How much does it cost to open a cheap Bulgarian company? – is maybe one of the first questions many foreign investors ask. And the answer is that the company formation procedure in Bulgaria involves different types of costs.

The first group of expenses represents the administrative ones. In other words all state fees fall into this category. The main expense here is the company registration tax which is in all cases due to the Bulgarian Commercial Register. One should also know and bear in mind that if this tax is paid electronically over the internet, then it is in lower amount. The other condition is that all paperwork is also submitted to the aforementioned register electronically. This task is very hard to achieve for foreign investors who are not in good command of Bulgarian language since the Trade Register’s interface in only in Bulgarian language.

Notary related expenses fall into other group of company incorporation costs. Even if the owner/s or shareholder/s in the company speak perfect Bulgarian, there is always at least one document which has to be notarized and this is the specimen of the signature of the Bulgarian company’s manager. In case there are more than one managers – then all of them should do this job. However this expense is in a very low amount at least in Bulgaria – less than 10 Euros per signature. Other documents for the incorporation procedure can also be notarized but this is not strictly mandatory according to Bulgarian company laws. Unfortunately in many cases the registration process gets slowed down if more documents are not certified by a notary public.

The last main group of set up expenses includes cheap service fees. For example remuneration of the lawyers who are in charge of the company establishment. The lawyers’ fees in Bulgaria vary but there is a minimum amount set by Bulgarian Law Society (the Bar Association). However in some case foreign investors could find service fees even lower than this minimum amount – and typically this is the case where Bulgarian paralegals or even non-lawyers (for example accountants, etc.) make such sorts of tempting cheap offers which are hard to resist, at least at first sight. But every investor in Bulgaria should keep in mind that these ‘specialists’ are doing no legal service but are rather selling a bunch of documents with absolutely equal content (where only names are changed). And the risks here are very high – incomplete work, violations of the legislation and all associated fines or even ruined business.