Not many people are aware of the fact, that currently Bulgaria is in the world top 10 list of countries with fastest internet connection and 3rd in the world as of IT specialists per capita. The capital city – Sofia ranks 2nd among the Top 10 fastest growing Tech centers in Europe in terms of annual grouth of active members in the ecosystem. Global IT R&D leaders like SAP Labs, HP, Bosch, VMware, IBM, CISCO operate large R&D centers in Bulgaria already. Financial Times – one of the world’s leading business news and information organisations recently moved to Bulgaria one more of its key teams in the field of development of technologies and digital products.

The Covid-19 crisis showed to the global and EU leaders how unprepared we are and how much we depend on the biggest factory in the world – China, with respect to supply. Many EU countries started to reconsider their production and organization strategies, trying to find near-shore destinations. Having in mind factors as its geostrategic location, low taxation, well trained and educated labour force, the Bulgarian government is launching more and more incentives in order to attract and stimulate European producers to move part of their currently positioned in China production lines into Bulgaria.

Because of the Brexit situation, the UK’s service sector, which accounts for some 80% of the country’s GDP, will lose the right to cater to EU clients. In order to maintain access to this market, companies are pushed to set up offices in the EU in a bid to minimise the negative fall-out they expect Brexit will cause to their businesses. The whole import and export ecosystem will suffer from delays, the time it takes for payments to be processed and received will most likely increase, leaving many businesses short of funds. SMEs are facing questions like what if import prices are higher, delivery times longer or overhead costs to your business are permanently increased?

Many EU jurisdictions are preparing not only to mitigate the risk and negative consequences of Brexit, but also on how to attract UK based bussinesses to relocate to EU.

Bulgaria, with its friendly business environtment, great tax benefits, low business costs such as rental and real estate, utilities, labour cost and government incentives to attract foreign investors, may offer many good reasons and opportunities for relocation of business.

A stable economy and bank sector, second lowest public debt in Europe combined with the absence of ethnical tension and immigrant issues qualify Bulgaria as a strong competitor among the rest of the EU jurisdictions.

Bulgaria is an outstanding example for a low-tax jurisdiction, and at the same time it has an excellent reputation in terms of compliancy and transparency, which makes it a first-class EU jurisdiction for doing business and settling a trading or a holding company, as well as a perfect choice for tax residency jurisdiction for any European entrepreneur.