Bulgaria has introduced law amendments (applicable as of 01 February 2020) which are entirely aligned with the obligations of the Bulgarian state as a member state of the EU to harmonize its local legislation with the latest EU Directives for the actual, on time fiscal reporting of any sale, provision of services, etc., made online. The relevant Bulgarian legislation in regards to using software to manage sales in a retail outlet and those engaged in sales through e-shops can be found in Ordinance № H-18, Chapter VII, letter в" and "г".

The new requirements for persons/entities using software to manage sales in a retail outlet are as follows:

  • The obliged entities have no right – without the authorization of the manufacturer / distributor of the software – to modify its functionality or to add external modules to it;
  • The database created by the software can only be stored on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria or in a Member State of the European Union;
  • When conducting a check at a retail outlet, the obliged entities are required, at request of the revenue authority, to provide immediate access to all devices that operate the software used (servers, workstations, etc.);
  • Where the software is installed in the entity’s environment (either own or leased), at request of the revenue authority during an audit at a commercial establishment, the entity should immediately provide:
  1. access to the “audit profile” configured in the software;
  2. direct access with full rights to read and export the information from the current and archived databases of the used sales management software, regardless of the location of the database.
  • the obliged entities are responsible for the integrity of the information contained in the software database (current and archived), as well as for the storage;
  • the obliged entities are required to enter the names for each of the users (operators) of the software in accordance with the employment or civil contracts concluded with them, the assigned role / roles and the period of activity for each of the assigned roles.

Furthermore, the below are requirements for the persons engaged in sales through e-shops:

  • The obliged entities, which sell goods or services through an online store, whether using its own domain, a rented domain, or the domain of another person providing a platform for making sales on the Internet, before launching such an activity must submit information by electronic means with a qualified electronic signature via an electronic service in the NRA e-Services Portal, separately for each online store through which sales are made;
  • Upon termination of the activity of selling goods / services through an e-shop, information about this circumstance shall be submitted in accordance with the procedure described above within 7 days after the termination of the activity;
  • The obliged persons who make sales through an e-shop shall be obliged to store – according to the terms below – the information created by the software of the e-shop (current database and archived copies of the database) and upon request by the revenue authorities to provide access to it with the possibility for export and copy of data.
    • payroll – 50 years;
    • accounting records and financial statements – 10 years;
    • documents for tax and insurance control – 5 years after the expiry of the limitation period for repayment of the public debt to which they are related;
    • all other data – 5 years.

Due to the fact that businesses in Bulgaria voiced discontent with the new requirements, several organizations made public protests against the entering into force of the Ordinance. They managed to negotiate with the Minister of Economy new dates for entering into force of certain requirements, mainly those referring to the obligations of online traders of international companies, whose offices in Bulgaria serve only for stock deliveries to end clients. Some of the new dates for entering into force are 31.03.2020 and 30.06.2020. Our team will keep you updated with news as this topic develops.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.