Bulgarian VAT sales and purchase ledgers: a practical guide

The sales ledger (дневник за продажбите) and the purchase ledger (дневник за покупките) are the VAT records required by Art. 124 of the Bulgarian VAT Act (ЗДДС). A VAT-registered business enters every tax document it issues and receives in the month, and the VAT return is built from their totals. Both ledgers are filed with the return by the 14th of the following month, as files in the format set by the regulation implementing the VAT Act (ППЗДДС).

Who keeps VAT ledgers

Every business registered under the VAT Act keeps the ledgers (Art. 124, para. 1). The VAT return built from them is filed by businesses registered under Arts. 96, 97a, 99 and Art. 100, paras. 1 and 2 (Art. 125, para. 1).

• 01A business registered under Art. 96, or voluntarily under Art. 100, para. 1, keeps full ledgers for every document issued and received.
• 02A business registered only under Art. 97a, Art. 99 or Art. 100, para. 2 (for services received from abroad, intra-community acquisitions or services supplied to the EU) enters in the sales ledger only the documents for those supplies. Its purchase ledger may contain a single record of zeros (Art. 113, paras. 2 and 3 of the regulation).
• 03A business without VAT registration, including one under the domestic small enterprise scheme with turnover up to €51,130, keeps no ledgers.
• 04A business that applies the EU small enterprise scheme (with a number ending in "-EX") files a quarterly turnover report under Art. 168l. If it is also registered under Art. 96, 97a, 99 or 100, for example under Art. 97a because it buys Google ads, it files a monthly VAT return with ledgers as well as the report (Art. 125, para. 1).

Deadline: the 14th of the following month

The VAT return and ledgers for a month are filed by the 14th of the following month inclusive (Art. 125, paras. 3 and 5 of the VAT Act), electronically (para. 7). They are filed even when there were no supplies (Art. 125, para. 4), with empty ledger files (Art. 114, para. 3 of the regulation). VAT payable is due by the same date, and it counts as paid on the day the money reaches the account of the National Revenue Agency (NRA, НАП) (Art. 89, paras. 1 and 3 of the VAT Act).

When the 14th is a non-working day, the deadline moves to the next working day (Art. 22, para. 7 of the Tax and Social Insurance Procedure Code, ДОПК):

Sales ledger: columns and VAT return boxes

The sales ledger layout is in Annex 10 to the regulation. Columns 1-8 describe the document, and columns 9-25 hold the amounts that go into Section A of the VAT return:

Purchase ledger: columns and VAT return boxes

The purchase ledger layout is in Annex 11 to the regulation. The amounts in columns 9-15 go into Section B of the VAT return:

Every tax document received goes into the purchase ledger, not only those with a credit right (Art. 113, para. 1 of the regulation). An invoice for entertainment or for a passenger car, with no credit right under Art. 70, para. 1, goes into column 9 with base and tax as one amount.

Document type codes

The document type in column 3 is a two-digit code from Annex 12 to the regulation. The most common are:

The purchases file does not accept codes 81, 82 and 04, and the sales file does not accept codes 92 and 05. A code that is not allowed is a ground for rejecting the file.

Which document goes into which ledger

Most documents go into one ledger only. Protocols with which you charge tax yourself go into both:

Protocols are covered in the Art. 117 protocol and reverse charge VAT in Bulgaria, and notes in credit and debit notes.

Which period a document goes into

The period depends on whether the document was issued or received:

• 01Documents issued and Art. 119 reports go into the sales ledger for the month in which they were issued (Art. 124, para. 2).
• 02The exception is documents for intra-community supplies, including advances: they go into the period in which the tax became chargeable under Art. 51 (Art. 124, para. 3).
• 03If the invoice is not issued on time, the tax is due for the period in which it became chargeable (Art. 86, para. 2). An invoice is issued within 5 days of the tax event or advance (Art. 113, para. 4), and for an intra-community supply by the 15th of the following month (Art. 113, para. 5).
• 04Documents received go into the purchase ledger for the period of issue or one of the next 12 periods, and no later than the last period under Art. 72, para. 1 (Art. 124, para. 4).
• 05Credit notes received go only into the period in which they were issued (Art. 124, para. 5). The 12-period window does not apply to them.

The files for the NRA

The ledgers and the VAT return are filed as a package of three text files: DEKLAR.TXT for the return, PRODAGBI.TXT for sales and POKUPKI.TXT for purchases (Art. 114, para. 1 of the regulation). When a VIES return is due, VIES.TXT or VIES.CSV is added. The file requirements are in Annex 12:

• 01Text files encoded in windows-1251, with a fixed length for every field and no separators between fields.
• 02Amounts in digits only, with a full stop for cents and a minus sign, no thousands separators and no leading zeros, for example 100.00.
• 03Dates as dd/mm/yyyy, and the period as yyyymm, for example 202610.
• 04Document sequence numbers start at 1 and increase by 1 with no gaps or duplicates.
• 05A VAT-registered counterparty is identified by its VAT number, an EU counterparty by its VAT number with the country prefix, and an unregistered one by its ЕИК, ЕГН, ЛНЧ or another number under § 1 of the regulation's additional provisions. The code 999999999999999 (fifteen nines) is mandatory for a foreign person with no Bulgarian registration and no EU VAT number, and for a non-taxable individual when the supplier need not state their number.
• 06The files are submitted even when empty, and each covers a single period.

The files are uploaded to the NRA portal with a qualified electronic signature (КЕП). If the VAT return and the files do not match, the NRA invites you to fix the mismatch within 7 days. The return counts as filed once the mismatch is fixed, and the statutory filing and payment deadlines do not change (Art. 114, paras. 8 and 9 of the regulation).

Ledgers in euro from 2026

Since 1 January 2026 the taxable amount is set in euro (Art. 26, para. 2 of the VAT Act), and invoice amounts may be in another currency as long as the base and tax are stated in euro (Art. 114, para. 5). Amounts in the ledgers for 2026 periods are in euro too:

• 01An invoice in a foreign currency is converted to euro at the latest European Central Bank rate at the moment the tax becomes chargeable (Art. 26, para. 6 of the VAT Act).
• 02Leva invoices issued up to 31 December 2025 and entered in the ledgers for 2026 periods are converted to euro under Arts. 12 and 13 of the Act on the Introduction of the Euro (NRA guidance).
• 03Corrections to periods up to 31 December 2025 are made in leva, the currency of the period corrected (Art. 51 of the same Act).

The annexes to the regulation, in the consolidated text, still refer to amounts "in Bulgarian leva". References to the lev without a stated value count as references to the euro (Art. 11, para. 4 of the Act on the Introduction of the Euro), and the NRA expressly requires euro for 2026 periods.

How to correct an error in a ledger

How an error is corrected depends on whether the filing deadline has passed (Art. 126 of the VAT Act):

• 01Until the deadline, the 14th inclusive: you fix the error and file the VAT return and ledgers for the same period again (Art. 126, para. 2).
• 02After the deadline, for a document left out: you include it in the ledger for the period in which you found the error (Art. 126, para. 3, item 1).
• 03After the deadline, for a document entered incorrectly: you notify the NRA in writing, and it takes steps to change the liability for that period (Art. 126, para. 3, item 2).
• 04A missed purchase invoice is usually not an error: you enter it in a later period within the 12 periods under Art. 124, para. 4.

The penalties are stated in leva in the VAT Act and apply converted to euro:

What the draft for 2028 proposes

What else the draft proposes is covered in mandatory e-invoicing in Bulgaria from 2028. Until 31 December 2027 the ledgers are kept under the current rules.

Common mistakes

• 01Entering an Art. 117 protocol in only one ledger. Without the sales ledger you deduct tax you never charged; without the purchase ledger you pay the tax with no credit.
• 02Entering an invoice with no credit right in columns 10 and 11. It goes into column 9 with base and tax together, or box 41 is overstated.
• 03Entering a credit note received in a later period. It goes into the period in which it was issued (Art. 124, para. 5).
• 04Using the wrong code: a protocol coded 01 instead of 09, or a bad-debt credit note coded 03 instead of 23.
• 05Putting an intra-community acquisition in column 14 instead of 13, an intra-community supply in column 19 instead of 20, or the intra-community supply invoice in the month of issue instead of the month of chargeability.
• 06Stating an EU VAT number without the country prefix. For Greece the prefix is EL.
• 07Entering a 2025 leva invoice in a 2026 ledger without converting it to euro.
• 08Using a comma for cents or thousands separators in the file. That is a ground for rejecting the file.

In smetni.app

In the Declarations module (Business plan), the sales ledger, the purchase ledger and the VAT return, with the VIES return, are built from the invoices and notes you issue, confirmed purchases, Art. 117 protocols and the Art. 119 report, which can be generated from your recorded retail sales. A protocol goes into both ledgers. The "Download for NRA" and "VIES" buttons create the files in the NRA format, and you upload them to the NRA portal yourself. The files are not created while any 0% VAT line has no treatment chosen. The app does not enter customs import declarations or Art. 163a supplies in the ledgers. If you keep the ledgers of several companies, see smetni.app for accounting firms. See the guides to declarations and the monthly close, and plans and pricing.