More and more owners of Bulgarian property live somewhere else — in Germany, Spain, the UK, the US. When they decide to sell the flat in Sofia or the house outside Plovdiv, the question "how much tax do I owe?" has a different answer from the one that applies to someone living here. Bulgarian law taxes foreign persons under a separate regime, and what decides it is not citizenship but the country in which you are resident for tax purposes.
We covered the rules for sellers who live in Bulgaria in our guide to tax when selling property. This is the other half: what happens when the seller is a non-resident. The provisions below were checked in October 2026.
Under Article 4 of the Personal Income Taxes Act (ZDDFL), a person is a Bulgarian resident, regardless of citizenship, if they:
The important exception is Article 4(5): a person with a permanent address in Bulgaria is not a resident if their centre of vital interests is outside the country. That centre is judged by family, property, place of work and where you manage your assets from.
An example: a Bulgarian who has lived and worked in Munich with her family for years, but never changed her registered permanent address in Sofia, is as a rule a non-resident under Bulgarian law. She proves it with a certificate of tax residence from the German authorities.
If you are a Bulgarian resident — even if you spend part of the year abroad — the general rules in the guide linked above apply.
If you are tax-resident in a member state of the European Union or the European Economic Area (the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway), the sale is treated almost exactly as if you were resident. The National Revenue Agency (NRA) states that income falling within the exemptions of Article 13 ZDDFL and received by such a person is not subject to the final tax.
In practice, that exempts the sale of:
The condition is formal, but it is not optional. According to the NRA you need:
Without these documents the exemption cannot be applied. Request the certificate early — in some countries it takes weeks.
If you live in, for example, the UK, the US, Canada, Switzerland, Turkey or Serbia, the Article 13 exemptions do not apply to you. Income from selling real estate in Bulgaria is subject to a final tax of 10%, however long you have owned the property.
The tax is charged not on the full price but on the gain: the positive difference between the sale price and the documented acquisition price, reduced by a 10% statutory expense allowance. In effect that is about 9% of the gain.
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Sale price (2026) | €185,000 |
| Acquisition price per notary deed (2015) | €95,000 |
| Difference | €90,000 |
| Less 10% statutory expenses | −€9,000 |
| Taxable base | €81,000 |
| Tax at 10% | €8,100 |
If the price in the old deed is in leva, it is converted into euro at the fixed rate of 1.95583 leva to the euro.
For comparison: the same seller, living in Spain and selling her only home, would owe nothing in Bulgaria with the right documents in place.
Two situations call for a calculation in advance:
No annual tax return is filed for this income — the tax is final. If you pay it yourself, you also file a declaration with the NRA within the same deadline; if you will not be in Bulgaria, you can have an authorised representative or an accountant do it for you.
The double tax treaties Bulgaria applies generally follow the OECD model: gains from immovable property may be taxed in the country where the property is located — that is, here. The country you live in often includes the sale in its own return as well, but either credits the tax paid in Bulgaria or exempts the income, depending on the treaty.
So keep proof of the tax paid in Bulgaria — that is exactly what you will be asked for at home. The reverse also holds: an exemption in Bulgaria does not automatically mean an exemption in the country where you live. Check the local rules before you sign.
Tax residence, not citizenship, decides how the sale is taxed. If you live in the EU or EEA, you get the same exemptions as Bulgarian residents, provided you have the residence certificate and the declaration. If you live outside the EU/EEA, you owe a 10% final tax on the gain (about 9% in effect), which you pay yourself when the buyer is an individual, by the end of the month after the quarter of sale.
We work with sellers who live abroad — from viewings and negotiation through to the notary, including deals signed under a power of attorney. If you are thinking of selling, call us or come into the office: we will tell you which documents to prepare early and when it makes sense to bring in a tax adviser.
Provisions checked as of October 2026. This article is a general overview, not tax advice — for a specific transaction, have the numbers checked by an adviser.
