How to Register a Company in Bulgaria as a Foreigner (EOOD/OOD vs. Freelancer)

This is part of our complete guide to relocating and doing business in Bulgaria.

Foreigners can register a Bulgarian EOOD (single-owner LLC) or OOD (multi-owner LLC) with as little as €1-2 in share capital, without holding a residence permit, in about one week once documents are notarized. Freelancers can instead register individually via BULSTAT. The right choice depends on liability exposure, whether your clients are mostly Bulgarian or EU-wide, and your VAT threshold, not on your residence status.

EOOD, OOD or freelancer (BULSTAT) — which structure fits your situation?

The first decision isn’t legal complexity, it’s what you’re actually building. An EOOD is a single-owner limited liability company: one person owns 100% of the shares, and personal assets are shielded from business debts beyond the invested capital. An OOD is the same legal form with two or more owners splitting shares, useful for co-founders or family businesses. Both are registered the same way, cost roughly the same, and are taxed identically.

The third option, registering as a freelancer via BULSTAT (a business identification number issued to individuals), skips forming a company entirely. You invoice clients under your own name, file your own tax return, and pay social security as a self-employed person. It’s simpler to set up and wind down, but it doesn’t separate personal and business liability the way a limited company does.

As a rough guide: freelancers with a handful of predictable international clients, no employees, and no need for limited liability often do fine with BULSTAT. Anyone planning to hire, sign contracts with Bulgarian institutions or larger EU companies, take on business risk, or eventually sell the business usually benefits from an EOOD from day one. If you’re unsure which bucket you fall into, this is exactly the kind of decision worth a short consultation before you file anything, since switching structures later means closing one registration and opening another.

Explore our business setup service for a structured comparison based on your specific business model.

Do you need Bulgarian residence to register a company?

No. This is one of the most persistent misconceptions among foreigners looking into Bulgaria, and it’s worth stating plainly: you do not need a Bulgarian residence permit, residence status, or even a Bulgarian address of your own to register an EOOD or OOD. Any foreign national, regardless of where they currently live, can be the sole owner and manager of a Bulgarian company. Non-EU and EU citizens are treated the same at the registration stage.

What trips people up is the reverse relationship. Owning a Bulgarian company can, in some cases, later serve as a ground for applying for a residence permit, but registering the company does not automatically grant you one. Those are two separate procedures with separate requirements, and conflating them leads to disappointment when the paperwork doesn’t match expectations. If your longer-term plan involves living in Bulgaria and you’re weighing whether to lead with the company or the residence application, our guide to the Bulgarian residence permit and Visa D process walks through how the two tracks actually interact.

In practice, most of our clients who register a company purely for tax or invoicing purposes never apply for residence at all, and that’s a perfectly normal outcome.

What does company registration actually cost and take, step by step?

The process is more administrative than complicated, but the order of steps matters. Broadly, it looks like this:

1. Choose the structure and name — EOOD, OOD, and a company name that clears the Commercial Register’s uniqueness check.
2. Draft the founding documents — articles of association (for an OOD) or a memorandum (for an EOOD), management details, and registered address.
3. Deposit the share capital — a nominal amount, around €1-2 total since Bulgaria’s 2026 euro adoption, into a temporary bank account, or arrange this via power of attorney if you’re not physically present.
4. Notarize signatures — the manager’s signature specimen and consent documents typically require notarization, either in Bulgaria or at a Bulgarian consulate abroad.
5. File with the Commercial Register — submission is done electronically by a lawyer or authorized representative.
6. Receive your company registration — once documents are complete and correctly notarized, registration itself typically takes about one week.

The steps that eat time aren’t the filing, they’re the notarizations and translations, especially for documents issued abroad and needing apostille or legalization. This is where our document handling service matters most for diaspora Bulgarians and foreigners registering remotely: getting powers of attorney, translations, and notarizations right the first time avoids a second round trip through the Commercial Register.

When do you need to register for VAT?

VAT registration in Bulgaria isn’t automatic when you form a company. You register when your taxable turnover crosses the mandatory threshold of EUR 51,130 within a calendar year. Starting 1 January 2026, this is measured on a straightforward calendar-year basis rather than a rolling 12-month window, which makes it easier to track: you’re watching January-to-December turnover, not a constantly shifting lookback period.

Once you cross the threshold, you’re required to register within 7 days. Missing that window creates compliance exposure, so it’s worth monitoring turnover proactively rather than reacting after the fact, particularly if your revenue is seasonal or client-dependent.

You can also register for VAT voluntarily below the threshold, which some businesses do because it allows reclaiming input VAT or because EU B2B clients expect a VAT number for reverse-charge invoicing. Whether voluntary registration makes sense depends on your client base and cost structure, and it’s a question our tax and legal service can model against your actual numbers rather than general rules of thumb.

What are your ongoing obligations after registration?

Registering the company is the easy part. Staying compliant is the ongoing work, and it breaks into three streams:

Accounting. Bulgarian companies, including dormant ones, are required to maintain accounting records and file annual financial statements. Even a company with no activity in a given year typically still has a filing obligation. This isn’t optional bookkeeping, it’s a legal requirement tied to the company’s existence.

Annual filings. Beyond the financial statements, there are annual tax returns and, depending on activity, statistical declarations. Deadlines are fixed by the calendar year, not your registration date, so a company formed in November still follows the same annual cycle as one formed in January.

Social security, if you’re the manager. If you act as your own manager and draw income from the company (a common setup for owner-operators), you’re generally required to self-insure. Contributions run roughly 32.7-33.4% of a chosen insurable income, set somewhere between about EUR 550.66 and EUR 2,111.64 per month. This is a meaningful, recurring cost that’s easy to overlook when budgeting a new company, since it applies regardless of how much profit the business actually generates. Exact contribution rates and thresholds can change annually, so treat these as current planning figures and confirm specifics for your situation before committing.

Handled together, these three obligations are exactly what a fixed monthly accounting arrangement through our tax and legal service is built to cover, so nothing slips between registration and your first annual filing.

How does company profit get taxed vs. freelancer income?

Both paths land on the same headline number: a flat 10% rate, whether it’s corporate tax on company profit or personal income tax on freelancer earnings. That flat rate is one of the reasons Bulgaria draws attention from entrepreneurs comparing jurisdictions across the EU.

But “10%” hides real differences in how that base is calculated and what sits on top of it. A company pays 10% corporate tax on profit, and then, separately, dividend tax applies if you withdraw those profits personally. A freelancer pays 10% on net income directly, with social security contributions layered on as a self-employed person. Which structure ends up more efficient depends on how much you’re earning, how much you reinvest versus withdraw, and your personal tax residency situation, not just the headline rate.

This is genuinely a case where the numbers need to be run for your actual situation rather than estimated from a rule of thumb. Our guide to Bulgaria’s flat 10% tax residency goes deeper into how personal tax residency interacts with company profit, dividends, and where you’re taxed if you split time between countries.

Can you run the company remotely, or do you need to be in Bulgaria?

You can run a Bulgarian company entirely remotely. There’s no requirement to be physically present in Bulgaria to own or operate an EOOD or OOD, and plenty of our clients manage their companies from elsewhere in Europe, the US, or further afield without ever needing to relocate.

That said, a few administrative moments are genuinely easier in person: opening the initial bank account, certain notarizations, and occasional in-person requirements from banks doing compliance checks. Most of these can be handled via power of attorney, letting a local representative act on your behalf, but it adds a layer of coordination compared to walking in yourself. If you’re planning an occasional Bulgaria trip anyway, timing it around registration or a bank account opening can save a few rounds of document courier back-and-forth.

Day-to-day operations, invoicing, accounting, tax filings, are all manageable remotely through a good accountant and standard bank access. Being registered in Bulgaria doesn’t tie you to being there.

Common structuring mistakes that cost foreigners money later

A few patterns show up repeatedly, and they’re avoidable with the right setup upfront:

• Choosing BULSTAT for a business that needs liability protection. If you’re taking on contracts, hiring, or carrying business risk, the personal liability exposure of freelancer status can outweigh its simplicity.
• Ignoring the VAT threshold until it’s already crossed. Missing the 7-day registration window after exceeding EUR 51,130 creates avoidable compliance problems.
• Underestimating manager social security costs. Owner-managers sometimes budget the company’s tax rate but forget the recurring 32.7-33.4% social security contribution on their chosen insurable income.
• Treating registration as the finish line. A company still needs annual accounting and filings even with zero activity; dormancy doesn’t cancel the obligation.
• Mixing up residence and company registration requirements. As covered above, conflating the two leads to confusion about what actually requires what.
• Skipping proper notarization or apostille on foreign documents. This is the single most common cause of registration delays for people applying from abroad.

Getting the structure right from the start, rather than correcting it a year in, is almost always cheaper. This is precisely the judgment call our business setup service exists to make with you before you file, not after.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a foreigner own 100% of a Bulgarian company?

Yes. Both EU and non-EU citizens can be the sole owner of an EOOD, with full ownership and no requirement for a local partner or shareholder.

Do I need a Bulgarian bank account before I register?

No, the share capital is deposited into a temporary account opened as part of the registration process itself, not a pre-existing account.

Is EOOD or OOD better for a single founder planning to bring in a co-founder later?

Either can convert to the other as ownership changes, so start with an EOOD if you’re solo now; converting to an OOD later is a manageable amendment, not a full restart.

How much does it cost to register a company in Bulgaria?

Share capital is nominal, around €1-2 total. The larger cost variable is professional fees for notarization, translation, and registration handling, which vary by how much is handled remotely versus in person.

Can I register a company and still work as a freelancer at the same time?

Yes, though it rarely makes sense to run both in parallel for the same client work. Most people choose one structure per income stream to keep tax and social security reporting clean.

What happens if my company has no income in its first year?

It still needs to file annual accounting and financial statements. A dormant or pre-revenue company isn’t exempt from the filing requirement, only from tax on profit it hasn’t made.

We register the company, handle VAT and get your accounting set up — talk to us before you file. Start with our business setup service or book a consultation.