How we check facts
Every rate, amount and deadline on this site comes from one reference file on Bulgaria, and every entry in that file carries two things: the date we last checked it and the source it was checked against. If a figure has no source, it does not appear on the site.
Where do the figures come from?
From a single reference file for Bulgaria that all pages read from. A page does not type a tax rate or a capital amount by hand; it points to an entry such as the corporate income tax rate or the EOOD minimum capital, and the page shows the value, its check date and its source together. When the entry changes, every page that uses it changes at the same time.
Topics that are set at EU level, such as the EU Blue Card or freedom of movement for EU citizens, come from a separate EU file built the same way.
Which sources count?
- Primary: Bulgarian laws in their current consolidated text (Commercial Act, Corporate Income Tax Act, VAT Act, Personal Income Tax Act, Foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria Act, Bulgarian Citizenship Act, Accountancy Act), the State Gazette, and the websites of the authorities that apply them.
- Primary: EU legal acts and official EU institution pages for EU-level topics.
- Secondary: tax summaries by international firms (for example PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries), the national news agency and specialist publications. They are marked as secondary in the source list of each page.
A secondary source never stands alone for a legal requirement. We use it to cross-check a primary text or to find the date a change took effect, and we say so.
What does the check date mean?
It is the day we last compared the figure with its source and found them to match. It is not the date the law was passed. The date is shown next to the figure and in the “Facts checked on” note on each page, in machine-readable form.
Where an authority does not publish a figure, for example an official processing time for a permit, we write that it is not published by that authority. We do not replace it with an estimate.
How often is the reference file rechecked?
- Out of turn, when a law in the file is amended in the State Gazette or an authority changes its published requirements.
- Every year around 1 January, when the Bulgarian budget, minimum wage and social security caps usually change. Some thresholds on this site move with the minimum wage — the digital nomad permit income test is set at 50 monthly minimum wages — so a wage change alters them too.
What happens when the law changes?
We update the entry, its check date and its source, and add a dated line to the list of updates for Bulgaria. Pages about the affected programme show the change with its effective date, so a reader who saw the old figure can see what changed and when.
Two examples of how this looks. Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 January 2026, so all amounts on the site are in euro; a sum the law still states in leva is given as the lev amount with its euro equivalent at the fixed rate of 1.95583. Citizenship by investment was abolished in 2022; its page stays on the site, marked as not available, and lists the routes that still exist instead of a price.
Announced but unpassed changes, such as a draft budget proposal, are not treated as law. We mention them only once they are adopted, or say plainly that a proposal was dropped.
What is not checked this way?
- Our own prices. They come from our service packages, are shown as “from” amounts and are indicative; the final quote depends on your case. Government fees are listed separately from our fee.
- Decisions of authorities. We describe the rules; approval of a permit or registration is decided by the Bulgarian authority, not by us.
- Your personal situation. The information on this site is general and is not legal advice for your specific situation.
Who writes and checks the pages?
Pages are written and checked by the Setup in Bulgaria editorial process described here, not credited to named individuals. Instead of an author box, each page shows what matters for checking it yourself: the date, the figure and a link to the source.
How do I report an error?
Email [email protected] with the page address, the figure or sentence you think is wrong, and, if you have one, the source that says otherwise. We check the report against the primary source; if the site is wrong, we correct the entry, change its check date and record the correction in the updates list.
We usually reply within a few business days. A correction applies to every page that uses the same figure.