🇧🇬 Bulgaria
Net salary in Bulgaria: income tax and contributions
Bulgaria: flat 10% income tax in 2026. The EXPATRIATION.IO calculator turns gross salary into net take-home pay using the official rate and employee social contributions.
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Tax breakdown by bracket
| Bracket | Rate | Amount | Tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| €0 – ∞ | 10.0% | €14,657 | €1,466 |
| Income tax | €1,466 | ||
Social contributions breakdown
Employer contributions
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PDF by email in under 2 minutes · Secure payment by Stripe · Source: dv.parliament.bg (Darzhaven vestnik, loi de budget de l’assurance sociale 2026, plafond d’assiette) et nra.bg (texte 2026 de la loi sur l’impôt et table des taux) (2026) · Last updated: September 2026
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This is an estimate for informational purposes. Actual taxes vary based on individual circumstances. Verify with local tax authorities for accurate calculations.
🇧🇬 Bulgaria
Bulgaria charges employment income at a single rate of 10%, and has no personal allowance. The base is narrower than the pay: article 42 paragraph 2 of the Law on personal income tax computes the monthly base as the month’s taxable income less the compulsory social and health contributions withheld for the employee’s own account, so the tax runs on 86.22% of gross in the ordinary case, as long as the insurance ceiling is not reached. The employee contributes 13.78%: 6.58% to the pension fund, 2.2% to the universal pension fund, 1.4% to sickness and maternity, 0.4% to unemployment and 3.2% to health insurance. An employee who has exercised the statutory option to leave the universal pension fund for the state pension fund pays the same 13.78% in total, the transferred contribution keeping its own split. The employer adds 18.52% on the same base, plus an occupational accident contribution of 0.4% to 1.1% set by economic activity. Contributions stop at a monthly insurable ceiling, which the social insurance budget act for 2026 set at 2,111.64 EUR until 31 July and at 2,300 EUR from 1 August; this calculator adds the two periods together over the year, which is 26,281.48 EUR. Since 1 January 2026 salaries are denominated in euro, the Council having fixed the conversion rate at 1.95583 lev to the euro.
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What the calculation reproduces, what it does not model
This calculation reproduces the single 10% rate of articles 42 and 48 of the Law on personal income tax, the base those articles define, gross pay less the compulsory contributions withheld for the employee’s own account, and the five employee contributions that make up 13.78%: 6.58% pension fund, 2.2% universal pension fund, 1.4% sickness and maternity, 0.4% unemployment and 3.2% health insurance. Contributions stop at an ANNUAL ceiling of 26,281.48 EUR, which is how the calculator expresses a year the statute splits in two: the social insurance budget act for 2026, promulgated on 28 July 2026, sets a monthly insurable ceiling of 2,111.64 EUR from 1 January to 31 July and of 2,300 EUR from 1 August to 31 December, and 7 x 2,111.64 + 5 x 2,300 is that annual figure. For a salary paid in twelve equal monthly amounts, and for that case only, the two readings agree exactly at or below 2,111.64 EUR a month and at or above 2,300 EUR; strictly between them the annual ceiling overstates the contribution base, by at most 549.38 EUR around 2,190 EUR a month, which is 75.71 EUR of contributions and 68.13 EUR of annual net pay. A bonus, a thirteenth payment or a partial year breaks the equality, the monthly ceiling then biting in one month without biting in the others. Not modelled: the MINIMUM insurable income, which the code requires and whose amounts the budget act sets by economic activity and occupational group, from 550.66 to 901.41 EUR a month until 31 July and from 620.20 to 1,532.00 EUR from 1 August. Where an activity has no such minimum, article 6 paragraph 3 substitutes the national minimum monthly wage, 620.20 EUR in 2026; and note 4 to the appendices takes budget-sector employees, municipal councillors and dual-system students out of the minimum altogether. A salary below whichever of those applies is charged too little here; the employer’s occupational accident contribution, between 0.4% and 1.1% by activity, which is therefore absent from the employer cost line; the 1% rate that article 42 reserves for seafarers; and the reliefs for reduced working capacity, voluntary insurance contributions and children, which are claimed through the employer at year end or on the annual return and whose current amounts are not reproduced here. Outside the calculation: income other than salary.
Tax system in Bulgaria
Bulgaria charges employment income at 10% and grants no personal allowance, but the base is narrower than the pay: article 42 of the Law on personal income tax defines it as the month’s income less the compulsory contributions withheld for the employee’s own account, so the tax runs on 86.22% of gross until the insurance ceiling is reached. Those contributions come to 13.78%: 6.58% to the pension fund, 2.2% to the universal pension fund, 1.4% to sickness and maternity, 0.4% to unemployment and 3.2% to health insurance. On the average gross salary of the second quarter of 2026, 1,444 EUR a month, an employee keeps 1,121 EUR net a month. Salaries have been denominated in euro since 1 January 2026, at 1.95583 lev to the euro. The insurance ceiling changed during the year: the social insurance budget act, promulgated on 28 July 2026, sets it at 2,111.64 EUR a month until 31 July and at 2,300 EUR after that, and this calculation takes the two periods together over the year.
Income tax scale 2026
| Taxable income | Rate |
|---|---|
| €0 and above | 10% |
Employee social contributions
| Contribution | Rate | Annual cap |
|---|---|---|
| Pension fund (6.58%) | 6.58% | €26,281.48 |
| Universal pension fund (2.2%) | 2.2% | €26,281.48 |
| Sickness and maternity (1.4%) | 1.4% | €26,281.48 |
| Unemployment (0.4%) | 0.4% | €26,281.48 |
| Health insurance (3.2%) | 3.2% | €26,281.48 |
Gross to net for common salaries (2026)
Single filer without children, standard scale and employee contributions. Estimates for planning, identical to the calculator above.
| Gross per month (over 12) | Gross per year | Net per year | Net per month (over 12) | Employer cost per year | Total deductions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| €700 | €8,400 | €6,518 | €543 | €9,956 | 22.4% |
| €900 | €10,800 | €8,381 | €698 | €12,800 | 22.4% |
| €1,200 | €14,400 | €11,174 | €931 | €17,067 | 22.4% |
| €1,500 | €18,000 | €13,968 | €1,164 | €21,334 | 22.4% |
| €2,000 | €24,000 | €18,624 | €1,552 | €28,445 | 22.4% |
| €2,500 | €30,000 | €23,741 | €1,978 | €34,867 | 20.9% |
| €3,500 | €42,000 | €34,541 | €2,878 | €46,867 | 17.8% |
| €5,000 | €60,000 | €50,741 | €4,228 | €64,867 | 15.4% |
Wage benchmarks in Bulgaria
Average gross monthly earnings for the second quarter of 2026, provisional data published on 12 August 2026, all economic activities. The first quarter of 2026 was 1,407 EUR. Amounts are in euro, Bulgaria having adopted the currency on 1 January 2026 at 1.95583 lev to the euro. The institute publishes no median in this series. The minimum wage is the one the Council of Ministers set by decree 243 of 13 November 2025: 1,213 lev, which the decree itself writes as 620.20 EUR a month for a full working month, and 7.31 lev or 3.74 EUR an hour at eight hours and a five-day week.
| Benchmark | Gross amount | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Statutory minimum wage (2026) | 620.20 EUR gross per month (full working month) | Postanovlenie No 243 ot 13 noemvri 2025 g., DV 98/2025 |
| Statutory minimum wage (2026) | 3.74 EUR gross per hour (8 hours, five-day week) | Postanovlenie No 243 ot 13 noemvri 2025 g., DV 98/2025 |
| Average wage (2026) | 1,444 EUR gross per month (gross, second quarter 2026, provisional) | Natsionalen statisticheski institut |
Ten per cent, but after the contributions
Bulgaria taxes employment income at a single rate of 10% and grants no personal allowance, which makes the base the only thing worth reading closely. Article 42 paragraph 2 of the Law on personal income tax computes the monthly base as the taxable income of the month less the compulsory social and health contributions withheld for the employee’s own account; article 25 paragraph 1 says the same for the annual base.
The effect is mechanical. An employee under the insurance ceiling pays 13.78% of gross in contributions, so the 10% runs on 86.22% of gross and the effective rate of the income tax alone is 8.622%. Above the ceiling the contributions stop growing and the tax base widens back towards the gross.
On the average gross salary of the second quarter of 2026, 1,444 EUR a month, that gives 2,388 EUR of contributions and 1,494 EUR of tax over the year, leaving 1,121 EUR net a month.
Sources: Zakon za danatsite varhu dohodite na fizicheskite litsa, chl. 25, 42 i 48 · Prilozhenie No 1 kam stanovishte VK-30-10237 ot 12.08.2026, NAP
The 13.78% in five lines, and the option that changes none of it
The employee’s contributions are five: 6.58% to the state pension fund, 2.2% to the universal pension fund, 1.4% to sickness and maternity, 0.4% to unemployment and 3.2% to health insurance. The first four are set by the social insurance code, the last by the health insurance law at 60:40 of a rate the health fund’s budget act fixes at 8% for 2026. The employer adds 8.22%, 2.8%, 2.1%, 0.6% and 4.8%, which is 18.52%.
A detail worth knowing, because it looks as though it should change the figure and does not. An employee born after 1959 is enrolled in a universal pension fund by default, and article 4b of the code opens an option to move that second pillar into the state pension fund instead. That option is narrow: it is open only to someone who has not been granted an old-age pension and who reaches the statutory retirement age no later than two years after exercising it, for choices made between 2026 and 2030. The transferred contribution keeps its own split, 2.2% for the employee and 2.8% for the employer, so the employee total stays 13.78% either way and this calculator needs no selector for it.
One employer line is missing from the cost figure, and deliberately. The occupational accident and disease contribution runs from 0.4% to 1.1% depending on the employer’s economic activity, which no salary can reveal, so it is left out rather than guessed.
Sources: Zakon za biudzheta na darzhavnoto obshtestveno osiguriavane za 2026 g. · Zakon za biudzheta na NZOK za 2026 g., chl. 2 · Prilozhenie No 1 kam stanovishte VK-30-10237 ot 12.08.2026, NAP
The ceiling changed on 1 August 2026, and what this page does about it
Contributions stop at a monthly insurable ceiling that the social insurance budget act sets each year. The act for 2026 was voted on 22 July 2026 and promulgated on 28 July, and it fixes two of them: 2,111.64 EUR a month from 1 January to 31 July, then 2,300 EUR from 1 August to 31 December. There is no single monthly figure for the year.
This calculator works on an annual base, so it uses the sum of the two periods: seven months at 2,111.64 plus five at 2,300, which is 26,281.48 EUR a year. For a salary paid in twelve equal monthly amounts, that reading gives exactly the same contributions as applying the two ceilings month by month, at or below 2,111.64 EUR a month and at or above 2,300. Strictly between the two it overstates the contribution base, by at most 549.38 EUR around 2,190 a month, which is 75.71 EUR of contributions and 68.13 EUR of net pay over a year. The equality holds only for equal monthly amounts: a bonus or a partial year makes the monthly ceiling bite in one month and not in the others.
Below the salary there is a MINIMUM insurable income rather than a single floor. The code requires it and the budget act sets its amounts by economic activity and occupational group: from 550.66 to 901.41 EUR a month until 31 July, and from 620.20 to 1,532.00 EUR from 1 August. Two branches sit beside that table. Where an activity carries no minimum, the code substitutes the national minimum monthly wage, 620.20 EUR in 2026, which is the case for the whole budget sector since the appendices list no public administration or education activity. And note 4 to those appendices takes budget-sector employees, municipal councillors and dual-system students out of the minimum altogether, while note 1 prorates it for part-time or partial months and note 2 halves it in specialised enterprises and cooperatives of people with disabilities. None of that can be derived from a salary alone, so this calculator applies no floor, and a salary below whichever minimum governs it is charged too little here.
Sources: Zakon za biudzheta na darzhavnoto obshtestveno osiguriavane za 2026 g., chl. 9 i prilozheniia 1 i 1A
Euro since 1 January 2026
Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 January 2026. The Council of the European Union fixed the conversion rate on 8 July 2025 by amending the regulation that holds the rates of the countries already in the area: one euro is 1.95583 lev, irrevocably, and the regulation applies from 1 January 2026.
Every figure on this page is therefore in euro, including the ones the social insurance budget act itself now writes that way. The change is worth remembering when checking a Bulgarian text, including the current one: the in-force income tax law still writes the amounts of its reliefs in lev, 7,920 and 660 at article 18 and 2,000 at article 22g, and the law that introduced the euro provides that such acts keep applying with their amounts converted at 1.95583 rather than rewritten.
Sources: Reglement (UE) 2025/1409 du Conseil du 8 juillet 2025
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Source: dv.parliament.bg (Darzhaven vestnik, loi de budget de l’assurance sociale 2026, plafond d’assiette) et nra.bg (texte 2026 de la loi sur l’impôt et table des taux) · Tax year 2026 · Last updated September 2026