site.btaGERB Slams Planned Tax Policy for 2027

The opposition GERB party slammed government ideas for taxation in 2027. "After the excess deficit procedure, this Cabinet has also brought upon us excess taxes," former Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova said at a news briefing in Parliament. 

It was held shortly after the Finance Ministry unveiled a package of tax changes for 2027 that would raise child tax relief, introduce a new allowance for spending on children’s healthcare, education and sports, increase the VAT registration threshold and impose new taxes on windfall profits and high-powered cars.

Petkova said: "After several months in office, Prime Minister Radev's government has clearly abandoned the commitments and promises it made to preserve the tax system as it is, not to increase taxes and not to introduce new tax burdens for Bulgarian citizens and businesses, with which it won this impressive parliamentary majority in the April elections. As we understand it, this will not be the case in 2027, and I assume not in the future either."

Petkova went on to express concern over the introduction of what she called "excess profits tax" at a rate of 33%. "It will affect a number of economic sectors that generate revenues and jobs", she noted. In her words, such a tax is "a sanction against those who work, who are enterprising and make profit".

She also said it is "a very serious blow to Bulgarian business and a very bad message to investors, first and foremost because there is no predictability".

The increase in the tax assessment of buildings will lead to an increase in the tax that Bulgarian citizens will have to pay, Petkova also said. The increase is envisaged to be phased in over the next three years, with the tax on buildings set to double by the end of the third year, by 2029, she warned.

Regarding the proposed excise duty on cars with a power output of more than 250 kilowatts, Petkova commented that the introduction of this new tax burden would also affect people who use this type of vehicle. "The intention here is obviously to take from the richest and give to the poorer, but those affected by this measure will also be people who have acquired and use electric cars, those to whom we granted incentives," she said.

The GERB MP commented that a number of "very strange amendments" were also being made to the Public Finance Act. She said that, alongside several amendments prompted by a change to a European directive, provisions were being removed that the government of Rumen Radev had grossly violated through the 2026 State Budget Act. "A substantial part of the provisions they violated are simply being removed," she commented.

Regarding the increase in tax relief for raising children, Petkova said that GERB would support any measure in this direction, but would not agree to "giving with one hand while taking away from Bulgarian citizens and Bulgarian businesses with the other".

"When GERB returns to power – and rest assured, this will happen – all these unfair taxes will be repealed," Petkova said.

Regarding the proposals to ban gambling advertising, she commented that this was a step in the right direction, but that serious attention should be paid to the potential risks that a large part of this business might move to the shadow economy.