Company Formation in Bulgaria: What It Actually Costs in 2026

Ask three providers what it costs to form a Bulgarian company and you will get three numbers somewhere between €140 and €1,950 for the same EOOD. None of the quotes will itemize what the state actually charges, and almost none will tell you which parts you could do yourself. We run our own Bulgarian EOOD, so we went to the source: the Registry Agency's own fee tariff, plus the advertised prices of ten formation providers we surveyed in July 2026. Here is the whole spread, decoded.

The official fees, from the tariff itself

Everything the Bulgarian state charges to bring an EOOD or OOD into existence:

That is the entire mandatory list. Filed electronically through a provider, the state's take is about €35. If you file yourself you also need a qualified electronic signature (€15 to 25 per year), which puts an honest do-it-yourself total around €50 to 90. Minimum capital is €1 since the euro changeover, so capital is not a cost worth discussing.

Read that table again before looking at any quote: a €220 package is roughly six times the official cost, and a €1,750 package is roughly fifty times. That does not automatically make either a bad deal. It means the price is almost entirely service, so the only question that matters is which services you actually need.

What the packages actually contain

The ten advertised prices we surveyed cluster into three tiers.

The budget tier, €120 to 400. Document drafting and the register filing, sometimes with VAT registration included. This is also where the headline-price game lives: several cheap offers charge separately for things the price implies, such as the bank capital account "from €320", a registered address at €250 to 350 per year, or €150 for VAT registration. A €180 headline can land near €700 by the time the company actually exists. The tier is not dishonest by definition, some providers at this price are excellent, but you must ask for the all-in number in writing.

The mid tier, €400 to 800. Typically formation plus VAT registration plus translations, aimed at foreign founders who can show up in person. This is where the market's center of gravity sits for a straightforward case.

The premium tier, €1,300 to 1,950. Fully remote formation by power of attorney, apostilled company documents, a registered address, VAT number, and crucially help opening the bank account. If you never set foot in Bulgaria, this tier is buying real work, which brings us to the overlay.

The foreigner overlay, or where the money really goes

A Bulgarian founder pays the officials and walks out. A foreign founder pays for three extra things, and they explain most of the premium tier's price:

The paperwork chain. Forming remotely means a power of attorney and a specimen signature notarized in your country, each carrying an apostille, plus sworn translation into Bulgarian and couriering. Depending on your country this chain runs roughly €130 to 390. Sworn translation of founder documents costs about €8 to 9 per page on the local market.

The bank account. This is the genuinely hard step and the single best justification for premium pricing. Non-resident owners usually must appear in person, the compliance review takes anywhere from days to a few weeks after registration, and outcomes vary by bank and by your profile. One honest note most providers skip: once the company exists, it can run its day-to-day entirely on fintech accounts like Wise or Revolut Business, since Bulgaria is in the eurozone and on SEPA rails. The licensed-bank requirement is really about the capital certificate at formation and having a stable home for taxes.

VAT registration. The registration itself is free at the revenue agency, and mandatory only once turnover passes €51,130 per calendar year. When a provider charges €150 for it, you are paying for form-filling, not a state fee.

Two checks nobody tells you to run

First, formation-service providers in Bulgaria must be listed in a public Ministry of Justice register (under the anti-money-laundering law, article 9b) since 2024. That includes registered-address providers. Checking a provider there costs nothing and takes a minute, and not one of the ranking cost guides we found mentions it exists.

Second, sanity-check the promised timeline. Providers still advertise "registered in 1 to 3 days", which was true for years. In mid-2026 the Commercial Register is working through the euro re-denomination of every company's capital alongside its normal load, and new registrations have been taking around a week, with company changes taking longer. We covered what the euro changeover means for companies in detail in our euro adoption guide.

The honest bottom line

If you are an EU founder who can spend two days in Bulgaria, the budget and mid tiers are fine: pick a provider in the Ministry of Justice register, get the all-in price in writing, and expect the true total near €400 to 700 with an address and VAT number. If you are forming fully remotely, especially from outside the EU, the premium tier is not a rip-off, it is mostly buying the paperwork chain and the bank problem, but ask for an itemized quote and you will quickly see which €1,750 is earned and which is padding. And whatever tier you choose, you now know the state's share is about €35.

Formation is the cheap part either way. What a company costs to run each year is the number that should drive your decision, and we broke that down in what running a Bulgarian EOOD actually looks like. If you want a straight answer on your specific case, ask us, including when the answer is that Bulgaria does not fit.

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General information based on rules as of July 2026, not legal or tax advice. Verify current requirements with a licensed professional before acting. Sources: Registry Agency state fee tariff (official bilingual leva/euro schedule, verified July 2026); Bulgarian AML Act article 9b and the Ministry of Justice register of formation-service providers; NRA guidance on the 2026 VAT registration threshold; advertised prices of ten formation providers surveyed in July 2026; Bulgarian press reporting on Commercial Register processing times, July 2026.