Property tax in Bulgaria for foreigners and the garbage fee

How is Bulgarian property tax calculated?

Bulgarian property tax is the property's tax assessment multiplied by the municipal rate. In Sofia the rate for 2026 is 1.875 per mille, which means €1.875 for every €1,000 of assessment (Sofia Municipal Council ordinance on local taxes, чл. 15). The assessment is an administrative value that the municipality sets, not the price you paid.

The данъчна оценка (tax assessment) is fixed as at 1 January of the tax year. For an individual owner, a municipal officer calculates it under Annex 2 to the Local Taxes and Fees Act, from the property's type, location, area, construction and wear (ЗМДТ чл. 20). The tax is communicated to the owner by 1 March (чл. 19, ал. 1). Sofia's rate has not changed since 2020, according to its ordinance on local taxes.

The tax is owed whether or not anybody uses the property (ЗМДТ чл. 13), so an empty holiday flat pays the same as a lived-in one. A property with a tax assessment of up to €858.97 inclusive is not taxed at all (чл. 10, ал. 4; the National Revenue Agency states the euro amount).

For your основно жилище (main dwelling), the tax is reduced by 50% (ЗМДТ чл. 25, ал. 1), and by 75% when the owner has 50–100% reduced working capacity (чл. 25, ал. 2). The Act defines the main dwelling by use, as the property that serves the housing needs of the individual and their family for the greater part of the year (§ 1, т. 2 of the additional provisions). The definition speaks of the гражданин (citizen) and does not say in terms whether a foreign owner qualifies. The official declaration form identifies a foreign declarant by ЛНЧ (the personal number of a foreigner), ЛН or a service number, and has a box to mark the main dwelling. The relief is claimed by a tax declaration filed within the two-month period of чл. 14, ал. 1 (чл. 27). If more than one main dwelling is declared, neither relief applies and full tax is due on each (чл. 25, ал. 3). An owner who lives abroad for most of the year will usually not meet the definition.

A worked example with illustrative figures: Mark, a hypothetical owner who lives in Germany, has a Sofia flat with a tax assessment of €40,000.

• Tax for the year at 1.875‰: €75.00
• In two instalments: €37.50 by 30 June and €37.50 by 31 October
• Whole year paid by 30 April, with 5% off: €71.25
• If it were his declared main dwelling: €37.50 for the year

The amount is modest. The real risk for an owner abroad is that, in Sofia, no annual notice arrives to say it is due. To see your assessment in writing, request a certificate of tax assessment (удостоверение за данъчна оценка): the municipality issues it in 5, 3 or 1 days, at a counter or through egov.bg, against the request form, proof of the fee paid and your ownership document (Integrated Information System of the State Administration (IISDA) service register).

The 2026 payment calendar: national rules (ЗМДТ) and Sofia's dates

Bulgarian property tax is due in two equal instalments, by 30 June and by 31 October, and paying the whole year by 30 April earns a 5% discount (ЗМДТ чл. 28, ал. 1–2). The waste fee follows each municipality's own schedule: Sofia splits it into four equal instalments, due by 30 April, 30 June, 30 September and 30 November.

By 31 March 2026, more than 299,000 Sofia taxpayers had paid over €16.5 million of 2026 property tax in full and received over €828,000 in 5% discounts, according to Sofia Municipality. The statutory discount belongs to the property tax; the Act gives none for the waste fee.

In 2026, 31 October falls on a Saturday. The Tax and Social Security Procedure Code (ДОПК) moves a deadline that ends on a non-working day to the next working day (ДОПК чл. 22, ал. 7), and local taxes are collected under that code (ЗМДТ чл. 4, ал. 1), so the second instalment is due by Monday 2 November 2026. Outside Sofia, your municipality's ordinances give the rate and the waste-fee dates.

The garbage fee in Bulgaria: a separate charge with its own rules

The household-waste fee (такса битови отпадъци), usually called the garbage fee, is a separate municipal charge. It is paid by the same person who owes the property tax, the owner or the holder of a right of use (ЗМДТ чл. 64, ал. 1), in the order that the municipal council sets (чл. 69, ал. 1).

Since 1 January 2026 the Act makes the quantity of household waste the leading basis for the fee (ЗМДТ чл. 67, ал. 4), the polluter-pays principle. But a transitional rule (State Gazette, ДВ, бр. 113/2025, in force on 19 December 2025) let councils set the 2026 fee under the old rules by 31 December 2025, including on a proportional base such as the tax assessment (§ 16, ал. 3, т. 3 of the transitional and final provisions). Where a council set no 2026 fee, the rate in force on 31 December 2025 applies (§ 16, ал. 4), as the National Association of Municipalities explained.

Sofia's ordinance on local fees sets the fee for citizens' properties in per mille of the tax assessment, split into collection and transport, treatment and landfill, and street cleaning (чл. 27, ал. 1). For a newly acquired property, Sofia charges it from the start of the following month (чл. 21, ал. 1). Everywhere, the method and the amount may not change during the year (ЗМДТ чл. 68, ал. 1).

The fee can be the larger item. Deputy Finance Minister Lyudmila Petkova said that about three quarters of the bill for her own 75 m² flat is the waste fee (Bulgarian National Television (BNT), 25 September 2026).

Empty property? File the non-use declaration by 30 October 2026

A property that stays empty for a whole year can be freed from the fee for waste collection and treatment, but only if the owner declares it in advance. ЗМДТ чл. 71, т. 2 sets the deadline at 31 October of the previous year, so a property that will stay empty in 2027 needs the declaration by 31 October 2026.

The rule covers a property that is unbuilt or not used for the whole year, and the declaration follows the form in the municipal ordinance. In Sofia this is Declaration No 2, filed with the local taxes office, and it removes the collection component of the fee (Sofia ordinance on local fees, чл. 27, ал. 2).

For 2026 only, a transitional rule used the end of the previous year (§ 16, ал. 3, т. 11, буква а); the permanent rule moves the date two months earlier. And 31 October 2026 is a Saturday. It is unclear whether the ДОПК roll-over rule reaches a municipal declaration, so Friday 30 October 2026 is the only safe date for 2027.

Before you file, ask your municipality's local taxes office how it accepts the declaration and whether it must be renewed every year.

Paying from abroad: online access, a proxy and the right declarations

An owner abroad can check and pay Sofia property tax and the waste fee online at szp.sofia.bg or egov.bg, with a PIN from the Municipal Revenue directorate, a personal identification code (PIK) from the National Revenue Agency or the National Social Security Institute, or a qualified electronic signature (Sofia Municipality, 31 March 2026).

Since 2026 Sofia no longer sends annual tax notices and mails reminders only to those who have not paid (Sofia Municipality). Its Municipal Revenue directorate does not give the PIN or the debt status by phone, only in person, to an authorised person or in writing (Sofia Municipality). Payment is also possible at Bulgarian Posts, banks and EasyPay.

The official declaration form (ДВ, бр. 108/2024) takes a correspondence address and can be filed by a representative with a power of attorney. Co-owners owe tax in proportion to their shares, and any one of them may pay for the whole property (ЗМДТ чл. 12, ал. 1–2).

No tax declaration is filed for a property bought or received as a gift: the notary or registry office notifies the municipality within 7 days (ЗМДТ чл. 14, ал. 3 and чл. 51, ал. 1–2). For an inherited property, the declaration is due within six months of the death (чл. 14, ал. 6 with чл. 32). On a sale, the seller must pay the tax owed up to and including the month of transfer before the transfer (чл. 28, ал. 3); the buyer owes tax from the start of the following month unless the seller has paid it (чл. 15, ал. 2).

What could change from 2027: a draft, not yet law

The Ministry of Finance has proposed raising property tax assessments by 30% in 2027 and by 35% in each of 2028 and 2029, counted against the 2026 base, which would double them by 2029. The draft is in public consultation until 23 October 2026 (consultation 12735-K) and is not law.

“As regards the tax assessment, we are in fact proposing a gradual increase over 3 years: 30% in the first year and 35% in each of the following 2 years.”

Lyudmila Petkova, Deputy Minister of Finance, quoted by Paragraf

The increase would apply only to the property tax; municipalities that still base the waste fee on the assessment would keep the 2026 assessment. Petkova said the property tax on her own flat would rise by €15 in 2027. Evgeni Vasilev, manager of SORENDA Real Estate, notes that Sofia flats traded at roughly €700–900 per m² nearly two decades ago, against asking prices of about €2,600 today: “the question is no longer whether tax assessments should be updated, but how to do it without creating an excessive one-off burden for owners” (Forbes Bulgaria, 24 September 2026).

In December 2024 the European Commission told Bulgaria, in a reasoned opinion (INFR(2023)2064), that basing waste fees on property tax value fails the polluter-pays principle; the compliant rules had been postponed every year from 2015 to 2025. Read together, the draft would raise the property tax and freeze the waste-fee base, so on Petkova's own example the larger part of the bill stays on the method that the Commission objects to.

This article does not replace professional legal advice.