the simplified example, €100,000 taxable profit leads to €10,000 corporate tax and €90,000 post-tax profit. If the full amount is distributed and a 5% dividend rate applies, dividend tax is €4,500, leaving €85,500 net. Real outcomes can differ if the shareholder qualifies for a different withholding result.
Sometimes yes, sometimes not in the standard way. A foreign owner’s result depends on whether the owner is an individual or company, Bulgarian domestic withholding rules, treaty protection, beneficial ownership and possible EU exemptions. A foreign shareholder should not assume the standard 5% outcome is automatic or final.
Possibly, yes. Owning a Bulgarian company does not erase home-country tax residence. A foreign individual may need to report dividends, salary, management fees or even company-related income in their country of residence. Credit relief or treaty relief may be available, but that depends on the other country’s law and the treaty.
Yes, provided the profit is lawfully retained in the company and not distributed. In that case, the usual company-level corporate tax may still apply, but dividend withholding would not generally arise merely because profit exists. Retention is common when the company needs cash for growth, working capital or future investment.
Many are, if they have a genuine business purpose, proper documentation, correct accounting treatment and a clear link to the company’s activity. Some costs are partly deductible, limited or fully non-deductible. Personal spending, undocumented cash expenses and weak related-party transactions are the usual trouble spots.
No, not in the basic corporate and dividend result unless clearly stated. Social security and health insurance can apply to salaries, management contracts, self-insurance and some other arrangements. That separate layer is one reason company owners should not confuse a dividend estimate with a full net-income model.
The standard Bulgarian VAT rate used here is 20%. Reduced rates may apply only to specific legally defined supplies, and those categories should be checked for the relevant period. VAT treatment also depends on registration status and place-of-supply rules, not just the percentage.
It applies to certain cross-border EU B2C supplies, including qualifying distance sales and some consumer services, when the supplier is established in one member state and sells to consumers in others. It is not a universal VAT-registration threshold for all business activity, and it does not settle non-EU transactions.
Sometimes yes, sometimes not immediately. It depends on turnover, the type of supplies, whether the company makes taxable domestic sales, receives or provides certain cross-border services, or enters distance-selling or OSS territory. Registration questions are highly fact-specific, which is why the VAT calculator is only a first pass.
Often under place-of-supply rules that can lead to reverse charge where the customer is a taxable person with a valid EU VAT number, but that is not universal. The nature of the service matters. So do customer status, VIES validation, invoicing wording and evidence. B2B VAT is rarely solved by one checkbox.
Yes, many foreign founders do. The hard part is not formation. It is tax residence, place of effective management, banking, compliance and practical substance. You can own a Bulgarian company remotely, but that does not automatically mean all company income or all shareholder income is taxable only in Bulgaria.
No. Incorporation and tax residence are related, but not identical. Another country may still argue that the company is effectively managed there or has a permanent establishment there. That risk rises when all management decisions, contracts and commercial control sit outside Bulgaria in a very obvious way.
No. It is an educational and planning tool designed to give an estimate based on standard rates and simplified assumptions. Official liability depends on the legal facts, the accounting records, the tax treatment of specific items, and any cross-border rules that apply to the company or the shareholder.
Request one when the case involves foreign tax residence, non-resident shareholders, treaty relief, management from abroad, EU VAT or OSS exposure, related-party transactions, payroll or management contracts, retained-versus-distributed profit planning, or a material dividend. Those are the points where cheap assumptions become costly mistakes.
The sensible next step
If the numbers on this page are moving from curiosity into action, a tailored review usually makes sense. That is especially true where foreign tax residence, international shareholders, VAT or OSS, cross-border management, dividend planning, permanent-establishment risk, related companies, accounting setup or company formation are in play.
That is the sensible place to use the Bulgaria Tax Calculator properly: first for orientation, then for a real-world review before money moves.
Describe the ownership, activity, expected payment flows and countries involved. We will identify the appropriate consultation, accounting or legal coordination route before substantive work begins.
