Picking an EOR in Bulgaria: the questions that sort providers

Picking an EOR in Bulgaria comes down to one test: can the provider explain, in specifics, how Bulgarian employment rules will apply to the person you want to hire? A provider who answers with the NRA register deadline, the 2026 contribution ceiling and the klas supplement has done this before. One who answers with a generic onboarding slide probably runs Bulgaria as a line on a country list.

Price matters, but it is the easiest thing to compare and the least revealing. Two providers can charge similar fees and deliver very different first months: one gets the register entry in before day one and sets the length-of-service supplement correctly, the other pays the first salary late and corrects the payslip in month three. The questions below are built to expose that difference in a single call.

Ask them in writing if you can, and ask every shortlisted provider the same ones. The answers are short when someone knows the system, and long and vague when they do not.

A simple way to score them: for each answer, note whether it names a Bulgarian article, deadline or figure, and whether it says what happens on which date. An answer that does both comes from someone who has run the process. An answer that does neither will need chasing, and so will the payroll.

Start with the step that has a legal deadline. Article 62(3) of the Labour Code sets a 3-day limit, counted from signature, for the employer to record a new contract in the National Revenue Agency’s employment register. Article 63 then keeps the person out of work until both documents, the signed contract and the entry as certified by the NRA, are in their hands. A provider who knows Bulgaria will mention this unprompted.

• Who signs the labour contract as employer, and which name appears on the NRA register entry?
• How many working days do you need between signature and the first day, and why?
• What probation will you propose? Anything over 6 months is not possible under Article 70.
• How will you set the klas supplement, and what evidence of previous work will you ask the candidate for?
• Will the contract be open-ended? If you suggest a fixed term, on which of the Article 68 grounds?
• How do you write remote work into the contract, and who pays for equipment and internet?

The last question has a clear answer in law. For remote work the employer pays for the equipment, the software, internet and other communications, and data protection, and the contract has to state the place of work. A provider that pushes those costs onto the employee is giving you a contract that will not hold up. Our Bulgarian EOR timeline shows what a good answer to the first two questions looks like.

2026 was an unusually busy year for Bulgarian payroll, which makes it a good year to test a provider on. Two changes landed in the same year: the euro replaced the lev on 1 January (1 EUR = 1.95583 BGN, fixed), while the social security budget was adopted late, so the monthly insurable ceiling jumped on 1 August 2026: €2,111.64 before, €2,300 after.

Ask any provider already paying people in Bulgaria to walk you through both. A competent answer will cover the following:

• Since 1 January 2026 salaries, contributions and payslips are in euro, while lev cash could still be spent only until the end of January 2026.
• For anyone earning above the ceiling, contributions were recalculated on €2,300 from August, so net pay fell slightly and employer cost rose. On a €40,000 salary the monthly net dropped by €23.36.
• Employer contributions are 18.92% for someone born after 1959, using a 0.4% work-accident rate, and the employee pays 13.78%. Ask which work-accident rate they apply to your role, since it is set by economic activity.
• They withhold a flat 10% tax, worked out after employee contributions, and pay it to the NRA together with contributions by the 25th, one month in arrears.
• They reconcile each employee’s annual tax by the end of January if no other employer was involved at year end.

Then ask how they deal with a sick note. Bulgarian sick pay is split: for 2 working days the employer pays 70% of the average daily gross, then an NSSI benefit. The provider needs a routine for receiving sick notes and splitting the payment. If the answer is that the employee sorts it out with the state, keep looking.

The way a provider talks about ending employment tells you how much Bulgarian casework it has handled. There is no dismissal at will in Bulgaria. The employer can give notice only for a reason listed in Article 328, such as a reduction in staff or the employee proving unsuited to the job, or dismiss without notice as a disciplinary step under Article 330. Notice runs 30 days by default for a permanent contract, and a contract may lengthen it, with 3 months as the limit.

• If we decide a role should end, what information do you need from us, and what are the likely grounds?
• Which employees need the Labour Inspectorate’s prior permission before dismissal, and how do you check?
• If we offer a mutual-consent exit, what do you budget for? Under Article 331 the employee is owed at least 4 months’ gross pay when the employer proposes it.
• How are unused leave days settled at the end?

On intellectual property, the useful answer is short. The Copyright Act (Art. 14) hands the employer ownership of programs and databases that staff create in their jobs, absent a contrary clause, and the provider should explain how those rights pass on to you. Restraints are a different story. Post-employment non-competes are void in Bulgaria, so a provider that offers to add one is either unfamiliar with the case law or not telling you the whole picture. Confidentiality obligations are the tool that survives the contract; we cover them in IP and non-competes in Bulgaria.

Your first hire is rarely your last, so ask how the provider copes with the cases that come later. Three situations are worth raising at the start, even if none applies yet.

Hiring a non-EU national. Before day one, a person without EU citizenship must hold a Blue Card or a single permit. Blue Card files are handled by the Ministry of Interior (Migration Directorate) after the Employment Agency has given its view, with no labour market test; the single permit does involve a labour market test. Ask whether the provider will act as the employer on such an application, what it needs from you, and how it sets a start date while a decision is pending. A vague answer here costs months later.

A second and third hire. Ask whether each extra person is priced the same, whether contract templates are reused, and how the provider keeps pay consistent across a small team, including the klas supplement for people with different work histories.

Your own company. If Bulgaria becomes a long-term base, you may form your own EOOD or OOD and want to employ people directly. Ask what the provider does at that point: how the existing contracts end, how unused leave is settled, and what records you receive for each person. A provider that makes this hard to discuss is relying on lock-in. We set out when the switch makes sense in EOR or your own EOOD.

An EOR fee looks different in Bulgaria than in high-tax countries, because the employment cost it sits on is modest. For a Sofia developer, €40,000 gross means about €44,972.46 a year of employer cost in 2026, an on-cost of roughly 12.4%, largely because contributions stop at the monthly ceiling. Our price starts from €599 per employee per month. Over twelve months that is €7,188, or about 16% on top of that employer cost.

That ratio is why scope matters more than the headline number. When you compare quotes, ask each provider to confirm in writing:

• whether contract annexes, register updates and terminations are inside the monthly fee or billed separately;
• whether the annual tax reconciliation and year-end paperwork are included;
• whether salary, contributions and benefits are passed through at cost, with no margin added;
• how the fee is quoted (in euro or in another currency) and what happens to it if you add a second hire.

Our own answers are on the pricing page, and the full cost build-up for the €40,000 example is in the true cost of a Bulgarian employee.

Some answers end the conversation, however good the price. Be cautious with a provider who:

• promises compliance as a guarantee rather than describing what it actually files and when;
• suggests a civil contract (граждански договор) for someone who will work full time under your management. The Labour Code allows that kind of work only under an employment contract, and the Labour Inspectorate has the power to reclassify it and fine the employer;
• says a non-EU candidate can start without a Blue Card or single permit;
• quotes salaries or contributions in leva for 2026, or cannot say which ceiling applied in which month;
• will not say who the legal employer on the contract is.

The civil contract point deserves a closer look before you sign anything, and our article on civil contracts versus employment in Bulgaria sets out how reclassification works. The Labour Inspectorate publishes its own guidance at gli.government.bg.

If you want to see how one provider handles these questions, put them to us. Employer of Record Bulgaria takes the people you choose onto a Bulgarian contract and a euro payroll, and the role we play is described in the EOR role in Bulgaria. For how we think providers should be ranked, read choosing the best EOR provider in Bulgaria.