According to the Bulgarian legislation, in the process of acquiring real estates and their transfer to new owners, the services of notaries should be used, who also issue the ownership documents which is called a notary deed. This document is received by the owner upon completion of the real estate deal.
Before it being issued, the local Municipal Councils make a tax evaluation on each of the newly-built properties, as its percentage often is different from the real property market value. Tax evaluations usually amount to about 25-50% of the property market value.
The amount of the tax evaluation influences the tax amount paid by the buyer for the newly acquired property. Many sellers often wish to sell based on the tax evaluation price and declare this price in the notary. This is effectively an 'accepted tax dodge'. While this may seem unusual to a foreign buyer it is actually fairly common practise in Bulgaria. It saves money for both parties.
If the buyer wants to mark in the Notary Deed an amount higher that the market value, this will make the whole property transfer procedure more expensive, namely about 10% - 15% more expensive, because of the higher State taxes – notary and municipal taxes, as well as VAT tax.
Our properties on the website are all inclusive of VAT but some are for sale under tax evaluation conditions while others are with full price in the title deeds. This price is based on the local tax evaluation referred to in the notary deeds. We would like to stress on the fact that that the tax evaluation is not set by our company so we are not responsible for its amount.