October 2019 / Bulgaria

On 8 October 2019, an amendment to the Personal Income Tax Act was published in the State Gazette. Currently, an exemption from personal income tax is applied to one-off aid of up to BGN 2,400 (approximately EUR 1,230) provided by an employer (for the account of his social expenses) to an employee in the case of child birth, civil marriage or death of a family member. The amendment extends the scope of this exemption, which will also be applied in the case of adoption of a child.

Report from our correspondent Dr Svetlin Krastanov, Tax Manager, PwC Bulgaria

On 3 October 2019, the director of the National Statistical Institute issued an order regarding the Intrastat thresholds and their statistical values for 2020. Thresholds for Intrastat reporting are:

• BGN 290,000 (currently BGN 280,000) for dispatches; and
• BGN 470,000 (currently BGN 460,000) for arrivals.

Thresholds for declaring statistical value are:

• BGN 15,800,000 (currently 14,400,000) for dispatches; and
• BGN 7,600,000 (currently BGN 7,400,000) for arrivals.

The threshold for simplified reporting of single low-value transactions will remain the same, i.e. BGN 390.

Report from our correspondent Atanas Sabev, Manager, PwC Bulgaria

On 9 October 2019, a bill amending the Accountancy Act was introduced to the National Assembly. The bill proposes simplification of the disclosure rules for dormant enterprises (i.e. enterprises not engaging in any activities during a reporting period). Under the proposed amendments:

• dormant sole traders will be exempt from the obligation to submit a declaration of the lack of any activities to the Commercial Register; and
• all other dormant enterprises must file such a declaration only for the first dormant period.

Currently, all dormant enterprises must submit a declaration of lack of any activities on an annual basis.