Articles about Income tax for self-employed people and freelancers in Bulgaria.
The declaration under Art. 55 ЗДДФЛ is the quarterly declaration for the advance tax of self-insured persons. Who files it, when the income payer files it instead of you and what the deadlines are for 2026.
The three most common forms of self-employment are taxed differently. Liberal professions pay 10% tax with normative recognised expenses, sole traders 15% on accounting profit, and limited companies 10% corporate tax plus 5% on dividends.
Income from international freelance platforms such as Upwork and Fiverr is treated as income from a liberal profession and is subject to taxation and social insurance in Bulgaria. Registration must be completed within seven days of the first transaction, and the National Revenue Agency receives automatic data on your income from the platforms.
From gross income as a self-insured person, social security contributions and income tax are deducted. Here is the complete annual calculation for three typical monthly incomes — with the amounts that Danak's calculator works out for 2026.
Social security contributions are calculated as the product of the chosen insurance income and the rate for each fund. The monthly amount does not depend on actual income but on the insurance income you have chosen — equalization comes annually.
Advance tax under Art. 43 of the Personal Income Tax Act (ЗДДФЛ) is a tax that self-insured people pay quarterly on income from liberal professions, craft activities and other business income. The deadline for each of the first three quarters is the end of the following month, and for the fourth quarter no advance tax is owed — it is taxed only with the annual tax return.