People write to me roughly like this: «Vikki, we bought the apartment back in 2016 and now we are selling. There is no tax, right, we have owned it for more than three years?»
I open the correspondence and see a Ukrainian or a Russian passport. And then I have to say the unpleasant part: the three-year rule exists, it is real — but it was not written for you.
This is not a minor detail. On an apartment bought for 40,000 and sold for 65,000 we are talking about roughly 2,250 euro of tax that the seller did not expect. People discover it after the notary, when the money has already been split and half of it has gone home.
Let me go through it in order.
Where the «three years» rule comes from
The Bulgarian Personal Income Taxes Act has Article 13, paragraph 1, item 1. It says that income from the sale of one residential property is not taxed if more than three years passed between purchase and sale. And for up to two properties, if more than five years passed.
The wording is real, I am not quoting it from memory — it is published on the site of the National Revenue Agency, in the section on selling property.
This is exactly what almost every agency quotes when they write articles for sellers. And that is where they stop.
Why it works differently for a foreigner
Further in the same law there is Article 37. Paragraph 1, item 10 says: income from the sale of real estate received by a foreign individual is taxed with a final tax — regardless of the circumstances described in Article 13.
That «regardless of Article 13» is the whole point. The holding-period exemption simply does not apply to a foreigner. Whether you held the apartment for three years or eighteen changes nothing in the calculation.
The rate of the final tax is 10%.
Who this does not apply to
There is one exception, and it sits in paragraph 7 of the same Article 37. The exemptions under Article 13 do apply to foreigners who are tax residents of a European Union or European Economic Area country.
So what matters is not citizenship but tax residency.
If you are a citizen of Ukraine but live in Poland or Germany and pay taxes there — the exception covers you, and the three-year rule works for you. If you are a citizen of Ukraine and live in Ukraine — it does not. If you hold a Bulgarian residence permit and are a Bulgarian tax resident, you count as a local person and the question disappears.
The difference between these situations is thousands of euro. That is why the first thing I ask a seller is: where do you pay your taxes. Not «what passport do you have».
Ready-to-move furnished homes — resale apartments by the sea.
How the amount is calculated
The base is not the sale price. It is the difference:
(sale price − documented purchase price) − 10% statutory expenses
And 10% is taken from what is left.
Let us count on a real example. Bought in 2016 for 40,000 euro, selling in 2026 for 65,000.
The difference is 25,000. Minus 10% of statutory expenses — 22,500 remains. Tax of 10% — 2,250 euro.
Note the word «statutory». Those 10% are deducted automatically, you do not need to prove anything with receipts. That is simply how the calculation works.
When there is no tax at all
If you are selling for less than you paid, the difference is negative — and there is nothing to tax.
This is not a rare case. I regularly work with people who bought on the coast in 2007–2008, at the very peak, at 1,200–1,500 euro per square metre. Today the same apartment in the same complex costs noticeably less. Painful — but there will be no tax on the sale.
The most expensive trap: the price in your old title deed
Here I am asking you to read carefully, because this is where people lose the most.
The law says: documented acquisition price. Not the one you actually paid, but the one written in your notary deed.
In the 2000s and early 2010s the amount in the deed was very often understated — people wrote the tax valuation instead of the real price to save on the purchase tax. Back then it saved a few hundred euro.
Here is what happens today. You actually paid 55,000. The deed says 30,000. You sell for 65,000. The tax office sees a difference not of 10,000 but of 35,000 — and the tax is calculated from that. Instead of roughly 900 euro it comes out to about 3,150.
A saving made fifteen years ago turns into an overpayment today.
So before you name a sale price, take out your notary deed and look at the amount written in it. That is the first thing to do — before the listing, before the photos, before everything else.
Who files the declaration
Here is another thing people regularly miss.
When the buyer is an ordinary individual, they do not withhold the tax for you. Which means you file the declaration yourself. The deadline is the end of the month following the quarter in which the income was received.
Sold in September — the quarter ends on 30 September, the deadline for filing and payment is 31 October. Sold in October — the deadline is 31 January.
Nobody will remind you. The notary certified the deal and said goodbye.
Will I have to pay again in my own country?
Bulgaria has double taxation treaties with most countries. The mechanics are usually this: Bulgaria has the right to tax the income because the property is located here, and your country credits what was paid in Bulgaria — up to the level of its own rate.
You will most likely have to declare the income at home. Paying the full amount twice — as a rule, no. But the specifics depend on your country and your status, and this is the question where it is worth spending an hour of an accountant’s time instead of reading forums.
What the seller pays and what the buyer pays
There is confusion here too. People often write «transaction costs are 4–8% of the value» — and the seller panics, thinking all of it will be taken out of their money.
In reality the main transaction costs are borne by the buyer: the local acquisition tax (up to 3%, depends on the municipality), the notary fee and the registration charge (0.1%). In total usually 3.5–4.5% of the value. The notary fee is capped — it cannot exceed 3,067.75 euro excluding VAT.
The seller pays for preparing documents: the tax valuation, the cadastral scheme, the certificate of no encumbrances. That is a few dozen euro, not percentages. Plus the tax, if it arises, and the agency fee.
The parties can agree otherwise — the law allows it. But on the coast this is how it works by default.
What to do with all of this
Three things, in this order.
First — look at the price in your notary deed. It determines the size of the tax more than anything else.
Second — work out where you are a tax resident. That decides whether the holding-period exemption applies to you.
Third — only after that, calculate what you will actually receive. The price in the listing and the sum that reaches you are different numbers, and the difference can be several thousand euro.
All current listings — apartments in Burgas. Prices, sizes and floors in the catalogue.
I am Vikki Dronova, I work with property on the coast — Sveti Vlas, Sunny Beach, Nessebar, Ravda. I run sales for owners who do not live in Bulgaria and cannot come.
If you are thinking about selling — write to me. I will look at your property, tell you an honest market price and calculate how much will be left in your hands after tax. The assessment takes a day and costs nothing.
This material is informational and is not tax advice. The provisions are given according to the Personal Income Taxes Act of the Republic of Bulgaria as of September 2026. For a calculation based on your specific situation, consult a tax adviser.
