English
From January 1, VAT for restaurant services in Bulgaria will again be 20%. The reason is that from this date the lower taxation of 9%, introduced in the VAT Law already during the Covid crisis and continuously extended since then, ceases to apply. For the same reason, from January 1, the zero rate for bread and flour is abolished and it becomes 20% again, he announced.
In the budget proposal of the official cabinet, it was foreseen that 0% VAT for bread would remain in force this year, but the new National Assembly was more than a month late with the election of the Speaker, and then went on Christmas vacation, and the budget law was not reviewed until January 7 at the first reading by the relevant budget committee.
For us restaurants this is very inconvenient because at exactly 0.00 on 31st December versus 1st January during the festive New Year’s Eve, the cash registers will have to be reset to work again at the 20% VAT rate. How it will be done is not very clear,” Richard Alibegov, president of the Association of Restaurants in Bulgaria, commented to Nova vesti.
However, he assured that the move to a higher rate will not affect the price of New Year envelopes or midnight bills. The restaurants are confident that with the new budget for 2025, and before that with the extension of the budget from this year, the deputies will again vote for 9% VAT for restaurant services. Alibegov claims that all the political forces in the parliament with whom the branch spoke gave a guarantee that this would happen. “This issue must be resolved between January 7 and 20,” Alibegov said.
