Business in Bulgaria - How do you start?

Do you still offer this help.

Hi J9Mc,

It is not clear whom is your question addressed to and what kind of help you need?

Good evening, I want to start some business company in Bulgaria.
Kindly can you please send me the requirements and procedures and potential costs.

Hi there,

Opening a bank account in Bulgaria takes about 15 minutes. Costs nothing. In your case, probably the bank will require a bulgarian address.

Setting up a company is a bit more work to do:
1. Company registration either by a lawyer or by an accountant, takes 1 week, costs between 100 and 1000 BGN, depends on the person you hire. Say 3 - 400 BGN if you choose a good company.
2. Opening a bank account - will be within the services for setting up the company.
3. VAT registration - 2-3 weeks, price varies, but say 500 BGN.

Car in BG - no need to rerregister it. You can drive it like this. In case you decide so - 1 day, cost is about 120 BGN (roughly). Car insurance is two types:
1. Third party liability /compulsory/ - about 250 BGN, depends on the insurance company.
2. CASCO - full coverage, optional, about 3 % of car price /current/.

So much with info and help.

Advice - get a local do all this for you.

Hi there

My name is mahin. I'm from and currently living in Iran.
Two of my friends and I would like to start a dog kennel or petshop in Bulgaria, preferably in Varna or Sofia. But we have almost no information of the process. The most important thing is to get permanent residency of bulgaria, all 3 of us.
I appreciate any information you can give me.

Thank you in advance
Regards
M

Mghaffari wrote:

Hi there

My name is mahin. I'm from and currently living in Iran.
Two of my friends and I would like to start a dog kennel or petshop in Bulgaria, preferably in Varna or Sofia. But we have almost no information of the process. The most important thing is to get permanent residency of bulgaria, all 3 of us.
I appreciate any information you can give me.

Thank you in advance
Regards
M

If you read the previous posts on here and on the Bulgaria forum a lot of your questions will be answered. If you have any further questions please start a new thread with them.

SimCityAT
Expat Team

Hi Mahim,

You and your friend need to start a company on your 3 names, buy a house and then start the business and hire 10 people, even if it's part time, at least 6 months a year and then you can get your residential permit.
send me a message and I'll put you in touch with a lawyer who has very good contact with the immigration as her aunt was the director of the immigration in Yambol

Is there any updates from anyone, I am heading to Sofia on the 27th May, I was in touch with 2 companies to help set me up, but when both were asked for some tax examples they stopped replying, can anyone share some light, are there risks/scam companies trying to set people up, how do you know if the accounting company are legitimate.

Are you going to settle and run your business in Sofia? I don't know anyone there, but getting experience with setting up my company in Plovdiv - both good and not so good experience. At the moment the Trade Register has an unusual backlog of about 2 weeks, hopefully, it will go away by the end of May.

I guess every legitimate accountant has some kind of a license, and, usually, a physical office. Some of them (as I have experienced) try to impose ridiculously high fees on gullible foreigners, including paying for the company address (and until you settle down for a long time at one address you don't want to pay EUR 120+ every time for changing it. This is because they supposedly speak English (which is sometimes... errrrm... supposedly). When choosing an accountant, call them on the phone or Skype, you'll know if they can understand (as opposed to using Google Translate). Accountants that don't know (or pretend to know foreign languages) are much cheaper.

A couple other warnings: (1) Bulgarian banks are now on a rampage "clearing" foreigners before opening any account (particularly, a business one). Some even demand 100 leva for this, irrespective of the result (2) If you don't know the Cyrillic script, you are at a disadvantage. Try to learn it, it's not that hard

Sogy, I planned on buying a small apartment in Byala Varna, but I didn't view anything yet, not sure on what the rules are when buying a place in what seems to be a resort complex such as:

I will want to change the locks and re-decorate
What happens if 5 years down the line the complex wants to close where does it leave me legally
How safe is it if its unattended through the winter months?

The plan for opening my company is simple, I am a contractor that works in various countries for contracts from 2 weeks to 2 years depending on the duration, I want to be a resident of bulgaria but not live there full time.

I just Don't know what to do :0

Is there any kind of citizens information offices that can help?

Stevie, I don't know much about buying property here. I don't plan to do that for a long time. Renting is cheap (at least in Plovdiv) and ho worries.

And know nothing about accountants in Varna.

BTW, if you work in various EU countries, your business model is likely to collapse after Brexit. Getting residence in Bulgaria is rather unlikely to entitle you to Freedom of Movement

I'm not from the UK so brexit will not affect me, thanks for the advice

Lucky you!

If you would consider Plovdiv as you base, I can let you know in a week or so, which providers (accountants, banks) worked best for me.

Perfect, you can PM me, thanks again

Hello all,

I hope someone here can help me out! I am an architect from Italy currently residing in Switzerland who wishes to open an Architecture studio in Plovdiv (BG). Everything works smoothly until this part: I wish to open the studio with a colleague I met and worked with throughout my Master in Architecture (MSc) but he is from Turkey and this is where things get tricky:

we looked into several options and contacted more people/companies/embassies than I can count but, alas, it just gets more confusing.
We are now focusing on obtaining a freelance work permit for him in order to be able to begin working together, has anyone gone through a similar situation? Any guidance? Any suggestions?

Thank you so much for any info

Obtaining a free lance work permit is requires B1 Bulgarian language proficiency.

Hi
Does anyone know of any small mattress manufacturing companies that are based in Bulgaria that maybe for sale?
I'm interested in potentaily buying one or starting one from scratch if not

Thanks
Dave

Dhampton20 what do you have in mind for capacity and annual turnover. Do you have some regional specifications.
Give me more details in pm I have contacts with insolvency agent who may have the company you require.

Hi I am thinking of buying a house with land and opening a campsite, is this going to be difficult? Will I need lots of permits and inspections? Thank you in advance for any input and help

Hi would like some help please, I am looking for a upvc window/door company based in Varna or general Toshevo any help would be much appreciated thanks in advance
Dave Mills

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dtmills40 wrote:

Hi would like some help please, I am looking for a upvc window/door company based in Varna or general Toshevo any help would be much appreciated thanks in advance
Dave Mills

Hi,

Found this company in Varna:

DREAMOOD
Underground Of Varna Stadium
9010 Varna
BULGARIA
+359 5230 14 99

And this company in Balchik:

EKOPLAST A D
Room 217, Albena Resort Complex PO BOX 10
9600 Balchik
BULGARIA
+359 579629 82

I don't know these companies, I just found them using Google

Would like start roofing busines Paul many thanks

Hi guys. I'm looking to start a campsite in Bulgaria and will be coming from the UK.
I'm aware that I can't buy land but can set up a company in BG and buy land that way? Any advice would be most appreciated.

Many thanks

I can help you, it requires contacts which I have and as usual my fee is zero.

You can still only buy regulated land, to purchase unregulated land requires you to be a citizen, but I believe there are ways to draw up contracts to take all that into account.

If you haven't already it would be a good idea to decide on an area and find a good local agent/lawyer there to help you.

Well, you think absolutely right. You should set up a company and buy a land. We has already done it. Now I can use my land as I wish. You can ask me directly, if you have questions. My husband is accountant , and we have passed this steps.

Only regulated land could be purchased with a new company. For a land with an agricultural statut you will need a 5 year old company. All these issues with land purchasing are very complicated, but I Can Help, because I am a lawyer.

Hello Antonio,
I am considering relocating to Sofia, I received a job offer to get me started, but what I would be interested is opening a pub-b&b- youth hostel in Sofia.
Can you give me some info? We can have an introduction call and take it from there,
Thanks, lucw