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@freegeekss

Welcome to the expat.com forum and good luck with your potential move to Bulgaria!

You're an EU citizen, so you can move to any EU country, for any reason, with minimal red tape.

There are a number of remote workers / digital nomads here who have chosen Bulgaria as their new base. Apart from being a nice country the main draws are low living expenses, low income tax (10% flat rate), and relatively low property costs. Several started in Bansko - the largest mountain/ski resort here - and got a small apartment there as their European base (starting around 25k euros).

Your 130k is an excellent income by most standards, so congratulations on that, keep up the good work! The official minimum salary here is about 350 euros per month. As your net income will be around 30X that... you can see that you can live extremely well here. (Or live well, and save a lot in order to invest in property or additional business ventures.)

Yes, you're correct that it's between being a freelancer and having your own company. Self-employed is probably simpler, and maybe cheaper. But a company is probably the one that an attorney or accountant would suggest. (For a detailed discussion/recommendation, it's probably worth having a bit of an attorney consult. It's easier to have one anyway for your residence and company incorporation.) It's probably a little more flexible if you have multiple clients and you don't spend all your time in Bulgaria. And, as you say, a company has limited liability.

I think you'll find that Bulgaria is not as restrictive about your allowable expenses as many other countries. So while you think you have low expenses, my guess is that you could include all your geek hardware (computers, screens, printers, peripherals, mobile phones) as expenses. Internet, mobile phone contracts maybe. Worker salaries if you use remote workers in India to do some of your grunt work. Even an allowance for a home office (or rental if you prefer to walk to work). International travel if you visit clients and/or work onsite. Company car, private pension, private health insurance, and similar executive benefits. The company option also lets you chose your salary, so you can keep it lower to pay less tax and social security. The balance can be kept in the company as accrued profits, or you can pay some/all of it out as dividends (more tax efficient than bigger salary, usually), or you can buy some property as your office.

@gwynj Thanks for the detailed answer!

@freegeekss Hello,

Previous reply is quite detailed and accurate.

As a business lawyer I often recoment my clients to establish comanies to be flexible with their expenses. And you can make investment in hardware, even real estates with that income and not pay any big Corporate tax.

Remeber - the main advantage of having a company in Bulgaria is not 10% corporate tax, but the option to have a company and all LEGAL ways to avoid it.  This happens with a good lawyer and accountantcy.

If you need more advice, do not hesitate to PM me.

@freegeekss Hello, I’m going to share my experience with you, because I’m the Patent and trademark attorney, it is B2B service too. But my husband is accountant, so he helped me to find the best way in this case. We are expats too for 10 years here.  1. You can’t be self employed here, because you must be under 100 kEuro since next 2023 year. 2. If your clients from EU and VAT registered, you must be registered VAT too or Tax office gives you 7 days for VAT registration after the first payment. If not - fine +VAT all the same for that first income.

3.  I chose EOOD and VAT for myself. And I like it. Because I can not pay taxes from the all  amount (130k in your case), because all my cost  for business including computers, phones, furniture, internet, mobile, accountant service, some kinds of rent, car, insurance, etc make my tax amount less. And you will pay taxes only for the rest of amount 130k income - 20K( for example )cost =11000k. But I think your first  year, you will spend more. 11kEuro for the self insurance ( social taxes) and account service ( as you mentioned )it is a lot , as I think. I have asked my husband, he agrees with me. Actually you can ask him directly, I’d advice you to count all your future cost in Bulgaria, witch accountant could accept

and argue as the cost for business and you’ll get the picture of your tax plan for 1 (without purchasing something serious) or 5 years ( if you are going to buy car, land or apartment…). 4.I forgot 15% tax ( 5% dividends and 10% profit) for EOOD . 130k - cost - self insurance ( min about 3400lev) -15%= your money as dividends. There are some another ways, but you can ask my husband, if you want .Maksim Yakobchuk