The Value
Added Tax Act (promulgated on August 4, 2006 in State Gazette issue 63) became
effective on January 1, 2007 (Bulgaria's EU accession date). Under this new
law, the company may voluntarily register for VAT purposes at any time, because
the current threshold requirement has been abolished. A voluntarily registered
person shall remain VAT-registered for 24 months starting from the beginning of
the year following the year of VAT registration. The company must register for
VAT purposes in Bulgaria if its turnover for 12 consecutive months exceeds BGN
50,000. Specific grounds for obligatory registration for VAT purposes apply
when:
• A person
from an EU member state who is not established in Bulgaria and provides taxable
supplies of goods that are to be assembled or installed in Bulgaria by that
person or at his or her expense (if the recipient is not registered for VAT in
Bulgaria)
• A person
from another EU member state supplies goods to Bulgaria exceeding total value
of BGN 70,000 under the conditions of distance sales of goods within a given
calendar year
• A person
(whether resident or not) performs taxable intracommunity acquisitions in
Bulgaria exceeding BGN 20,000 within a given calendar year
• A person
(whether resident or not) receives supplies of services under chargeable
supplies having place of performance on Bulgarian territory with respect to
which the VAT is due by the recipient
• A
Bulgarian resident performing supplies of services having place of supply the
territory of another EU member state
