The offices in the Sofia business centers offer stable rental levels. The prices of the office premises of the prestigious class “A” cost about 12 euros per square meter for rent, while those of class “B” cost approximately 8 Euros per square meter. There are many companies that are trying to renegotiate and thus to reduce the level of their rent. There are also companies that benefit from lower prices and move from lower to higher class offices, mainly in the offices of the class “A” type. The available offices in the capital are about 25%.
The demand for offices along the major boulevards in the capital, as well as in the center has slightly decreased. The same applies to the demand for office space in the business centers of Sofia, which are in placed in other parts of the capital. At the same time, there is interest in the virtual offices, which provide flexible solutions for companies with specific needs.
For some time now, the offices in Sofia are in the focus of interest of the major outsourcing companies. These companies provide many new jobs in Bulgaria, and are renting a great part of the office space in the capital. The large companies usually register companies according to the requirements of the local laws, and thus step on the local market. They often create new job positions by taking advantage of the difference in the levels of wages in Sofia and those in the more developed economies. This, of course, is very good for the office market in Sofia at a time when most Bulgarian companies are shrinking their consumption and staff and transfer to smaller offices in less prestigious areas. Of course, there are small foreign companies in the IT outsourcing sector, which closed their offices in Sofia and opened virtual offices or moved to other countries where their costs will be even lower.
Most of the outsourcing companies in Sofia, however, have concentrated their activities in Bulgaria and occupy less than 40 percent or approximately 30,000 sq.m of office space from the beginning of this year until now. In other words, these big companies have very good influence on the labor market and the office market. Currently, large office projects such as the European Trade Center to “Tsarigradsko shosse” Blvd. is three quarters full and all of its five buildings are open. This is just one example of the many available commercial buildings in Sofia city.
According to the market research, Bulgaria ranks fourth in this part of Europe as a good place for investment and outsourcing. Aside from the financial side of things, the low taxes and the stable economy, Bulgaria attracts with its well-organized and stable business environment. In the offices of the outsourcing companies in Bulgaria work employees with good education and high work culture that are paid reasonably.
Now that the deadline for the company re-registration in Bulgaria is near, many company owners in the country should act quickly and arrange that procedure. Otherwise, they will have serious troubles with the ownership of their properties. All the companies, which are not included in this new online register according to the regulations of the Trade Register Law, shall be removed from the register of companies in the country. This will also result in a loss of the company assets, which includes properties as well. This is so, because the companies that have not went through the re-registration process shall be blocked and will not be able to sell their properties.
How can you re-register your company? This you can do in two ways – you can either come to Bulgaria or arrange everything from abroad. Since travelling can be time and money consuming, you can send a signed Power of Attorney to our lawyer, who can represent you and do that for you. The lawyer will prepare all the necessary documents ad will send them to you for a signature. Since the deadline is near, make sure to act quickly and arrange everything on time. Once the company is re-registered, all its financial reports since year 2007 should be published in the online register. The deadline for this is three months and that service, as well as other tax advisory services in Bulgaria are also offered by our company.
The deadline for the process of re-registration of companies in Bulgaria is at the end of the year or 31st December 2011. In case of failure to complete that procedure, the owners of companies might lose them and also lose the properties that are bought on the name of the company that is not re-registered.
This is important information for all those investors, who have purchased properties by company registration in Bulgaria before year 2008. According to the Trade Register Law, which is applicable to the Bulgarian companies, requires that all existing companies must go through the process of registration into the new online register by the end of this year.
According to the regulations of that law, which came into force in the beginning of year 2008, the companies which are not added to the new online register shall be removed from the register of companies in the country and will lose their assets, which includes properties as well. The companies that are not re-registered shall be blocked and will not be able to perform any activities at all, including sale of their properties.
The deadline for the re-registration of companies in Bulgaria will be extended for another six months and thus the process should be completed by June 30, 2011. According to the Ministry and the Registry Agency of the Bulgarian companies at until 1st October 2010, nearly 900 thousand companies have omitted to apply for re-registration. The extension is granted also with the purpose of introducing paid access to the registry, which will help to better protect the company data and prevent theft of companies. Under the new requirements, the access to the commercial register will be given when you present electronic signature or credit card. Information can also be obtained on site, in the Registry Agency after the presentation of identity card.
The project provides the only information to remain free and public to be the company name and date of registration, the headquarters and the registered address. List of acts announced by the company could be seen, but in order to be read, a fee shall be paid. The proposal is considered to be unreasonable and contrary to basic legal principles, according to the members of the “Access to Information Program”. They believe that publicity of company data is of great importance for the security of the business, which in first place led to the creation of the unified electronic commercial register, to which everyone has unlimited access.
By the end of June 2010 all Bulgarian companies registered in the Registry Agency must submit their financial reports for 2009, which is done in the Bulgarian Trade Register of the Registry Agency.
The companies that do not submit their annual financial reports on time are facing penalties from 2000 up to 3000 leva. There are more than 27000 such companies in Bulgaria for 2008.
The list of those companies has already been prepared by the Bulgarian Registry Agency and the National Revenue Agency. The deadline for submitting those reports was June 2009 so they are almost one year late with that.
The good news is for those who even though have missed the deadline have submitted the reports with some delay. For them the penalties will be significantly lower, the National Revenue Agency promised.
Each operating company must make and submit an annual financial report on the results of its activities during the reporting year by 31st of March of the following year. After completion of the annual balance of the accounts, for the company is being drawn up an annual financial report for the activity, which provides summary information about the accounting to the moment under the company's accounting policies during the past fiscal year. The relevant accounting policy of each company include the bases for evaluation when preparing the annual financial statements and is an important part of the corporate accounting, determining the manner for the formation of the company's financial results.
The annual financial statements are based on the international accounting standards and are the final stage of the accounting through the entire year. At preparing the annual financial statement must be taken into account that, although independent from one another, the details of the report at the beginning of the current reporting period should coincide with the data from the end of the previous reporting period. This annual report is made towards 31 December of the year and should fairly present the financial and property status of the company, the changes in the cash flows and the capital.
According to the Law on Accounting, the proposed annual financial statement must meet several important conditions, namely: to be understandable and useful, to give an opportunity to be evaluated past, present and future events, to be clear of mistakes and the information from various years to be comparable. The items which compose the annual financial statements include a balance sheet and cash flow report, income and expenditure accounts report, report for the capital and several appendixes. When submitting the annual financial statements of trade companies should be prepared several documents, namely: a certificate of company accounts, balance, minutes of general meeting, the sole act of the owner and power of attorney certified by a notary, in case that the documents are submitted by accountant representing the company.
When the annual financial statement has been prepared, the company should prepare its annual tax declaration according to the Law on the Corporate Income Tax, while the individuals must submit an annual tax declaration for income tax on individuals. Namely, the aforementioned annual tax declaration shall be filed by all persons who are taxable and this shall be done according to the deadlines set by law. The information should be accurate and the deadlines must be met to avoid fines. After the annual balance of accounts are to be prepared the opening balances for the next year and to be made a comprehensive statement of the Company for the year under review. This annual balance of accounts is based on changes in the law for the reporting period.
The annual tax declaration of the individuals include information concerning the income acquired during the year from employment, other business, rent or granting rights or property, income from the sale or exchange of property, as well as other sources such as benefits, awards and more. The annual tax declaration of individuals is made regardless of the amount of the declared income received during the previous fiscal year. The deadline for submission of the annual tax declaration of individuals is by the end of April each year. When individuals submit their tax declarations until early February, they enjoy a discount of five percent on the paid part of the tax. When the declaration is filed electronically the five percent discount applies until the end of April. The annual tax declarations of the individuals shall be filed in the Territorial Directorate of NRA in accordance with the permanent address of the person. When the individual is a foreign national, the annual tax declaration is submitted by the representative of Directorate of NRA where the proxy resides.
The annual financial statement shall be drawn by:
– Individuals in their role of accountants
– Specialized accounting houses and businesses
The annual financial report contains:
– Signature of the head of the business or an authorized individual
– Company stamp (if the report is for a company and not for an individual)
The annual financial report shall be published in economic journals and on the iInternet from:
– companies that are not re-registered by the end of May 2009 and are subject to independent financial audit
– civil associations
– legal persons who are not traders
– foreign entities doing business in the country
The penalties associated with the annual financial statements of companies and individuals include:
– the individuals who have not filed their annual financial statements in time shall be punished by a fine or penalty of up to 500 leva. When there is a repeat offense, the fine is up to 1000 leva.
– the individuals who have filed false information in their annual financial statements shall be punished by a fine or penalty of up to 1000 leva. When there is a repeat offense, the fine is up to 2000 leva.
– sole traders who do not submit their annual financial statement together with their annual tax declaration or do not make it on time, are to be fined to an amount of up to 500 leva. When there is a repeat offense, the fine is up to 1000 leva.
– sole traders, for whom the annual financial statements are subject to compulsory financial audit and does not submit a copy of the report under the law for independent financial audit or does not meet the deadline are fined to the amount of up to 2000 leva. When there is a repeat offense, the fine is up to 4000 leva.
With effect from October 1, 2006 the Bulgarian Parliament adopted a law concerning the commercial register, which follows the European practices and requirements under which the registration of companies shall be under a new procedure in the Registry Agency under the Ministry of Justice. Thus, the commercial registration is transformed into an administrative one, which facilitates the procedure and improves the quality of service provided. Another plus is the creation of a uniform electronic commercial register, with the help of which can be quickly issued certificates and will be allowed instant electronic access to the database, which will be updated continuously with information about acts and others. In the commercial register has been introduced a unique identification code, which shall replace the hitherto used BULSTAT.
According to the adopted law for the commercial register, the companies will have a unique name for the entire country, while the check-ups will be made and transmitted in electronic form. Moreover, the updates will be made on the basis of an application that can be accepted in electronic form as well. These applications, the complaints and the judicial acts will be entered in the electronic register. That commercial register will be public, and each citizen will have the right to free access, but the making of references and certificates will be paid according to the appropriate state fee. All companies must be reregistered and entered in the commercial register. This pre-registration is free of charge and is compulsory up to the end of this year 2010. In the event that this period is omitted, the Registry Agency will perform re-registration through its official channels, then will open up proceedings and accordingly the company will be deleted.
The necessary documents required for registration and re-registration of companies in the commercial register includes an application for re-registration form, which depends on the legal form of the seller; certificate of good standing; application form for declaration of association contract or articles of association, and an application form for registration of new circumstances. The re-registration certificate is to be issued by the court of registration within three days after submission and no state tax is due. When this certificate is forwarded, the court of registration shall provide the Agency with an access to the company case for taking down the information. At the re-registration, traders will be removed from the BULSTAT register and this code will become a unique identification code or Uniform Identification Code (UIC). At the re-registration, the companies' names should not coincide. However, if there are any matches, then the agency shall notify the traders which have matching names and shall enable them to change their name within a period of two months. If such change is not made, the agency shall re-register the trader by entering in the name the locality, and if necessary a figure.
The documents required for re-registration of the company are:
– Application to court for a certificate of good standing
– A copy of the court's decision
– A copy of the Bulstat card
– A copy of the company contract or statute
– Stamp of the company
– Identity card of the manager and the associates
– Signed declaration under article 13, paragraph 4 of the Commercial Register
– Certified attorney in case the documents must be submitted by a lawyer representing the company
The deadline for obtaining the unique identification code is five days.
When there is no observation of the deadline for re-registration of traders is issued an official certificate for re-registration and then, once entered, these companies are archived and deleted from the agency. The agency enters the company and terminates its operations by using a liquidator who is liable shareholder if the company is of personal management, or is a member of the managing committee if this is a capital company. The liquidation costs are on the account of the seller and are expected to be around a thousand leva due to the need for appointing persons to conduct inspections of the company belongings. Another important factor which should be known is that if the company is not re-registered, its annual financial statements can not be published.
The sale of offices in Sofia has been very peaceful in the first nine months of the year, even though the supply was serious. The prices however remained high and no actual discounts were made by the owners and developers, with the biggest reduction being ten percent. Even with these price discounts, the offices kept their prices of 1500 Euro/sq.m, to even more than 2000 Euros/sq.m for the class A office buildings. As a result there were almost no deals for sale of offices in the current year, which comes to show that the prices asked for are not realistic. The main driving factor for that sphere of Sofia offices is the price.
At the same time, the rental market of Sofia offices is busier and attracts serious interest among the investors and business people. The rental prices of the Sofia offices are more flexible and the discounts are considerate, that is why many offices are being rented and the investors are looking for good location and then at the price. The other two options for renting an office are also tempting, namely the renting of one-day offices in business centres in Sofia and the rental of virtual offices, which saves a lot of money to the owners of small and middle-size companies, offering them various service packages according to the needs of their business.
Sofia offices available for rent are many in number and their price depends on the location and the class of the office. The offices of class A are being rented for sums that vary between 7 and 25 Euros/sq.m, where most of the offices go at the price of 10 Euros/sq.m. When the offices have very central location, then their price goes at 20 Euros/sq.m. The Sofia offices that are class B are offered at 3-4 Euros/sq.m when they are not furnished to 8-10 Euros/sq.m for the furnished ones.
Located in Eastern Europe, Bulgaria is offering the key managers of global US and European companies a great base for the outsourcing of their businesses. Once concentrated in countries like India and also having China and Vietnam in their shortlist, today the European and the North American companies are looking towards a country which has less social and cultural differences. Bulgaria is such a country for them – it has stable economy, a well-developed educational system forming specialists in computer sciences, electronics and engineering, physics and mathematics, etc. The excellent education has placed Bulgaria into the fifth place in the world when it goes to sciences which make it today a tempting zone for outsourcing of businesses because of the high mental potential of the young specialists. An interesting fact to mention is that Bulgaria ranks second in the IQ tests made by MENSA and the SAT test results. In the IT sphere, the country is among the top ten destinations when it goes to certified IT professionals.
Which are the global companies that have already outsourced their business in Bulgaria? Several major companies have established their branches in the Bulgarian capital Sofia in the last few years. Among these outsourcing pioneers are the German software company SAP, which has focused some of its major Java software development in Sofia. Another giant company that has outsourced part of its business activities is IBM, which was soon followed by HP, Oracle, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Siemens, etc. and many more companies which joined the group after Bulgaria entered the European Union in January 2007.
One of the main questions that the outsourcing companies often face is connected to the potential of the Bulgarian professionals and their ability to develop and further educate themselves. These young people have several main qualities – they speak good English, they are technically aware and they know how to program well. The Bulgarian programmers have proven their ability to understand and work perfectly with the software code and to observe the deadlines of the different projects. This turns Bulgaria and its capital Sofia into a tempting offshore destination, which has potential and all the preconditions for remaining such country for a very long time.
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