Bulgaria self-employed contributions 2026: minimums, deadlines

You insure yourself. A liberal profession (свободна професия), a sole trader (ЕТ), a partner in your own company. In January you set up a bank standing order, forgot about it, and ever since the same amount has gone out every month.

If you pay your contributions on the minimum, that amount is no longer enough. From 1 August 2026 the minimum insurable income for self-insured persons (самоосигуряващи се лица) is €620.20, and with it the smallest monthly contribution went up. If your standing order is still the one from January, every month since August has been underpaid.

What changed on 1 August 2026

The State Social Security budget for 2026 was adopted late: the National Assembly voted it on 22 July, and it was promulgated on 28 July 2026. Until then an extension law applied, which kept the thresholds from the end of 2025. The new law comes into force on 1 January 2026, but its Art. 9 sets two different thresholds for the same year: one for the months from January to July and a second, higher one for the months from 1 August onwards.

For the first seven months the law confirmed the thresholds people were already paying on, so there is nothing extra to pay for them. The figure €550.66 is not accidental: it is the minimum wage for 2025 (BGN 1,077). From 1 January 2026 the minimum wage is €620.20, but the insurance minimum for self-insured persons caught up with it only from August.

That is why 2026 is a year with two calculations. Here they are side by side.

Note what did NOT change. The rates for self-insured persons stayed the same. Only the two thresholds they are calculated on changed, and that is enough to scramble any standing order to the bank.

Calculator: how to work out your contribution

The calculation is simple. Choose an insurable income between €620.20 and €2,300 and multiply it by 27.8 per cent if you are insured only for pension and health, or by 31.3 per cent if you are also in the General Illness and Maternity fund (ОЗМ). The percentages are the same for people born before and after 1960. Here are some ready examples for the months from August 2026.

Where the money goes: breakdown by fund

The contribution is not one number but a sum of several. Here is the minimum calculation valid from August onwards, for a person born after 31 December 1959.

The two age groups pay the same. For people born before 1960 the whole pension contribution of 19.8 per cent goes to the НОИ’s Pensions fund. For people born after 1959 the same 19.8 per cent is split into 14.8 for the Pensions fund and 5 for the universal pension fund. The sum with health insurance is 27.8 per cent in both cases. The pension rate comes from Art. 6(1) of the Social Security Code (КСО), the contribution for the second pension from Art. 157, and the 8 per cent health contribution is set in Art. 2 of the National Health Insurance Fund (НЗОК) Budget Act for 2026.

If you have transferred your money from a universal pension fund to the state’s Pensions fund, the five percentage points go there, not to the private fund. The overall burden does not change.

Have you been paying the old amount since August? Here is what to do

The contribution for each month is paid by the 25th of the following month. For August the deadline passed on 25 September, and for September on 25 October 2026. If in those months you paid the old minimum amount, the difference is an overdue obligation. The sooner you pay it, the less interest.

Interest is not the only argument. For self-insured persons the Code counts as insurance record only the time for which the contributions due have been paid, not merely due. And cash benefits for sick leave and maternity are calculated only from contributions actually paid to the ОЗМ fund.

Who is a self-insured person

The term sounds bureaucratic, but it means one simple thing: you pay your own contributions, because there is no employer to do it for you. Art. 4(3) of the Social Security Code lists who you are.

One important consequence of the scope. Self-insured persons are compulsorily insured for pension and, by choice, for general illness and maternity. The Unemployment fund is not among them. Only someone with at least 12 months of contributions to that fund in the last 18 months is entitled to unemployment benefit (Art. 54а КСО), for example from an employment contract. Self-insurance alone does not give that right. You can find more on the conditions in our article on unemployment benefit.

The ОЗМ fund: the choice that is made only in January

This is the costliest mistake in the whole regime, and almost nobody explains it in time. And the next window is very soon: from 1 to 31 January 2027.

The choice is declared by a declaration to the НАП when the activity starts, and after that it can be changed only in one window a year. The rules are in the Ordinance on the Social Security of Self-Insured Persons.

There is a second trap, which applies when you start an activity. The declaration on the type of insurance is filed within a 7-day time limit. Being late costs you the right to choose for the whole year.

Choosing your insurable income

Between the minimum and the maximum the amount is yours. The law lets you choose how much to declare.

The choice is not only about the money today. The insurable income enters the calculation of your future pension, and if you are in the ОЗМ fund, it also determines the amount of the benefits. For self-insured persons only contributions actually paid count: sick-leave benefit is calculated from income for the 18 calendar months back (Art. 41 КСО), and the pregnancy and childbirth benefit from income for 24 months back (Art. 49 КСО). That is why a higher income chosen only a few months before the event raises the benefit much less than it seems.

In the other direction: above the maximum threshold no contributions are due. If your real income exceeds €2,300 a month, there are no contributions on the excess. Income tax, however, is due on the whole taxable income.

The second bill: the annual reconciliation

This is where most people get confused. The monthly contributions you pay are called advance contributions. They are not final.

When you file the annual tax return, a statement of the final amount of insurable income goes with it. If you actually earned more than you were insured on, you top up. A freelancer with a good year gets a second bill, which can be quite noticeable.

The health contribution follows the same rhythm. The rule is in Art. 40(1), item 2 of the Health Insurance Act.

Deadlines at a glance

The detailed rules for the declarations are in Art. 4 of Ordinance No. Н-13.

Frequently asked questions

Is the minimum insurable income the same as the minimum wage?

No. They are two different figures, set by two different acts. The minimum wage is set by a Council of Ministers decree, and the minimum insurable income for self-insured persons by the State Social Security Budget Act. In 2026 the two came apart: from January the minimum wage was €620.20, while the insurance threshold stayed at €550.66 (last year’s wage) until the end of July. From 1 August the two amounts coincide, but they remain different in legal basis and may split again. That is why you should calculate your contribution on the figure in Art. 9 of the budget act, not on the wage.

Do I pay contributions while I am on sick leave?

If you have been insured in the General Illness and Maternity fund (ОЗМ), no insurance contributions are paid for periods of temporary incapacity for work, pregnancy and childbirth, and raising a child. That is what Art. 3(3) of the ordinance says, and for the time in which you received benefit, the insurance record is counted without contributions (Art. 9(2), item 5 of the Code). If you are only in the Pensions fund, contributions are due during these periods as well.

I also work on an employment contract. Do I pay twice?

A salary does not release you from the contributions as a self-insured person. The ordinance says that for your activity as a self-insured person the contributions are paid in advance on not less than the minimum insurable income. There is, however, a ceiling: the sum of the remuneration and the insurable income cannot exceed the maximum monthly amount, that is, €2,300 from August onwards.

I started an activity in the middle of the month. Do I owe the whole minimum?

No. For self-insured persons who do not carry out the activity for the whole month, the minimum insurable income is set in proportion to the working days of the month for the period in which the activity was carried out (Art. 4(1) of the ordinance).

I have several activities at once. How do I insure myself?

Self-insured persons who carry out activities on different bases pay their advance contributions on one of the bases of their choice (Art. 2(3) of the ordinance). In the annual reconciliation the taxable income from the activity carried out, declared in the annual tax return, is taken.

Can I buy missing insurance record?

Only in the cases under Art. 9а of the Social Security Code: for the time of higher education or doctoral studies and, when you have reached pension age, for the missing record, up to 5 years. The contribution is calculated as at the date of payment: 19.8 per cent of the minimum insurable income for self-insured persons. That makes €109.03 for a month of record if paid by 31 July 2026 and €122.80 if paid from 1 August 2026.

Where do I check what has been credited to my account?

In the e-services portal of the НАП you see the contributions paid and your obligations, and in the e-services of the НОИ your insurable income and record. How to log in and what the two printouts show is described in our check of social insurance contributions by personal identification number (ЕГН) and in the check of employment record by ЕГН.

I stopped my activity. Do I owe health contributions?

If you are not insured on another basis, yes: no longer as a self-insured person, but as a person without income. The contribution is then 8 per cent on at least half of the minimum insurable income for self-insured persons (Art. 40(5) of the Health Insurance Act). From August 2026 that is €24.81 a month (on €310.10), and up to July it was €22.03. How to file and pay is described in health insurance for the unemployed.

If you remember one thing from this article, let it be this: 2026 has two calculations, not one. Look at what leaves your bank for the months from August onwards, and in January decide whether you want the ОЗМ fund for 2027. Five minutes now cost less than interest and corrected declarations in the spring.