Annual Financial Statements and Filing in Bulgaria

The three year-end filings

The annual financial statements — balance sheet, income statement, cash flow, equity movements and notes — are prepared under Bulgarian national accounting standards, or IFRS where the company is required or has elected to apply them. They are published in the Commercial Register by 30 September and become publicly visible.

The corporate income tax return is filed with the tax authority between 1 March and 30 June, with tax payable by 30 June. Statistical reporting to the NSI runs on its own annual schedule.

Dormant companies are not exempt. They file a declaration of inactivity, and companies that forget this are the most common recipients of avoidable penalties.

Audit — when it applies

Statutory audit is required when a company exceeds size thresholds based on total assets, net revenue and average headcount, measured over two consecutive years, and for certain company types regardless of size. Most small foreign-owned companies never reach these thresholds.

If you are approaching them, the time to prepare is the year before the audit year, because auditors examine opening balances that were set while nobody was thinking about an audit.

Why the published accounts matter commercially

Bulgarian annual accounts are public. Banks, prospective clients, partners and competitors can and do read them. A company that publishes late, or publishes accounts that look inconsistent year to year, damages its own credibility in a market where the register is the first place anyone looks.