A Bulgarian company is tailored for freelancers and digital nomads whose business is digital and can be run remotely — digital freelancers and consultants, content creators and info-entrepreneurs, SaaS publishers, prop-firm traders, e-commerce sellers. If your work fits inside a computer, a bank account and clients spread across the EU, that is precisely the profile this is aimed at.
The concrete benefit comes down to three figures: the overall tax burden among the lowest in the EU (10% corporate income tax, then only between 0 and 5% on dividends — 0% to an EU/EEA parent company, 5% paid to an individual — i.e. ≈10 to 14.5% once profits are distributed), full access to the single market (and, since 1 January 2026, to the euro) and a 100% remote formation from €890 excl. VAT with the firm.
For a formation with no capital deposit or prior bank account, the DPK/EDPK is often the simplest choice, while the EOOD remains the classic form — see EOOD, OOD or DPK.
Conversely, it makes little sense if your business depends on a physical point of sale in France, or if you cannot maintain genuine economic substance.
Because the real challenge is not to create the company: it is to make it genuinely operable and manageable remotely. A low rate is worth nothing if the company does not let you actually trade — and it is precisely this operability that Fenchell builds in from the outset, with a file designed for remote management (detailed below).
The scope of this guide. Here, we focus on the self-employed audience — freelancers, consultants, content creators and digital nomads — and on the precise reasons the Bulgarian EOOD suits them.
For the overall picture of the set-up (legal, tax, banking), see the pillar guide forming a Bulgarian company remotely; for the step-by-step procedure of incorporation, see forming an EOOD 100% remotely: the steps.
Freelancers, nomads, creators: who is the Bulgarian company for?
The remote Bulgarian company is not a universal tool: it is tailored for a specific category of entrepreneur — those whose turnover does not depend on commercial premises or a nearby clientele. If your business fits inside a computer and a bank account, you are probably in the target group. Here are the five profiles that get the most value out of it.
E-commerce sellers
This is Eurotrade's original profile. Selling on Amazon FBA, Shopify, Temu, Cdiscount or under your own brand often generates tight margins, where every point of tax counts. A Bulgarian company houses the business in an EU jurisdiction with 10% corporate tax, an intra-EU VAT number, an EORI for import/export and VAT managed via OSS / IOSS — all within the single market, now with no currency friction (the euro since 1 January 2026) or intra-EU customs.
Freelancers & consultants
Developers, designers, growth marketers, consultants: as soon as your clients are spread across several EU countries and you invoice digital services, the location of your company becomes a strategic choice rather than a geographic constraint. A Bulgarian company gives you credible European invoicing and lighter taxation on profits, whether retained or distributed.
Traders (prop firms)
Traders paid by prop firms (FTMO and the like) receive payouts that have to be declared and structured. Routing this income through a Bulgarian company allows you, depending on your situation, to frame it within a European legal entity, with bookkeeping kept on the ground and profits taxed at 10%, then a withholding of between 0 and 5% on the distribution of dividends (0% to an EU/EEA parent company, 5% to an individual).
SaaS, creators & info-entrepreneurs
Software subscriptions, online courses, monetised content, licences: this 100% digital income is among the most mobile there is. It fits a light European structure particularly well, provided it is backed by a genuine operational presence.
Nomadic entrepreneurs
For anyone with no strong tax ties who works from several countries, a Bulgarian company offers a stable legal anchor within the EU, with a bank, a VAT number and an accounting framework, without requiring a permanent physical presence.
A digital business that can be run remotely, where the location of the company matters more than that of any premises. If your work comes down to a computer, a bank account and clients spread across the EU, the question is not "does this concern me?" but "from what volume is it worthwhile?".
What concrete benefits for a freelancer or a nomad?
Beyond the slogan "light taxation", here is what a Bulgarian company really changes for a self-employed person or a digital nomad, item by item.
| Benefit | What it changes for you |
|---|---|
| Overall tax burden among the lowest in the EU | 10% corporate tax then only between 0 and 5% on dividends (0% to an EU/EEA parent company, 5% to an individual), i.e. ≈10 to 14.5% once profits are distributed — the total burden among the lowest in the EU. Hungary advertises a lower headline corporate tax (9%), but exceeds 20% once dividends are added. |
| Dividends between 0 and 5% | 5% withholding on distribution to an individual; 0% to an EU/EEA parent company, with no holding threshold or minimum period whatsoever — the only condition: that the recipient be a legal entity that is tax-resident in the EU/EEA (чл. 194, ал. 3, т. 3 ЗКПО): a markedly higher net income. |
| EU single market + euro | Intra-EU VAT and, since 1 January 2026, a single currency: no more currency friction or intra-EU customs. |
| Remote formation | EOOD incorporated with no travel to Bulgaria: once all the notarised documents are received, registration in the commercial register takes 5 working days at most, for a complete process of about 20 days (depending on your pace of signing and of sending the originals). The fintech account, which you open yourself, follows in ~7 days (Wise within 48 hours). |
| Token capital | Minimum capital of €1 (2 BGN before the adoption of the euro): no barrier to entry. |
Concretely, the gap reads better in relative than in absolute terms. For an identical profile — 10% corporate tax versus 15 to 25% in France, dividends between 0 and 5% versus 31.4% (flat tax), and no CFE.
One point deserves to be stated precisely, because it is often poorly presented: the capital gain on the disposal of shares depends on your situation — in three cases:
- Unlisted shares (дялове of an OOD/EOOD/DPK), under Bulgarian domestic law: 10% on the actual capital gain (чл. 33, чл. 48 ал. 1 ЗДДФЛ).
- Non-resident seller of a non-real-estate Bulgarian company: the tax treaty generally allocates this gain to your country of residence — i.e. 0% in Bulgaria, but taxable where you live (OECD Model art. 13 §5; the treaty prevails, чл. 75 ЗДДФЛ).
- Listed securities on an EU/EEA regulated market: 0% (чл. 13 ал. 1 т. 3 ЗДДФЛ) — as if you were resident in a state with no capital gains tax.
In other words: "0% in Bulgaria" is not "0% in total" — a French resident remains taxed at home (~31.4%). To be checked treaty by treaty (procedure ДОПК art. 135–142, absence of a contrary substantial-participation clause).
Over a given activity cycle, an expatriate entrepreneur thus keeps on the order of +63% more net than by staying in France (order of magnitude), where the overall tax burden is about 3.1× higher. (This relative gap is structural; any absolute amount depends on your actual return and is a scenario, never a promise.)
But the benefit is not only fiscal: it is also a stable European framework, banked and credible in the eyes of marketplaces and partners. For the full mechanics, see the pillar guide forming a Bulgarian company remotely.
The real challenge is not fiscal, it is operational. A low tax rate is useless if the company is not genuinely operable remotely: a company that pays almost no tax but does not let you trade is of no use. The challenge is not to create the EOOD — it is to make it active and manageable from anywhere.
A generic incorporation, wherever it is set up, delivers a legal shell designed to be registered, not to be run remotely. At Fenchell, by contrast, the offer is an integrated, inseparable system, built on two pillars.
1 — A file designed for remote management, from the outset
- More than 20 bilingual documents in Bulgarian/English (more than 30 for multi-shareholder companies): articles of association, stamped registration certificate with its sworn translation, and many others.
- The 8 notarised powers of attorney that cover every step on your behalf.
- Obtaining the FID (personal tax identifier) and the QES key (qualified electronic signature).
All designed from the outset by the firm's legal team for remote management, drawing on thousands of real client cases.
2 — A remote-operation infrastructure
- A local agent who handles the formalities on the ground.
- A dedicated web interface to read live, from any device, the SMS (OTP / 2FA codes from banks and platforms) received on your line.
- The company Bulgarian mobile line, the office and registered address in Plovdiv.
- The collection and scanning of mail; the registration of the point of contact (POC, AML/MAMLA compliance).
- Help assembling the files for opening bank and fintech accounts, remotely — the client remains the applicant and the holder.
- The dedicated static IP option (a stable business connection).
- Bookkeeping and VAT compliance managed on the ground.
Operability is not bolted on afterwards: it is built into the file itself. It is this integrated infrastructure that creates the genuine economic substance — the kind that makes the tax advantage defensible, passes bank KYC and turns your company into a genuinely workable entity, rather than an empty shell. The detail: the Eurotrade pack.
When does a Bulgarian company make sense?
A Bulgarian company is relevant when several conditions are met:
A digital business
Your business is digital (e-commerce, digital services, content, trading).
Clients spread across the EU
Your clients or your platforms are spread across the EU, not concentrated on a local, in-person clientele.
Sufficient profit
Your profit is sufficient for the tax saving to far exceed the running costs.
Genuine substance maintained
You are prepared to maintain genuine substance — this is non-negotiable.
This last point is the key. An EOOD is only defensible if it has genuine economic substance: a physical address, a local agent, a Bulgarian mobile line and bookkeeping kept on the ground. This is also what banks check at the KYC stage, and what distinguishes a real company from a "letterbox".
Yet maintaining this substance remotely is anything but straightforward: it is precisely what Fenchell handles day to day — the whole infrastructure detailed above:
- office and registered address in Plovdiv;
- local agent;
- web interface for your 2FA SMS;
- scanned mail;
- AML/MAMLA point of contact;
- bookkeeping and VAT on the ground.
Physically present in Plovdiv since 2018, Fenchell mobilises its team and its network of dedicated partners — lawyers, accountants, marketplace account managers, i.e. 10 to 20 people depending on the complexity of your case.
And the firm does not merely register the company: this substance is built into the offer from the outset, which makes it genuinely workable and manageable from anywhere.
Where do I have to live, and for how long in Bulgaria?
This is the question that every freelancer, trader, e-commerce seller or nomad who runs their company remotely asks: do I have to move to Bulgaria? how many days a year do I have to spend there? The good news: no, you do not have to live in Bulgaria, and there is no minimum number of days to spend there.
The real legal test for a French tax resident (the logic is the same in Belgium or Switzerland) who runs a company from their living room is not the day count, it is the place of effective management: the authorities look at where the company is actually run and where its substance lies.
This is precisely the point we work on with the tax-law firm Valoris Avocats, with whom Fenchell collaborates.
For a Bulgarian company run from France to hold up before the authorities, four concrete conditions must be met:
- A genuine office on the ground in Bulgaria — a real local office, not a mere letterbox.
- Clients not exclusively in your home country — if you sell on Amazon EU, you naturally tick this box: Italian, German, Spanish clients, and so on. An exclusively French clientele is, conversely, a risk signal.
- Regular travel to Bulgaria — 2 to 3 times a year, plane tickets kept as proof. Once again, there is no minimum number of days: it is the regularity that counts, not the duration. Concretely, a Paris-Sofia return flight costs about €50.
- Declaring the company (and its bank account) on your tax return — transparency towards your authorities is part of the framework, it is not optional.
This framework fits within an expatriation logic. Tax lawyers recommend considering leaving France within about two years. If you are set on continuing to live in France for the long term, do not set up an artificial structure: you will find no genuine optimisation lever there, and the risk is not worth it. We prefer to tell you frankly — that, too, is what a serious framework is for.
One often-misunderstood point deserves to be stated clearly: the director's social contributions. Bulgaria caps the social-insurance income base at €2,111.64/month (4,130 BGN) in 2026, which is very attractive. But this cap does not fall into your lap on its own: affiliation to the Bulgarian social security system is not automatic for a non-resident director.
Indeed, Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 (art. 11 & 13) imposes a single applicable legislation, in principle that of the country where the activity is actually carried out. A director who runs their company from their country of residence therefore most often falls under that country's social security system — where contributions can be much higher.
The Bulgarian cap applies only if an A1 certificate (issued by the Bulgarian revenue agency, the НАП) designates Bulgaria. A point to confirm case by case: one more reason why the expatriation logic prevails over a mere legal arrangement.
That leaves the first condition, the most demanding: a genuine office and a genuine local presence. This is exactly what Fenchell sets up — offices and registered address in Plovdiv, a local agent who acts on the ground, a Bulgarian mobile line and a registered point of contact.
It is this genuine economic substance that makes the place-of-effective-management framework defensible before the authorities, and that distinguishes a real company from an empty shell.
When to refrainWhen does a Bulgarian company NOT make sense?
In fairness, a Bulgarian company is not the right answer in several situations:
Your business relies on a physical establishment in France (a shop, a workshop, a local nearby clientele); your income is low or irregular and the tax saving does not cover the recurring costs; you are not prepared to maintain genuine substance. In those cases, a local structure remains simpler and better suited.
Our approach is to say it frankly: the aim is not to sell you a company at all costs, but to check that Bulgaria is the right tool for your situation. If it is not, better to know beforehand. And if you are hesitating between several jurisdictions, the comparison Bulgaria vs Estonia vs Dubai vs France will help you decide.
Do Amazon sellers have a particular advantage?
Amazon e-commerce sellers are a profile apart, because Fenchell is an Amazon EU Agency Partner (a verified Seller Partner Network partner), with a dedicated Key Account Manager (KAM).
On that basis, the firm is among the partners Amazon invites to its referral programme (the Agencies Programme), reserved for its clients.
Note: this partnership is matched, on the technical side, by a verifiable presence in Amazon's Seller Partner Network (SPN) — see the firm's Amazon SPN profile.
Concretely, opening your Bulgarian company with the firm unlocks access to the remote EOOD formation pathway and to specific marketplace support: it is the only e-commerce service genuinely tied to Eurotrade. The Amazon referral programme is thus reserved for clients who incorporate their company with Fenchell; it comes in addition to the structuring, never in its place.
The figures speak for themselves: for clients who follow the advice to the letter, Fenchell records 99% success in opening seller accounts (Amazon, Temu…) — rate observed among clients who follow our recommendations; Amazon/Temu remain the sole decision-makers, no result guaranteed — and 80% recovery on suspended Amazon accounts. Rates that hold precisely because the company delivered is immediately operable — ready for the bank, which you then open (on your own or with our help assembling the file).
Not sure it is right for you?
In one free call, we confirm whether Bulgaria suits your business, your volume and your profile. If it does, the Eurotrade pack is an integrated system that makes your company genuinely operable remotely. 100% remote, from €890 excl. VAT.
FAQ
Is a Bulgarian company suited to my online business?
What turnover do you need for it to be worthwhile?
Can I remain a French tax resident with a Bulgarian company?
When does a Bulgarian company NOT make sense?
Do Amazon sellers enjoy a particular advantage?
General information current as of 8 June 2026, not constituting personalised tax, legal or accounting advice. Rates, thresholds, deadlines and amounts (in particular dividend taxation and VAT thresholds) are indicative, may change and vary according to your situation: check the applicable regime before any decision. Fenchell Capital OOD — Bulgarian firm based in Plovdiv (EIK 207945095).