The new Accounting Act implementing the provisions of EU Directive 2013/34/EC was published on 8 December 2015 in the State Gazette and will be effective from 1st January 2016. This Act will give administrative and reporting relief for businesses and also provides for increased penalties for non-compliance. Some important changes as compared to current local legislation include the following:
- division of activities or groups based on size criteria rather than legal form, considering net turnover, net assets and the number of employees as qualifying metrics;
- special reporting requirements for public-interest companies and companies operating in the extractive industry;
- introduction of reporting on government payments;
- introduction of reporting reliefs for local companies that are part of an EU-based group of companies;
- document filing facilitation– abolishment of the requirement to translate all foreign-language documents into Bulgarian;
- no statutory audit requirement for small undertakings (i.e. companies that do not exceed two of the following three criteria: net assets amounting to BGN 2 million, net turnover amounting to BGN 4 million, average number of employees less than 50); and
- simplified reporting requirements for micro-undertakings and sole traders.
