Bulgaria for Course Creators & Info-Product Sellers: Tax & Legal Guide (2026)

A seven-figure course business running on Kajabi, Teachable, Thinkific, Circle, or Skool is fundamentally a digital-services business with recurring B2C revenue from EU and US customers — and it is almost perfectly suited to the Bulgarian tax regime. 10% corporate tax, 5% dividend tax, 7.5% effective rate for solo creators, clean EU VAT OSS filing through a single Bulgarian quarterly return, and the Bulgaria-US tax treaty's 5% royalty cap for any US-sourced royalty streams. This guide walks through the setup, VAT OSS mechanics, platform-by-platform nuances, and the common operational mistakes we see creators make in their first year.

What Counts as a "Course Creator" for Bulgarian Tax

Under Bulgarian tax law, a course creator or info-product seller is simply a service provider whose output is electronic (digital) and whose customers are primarily individual consumers. The category covers, among others:

• Pre-recorded courses sold on Kajabi, Teachable, Thinkific, Podia, Learnworlds, LearnDash, or your own website.
• Live cohort courses and bootcamps (Maven-style, On Deck-style).
• Paid communities and memberships on Circle, Skool, Patreon, Discord-gated communities.
• Digital downloads and templates sold through Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, Stripe, Shopify.
• Coaching, mastermind, and consulting bundled with digital products.
• Marketplace courses on Udemy, Skillshare, LinkedIn Learning, Domestika.
• Newsletter monetisation on Substack, Beehiiv, ConvertKit.

The Bulgarian tax treatment for all of these is similar: ordinary service / digital-services income, taxed under the freelancer regime (7.5% effective) or the EOOD regime (15% combined). The differences show up in VAT classification, platform withholding, and practical invoicing — which is where this article focuses.

Freelancer vs EOOD — Which Fits Your Creator Business?

Freelancer (свободна професия)

• 25% automatic expense deduction under Art. 29(1)(3) ЗДДФЛ — no receipts required.
• 10% personal income tax on the remaining 75% of gross.
• Effective rate: 7.5% of gross.
• Social security on a chosen base (minimum approximately EUR 550.66 / month for 2026, cap approximately EUR 2,111.64).
• BULSTAT registration at the Registry Agency.
• VAT: register voluntarily or when the threshold is crossed, then file OSS.

Best for: solo creators with revenue below roughly EUR 80,000-100,000/year, no employees, one or two flagship courses, no immediate plans to scale operations.

EOOD (еднолично ООД)

• 10% corporate income tax on profits after deductible expenses (video editing, ads, copywriter, VA, hosting, software, travel to conferences).
• 5% dividend tax on distributions.
• Combined effective rate: 15%.
• Limited liability separates personal assets from creator business claims.
• IP ownership — course materials, trademarks, brand.
• Minimum capital: EUR 1.

Best for: creators above roughly EUR 100,000-150,000/year, anyone running a team (editor, customer success, paid-ads manager), anyone with external contractors invoicing the business, and creators who plan to sell the business eventually.

EU VAT OSS: The Thing Most Creators Get Wrong

Bulgarian course creators selling digital content B2C across the EU face the EU e-commerce VAT rules. There are two regimes in play:

Below EUR 10,000 pan-EU B2C turnover

Charge Bulgarian VAT (20%) on all EU sales. Report on the ordinary Bulgarian VAT return. Simple.

Above EUR 10,000 pan-EU B2C turnover (per calendar year)

Register for the EU Union OSS scheme. From that point, charge VAT at the consumer's Member State rate (e.g. 19% Germany, 20% France, 21% Netherlands, 22% Italy, 23% Ireland, 25% Denmark, 27% Hungary). File a single quarterly OSS return with the Bulgarian NRA. Bulgaria distributes the VAT to each Member State automatically.

• OSS registration is made with the Bulgarian NRA (national tax authority). A single Bulgarian gateway filing covers all EU B2C digital-service VAT.
• Invoice / receipt requirements vary by Member State. For most B2C digital-service sales to individual consumers, a simplified invoice is sufficient.
• B2B sales (where the customer has a valid VIES-confirmed EU VAT number) are reverse-charged; no VAT is charged on the invoice.

Platform by Platform: Who Handles VAT?

The decision to use a Merchant of Record provider (Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, Gumroad) instead of a pure payment processor (Stripe, PayPal) often comes down to operational simplicity. An MoR charges 5-10% of revenue but takes EU VAT, US sales tax, chargebacks, and invoicing off your desk. A direct Stripe integration is cheaper (2.9% + 30¢) but you carry the VAT compliance workload. For most creators above EUR 150,000 in revenue, direct Stripe + Bulgarian EOOD + OSS is both cheaper and cleaner.

US-Based Platforms and the W-8BEN-E

Kajabi, Teachable, Thinkific, Gumroad, Podia, Udemy, Skillshare, and most other US-based platforms ask creators to complete a W-8BEN (for individuals) or W-8BEN-E (for entities) on onboarding. The form certifies your non-US status and, where applicable, invokes the Bulgaria-US double tax treaty.

For course payouts that the IRS classifies as royalties, the Bulgaria-US treaty caps US withholding at 5% — the lowest royalty cap in Bulgaria's entire treaty network. Without a valid W-8, the default US withholding is 30%.

Setup Timeline for a Course Creator

1. Week 0 — Diagnostic. Current jurisdiction, projected annual revenue, platforms in use, EU / non-EU customer mix, existing Stripe balance. Decision: freelancer or EOOD.
2. Week 1 — Bulgarian residence. EU residence at the Migration Directorate or D-visa for non-EU. Rental contract. Address registration.
3. Week 1-2 — Registration. Freelancer: BULSTAT at the Registry Agency, NRA registration. EOOD: articles, capital account, Commercial Registry filing, NRA / NHIF registration.
4. Week 2 — VAT + OSS. Voluntary VAT registration (if below the threshold) or mandatory (if above). OSS registration through the Bulgarian NRA.
5. Week 2-3 — Bank. Personal + business Bulgarian bank account. Connect to Stripe, PayPal, Wise Business as needed.
6. Week 3 — Platform updates. Update Kajabi / Teachable / Thinkific / Circle / Skool with new Bulgarian address, tax ID, and bank details. Submit fresh W-8BEN-E forms to US-based platforms.
7. Week 4 — Invoicing and VAT settings. Configure platform VAT settings for EU consumer rates. Turn on reverse-charge for B2B VIES-validated customers.
8. Ongoing — Monthly bookkeeping + quarterly OSS. Accountant handles monthly VAT, quarterly OSS filings, and annual tax returns.

Common Mistakes

1. Assuming the platform handles VAT when it doesn't

Kajabi, Teachable, and Thinkific do not act as Merchant of Record. If you sold EUR 150,000 of courses to EU consumers through Kajabi with no VAT registration, you owe retroactive VAT in each consumer Member State. Fix before the first audit, not after.

2. Not submitting a W-8BEN-E to US platforms

Default 30% withholding on US payouts for non-US persons without a W-8. The Bulgaria-US 5% royalty cap is worth up to 25 percentage points per payout.

3. Mixing a personal Stripe with a Bulgarian business

Your old Stripe account, in your old country, connected to your old personal bank, does not belong to a Bulgarian EOOD. Open a new Bulgarian Stripe (or migrate the existing account's ownership through Stripe support) before invoicing through the Bulgarian entity.

4. Leaving IP in the personal name

Course materials, brand name, trademark, and domain should be owned by the EOOD. Personal-name ownership complicates liability, tax, and any future sale.

5. Not breaking residence in the departure country

A Bulgarian BULSTAT number does not make you Bulgarian tax resident. The 183-day rule plus centre of vital interests (or the formal residence status) is what Bulgaria requires. The departure country can still claim you if you did not break residence there.

Frequently Asked Questions

Disclaimer: This article provides general information about Bulgarian tax treatment for course creators and info-product sellers. Platform terms and VAT rules change; Merchant of Record status varies by product type and jurisdiction. Consult our team for a situation-specific review. Last updated: April 16, 2026.