Bulgaria

Bulgaria does not currently require businesses to issue structured e-invoices, either B2B or to the public sector. Under the Public Procurement Act, public bodies have had to receive and process EN 16931 e-invoices since 1 November 2019, but suppliers can still choose how they invoice. The main digital tax development is SAF-T.

The National Revenue Agency has introduced phased mandatory SAF-T reporting from 1 January 2026, beginning with the largest taxpayers and extending towards all VAT-registered businesses by 2030. The NRA has also consulted on a clearance model for e-invoicing, following examples such as Italy and France. No date has been enacted. Businesses should avoid confusing SAF-T reporting with a mandate to exchange structured e-invoices.

For B2G, public sector entities must be able to receive EN 16931 e-invoices, while suppliers are not generally required to issue them. A supplier who chooses to send e-invoices can use the structured route to public buyers. For B2B, e-invoicing is voluntary and typically relies on agreement between the parties.

SAF-T reporting is different. It applies to businesses in phases, with the largest taxpayers first. Companies should check which phase applies to them based on turnover and tax paid, and should not assume that SAF-T replaces invoicing rules.

There is no general legal duty to issue an e-invoice in Bulgaria. If a supplier chooses to send structured e-invoices to public bodies, they should follow EN 16931, in UBL 2.1 or UN/CEFACT CII syntax. Bulgaria does not apply a national CIUS or extension. For tax compliance, businesses within the SAF-T phases must file SAF-T XML files in the format prescribed by the NRA, and the first filings for January 2026 fell due in early March 2026.

A grace period has been reported for each phase. Ordinary invoices, including PDFs, remain legally acceptable for B2B. Businesses should ensure their ERP can export accurate SAF-T data and can produce EN 16931 invoices on request.

For public procurement, Bulgaria has adopted the European standard EN 16931, using UBL 2.1 or UN/CEFACT CII. The National Electronic Billing System (NEFS) is referenced as the national system for electronic invoicing, and a public consultation has looked at a possible clearance model. SAF-T is separate and is filed to the NRA in XML according to the NRA's specification.

Peppol is not a mandatory national channel, although suppliers can use certified providers or Peppol for cross-border exchange. Retail businesses also face separate fiscalisation obligations using certified devices, which are unrelated to e-invoice exchange. Businesses should treat B2G e-invoicing, SAF-T reporting and retail fiscalisation as three distinct workstreams.

For Bulgaria, the practical priority is clean data. HubBroker's ERP integration and data transformation capabilities can help extract accounting and invoice data and reshape it into formats suited to SAF-T workflows, with the exact route confirmed during scoping.

We do not claim a direct NRA connection. If you invoice Bulgarian public bodies or customers who prefer structured invoices, we can generate EN 16931 UBL invoices from your ERP data. Intelligent Document Processing can turn inbound PDF supplier invoices into structured data, and the same platform serves your other European markets.