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Tax optimization or tax evasion?
I am often contacted by clients from French-speaking European and English-speaking countries, who wish to register companies in Bulgaria to benefit from a low tax rate (in Bulgaria, corporation tax is 10% and dividend tax – 5%).
Most entrepreneurs attracted to this approach have no notion of private international law. In particular, they are unaware that if they become managers of a company registered in Bulgaria while continuing to reside in their country of origin, the tax authorities in their country of residence will be authorized to tax their Bulgarian company in that country of residence.
In particular, international treaties and French law allow the French tax authorities to consider that the manager resident in France is the decision-making center and the driving force behind the Bulgarian company’s business. It concludes that the sales generated by the company registered in Bulgaria must be taxed in France.
Retroactive tax adjustments are often all the more serious in that they entail obligations to pay VAT to the country of residence, which has not been collected from customers in Bulgaria.
Hiring the services of an experienced lawyer at the very planning stage of international entrepreneurship can avoid many problems.