January 2023 / Bulgaria

On 17 January 2023, Bulgaria gazetted changes to several thresholds for VAT refunds to non-EU taxable persons. The main changes are the following:

• the minimum amount of VAT requested for refund for the annual period is increased from BGN 50 to BGN 100;
• the minimum amount of VAT requested for refund for a period of less than 1 year but not less than 3 months is increased from BGN 400 to BGN 800;
• the persons requesting VAT refunds will have to declare the ratio between the performed supplies with the right to a tax credit and the performed supplies without the right to a tax credit; and
• various administrative simplifications have been introduced, i.e. persons are allowed to provide relevant electronic certificates issued by other tax administrations as well as copies of the documents related to the incurred VAT (instead of the original copies).

The changes were introduced by amendments to the Ministry of Finance's Ordinance No. Н-10 dated 24 August 2006 on the refund of paid VAT to foreign persons who are not established on the territory of the European Union. The official text of the amendments is available here (in Bulgarian only).

On 16 January 2023, the National Revenue Agency clarified the application of the social security and health insurance legislation for 2023. The written clarification states that the applicable thresholds for social security and health insurance contributions are as follows:

• minimum monthly income – BGN 710; and
• maximum monthly income – BGN 3,400.

Although the minimum income for social security contributions remains the same as in 2022, as of 1 January 2023, the minimum salary was increased from BGN 710 to BGN 780. Therefore, the minimum income for social security contributions of employees who receive the minimum salary should be BGN 780 instead of BGN 710. In addition, the written clarification states that, in 2023, the social security and health insurance contribution rates remain the same as those applied in 2022. For example, the health insurance contribution rate remains unchanged at 8%.

The written clarification is available here (in Bulgarian only).

I dati pubblicati dalla Banca Nazionale Bulgara (BNB) hanno mostrato come alla fine di novembre gli investimenti diretti esteri (IDE) in Bulgaria siano aumentati del 4,7% rispetto allo stesso periodo del 2021, per un importo di 1.53 miliardi di euro. Nel solo mese di novembre 2022, gli IDE sono stati pari a 0.7 milioni di euro, con un aumento di 86.5 milioni rispetto allo stesso mese del 2021.

Il capitale azionario per il periodo gennaio - novembre 2022 è stato in positivo per 251.1 milioni di euro, rispetto al valore negativo di 165.7 milioni nello stesso periodo del 2021. Sul fronte del reinvestimento dell'utile, questo è stato positivo per 1.825 miliardi di euro, maggiore di 890.2 milioni rispetto al periodo gennaio - novembre 2021.

I maggiori flussi netti positivi di investimenti diretti nel Paese dall'inizio dello scorso anno alla fine di novembre sono stati da Cipro (375.9 milioni di euro), Belgio (222,7 milioni) e Austria (166,6 milioni), mentre il maggior flusso netto negativo flussi è stato verso i Paesi Bassi (295,3 milioni) e il Lussemburgo 42 milioni).