SAF-T in 2026: the first wave is live. Who's next?
Since 1 January 2026, SAF-T in Bulgaria is no longer a plan — the largest taxpayers file every month. This is the point where the topic stops being abstract for everyone else too: the timeline is running, and the lessons of the first wave are most useful to the companies whose turn has not yet come.
What happened in 2026
The first wave covered companies with net sales above BGN 300 million or taxes and contributions above BGN 3.5 million. For them, filing is monthly and mandatory. The practical lesson from their experience is organisational, not technical: the problem is never the file — it is the data behind it. Companies whose systems were connected went through it like another routine declaration. Companies with scattered data paid in months of overtime.
Who's next
- 2027 — large, medium and small enterprises that meet the first wave's high threshold.
- 2028 — enterprises with 2025 net sales above BGN 15 million.
- 2029 — all large, medium and small enterprises.
- 2030 — micro-enterprises; in effect, everyone VAT-registered.
Thresholds are set by НАП and may change — but the direction has been the same for years: the scope only grows.
What to do this year if your turn is 2029
Nothing dramatic — which is exactly why now is the good moment. Three things, ordered by effort:
- Ask your accountant which wave you fall into. A five-minute conversation, zero leva.
- Look at where your data is retyped by hand. Every manual retype is a future mismatch between the shop and the accounts — and mismatches are precisely what SAF-T makes visible.
- Connect first whatever costs you hours even without SAF-T. Orders, invoices, payments. It pays back immediately, and 2029-readiness arrives as a side effect.
The full year-by-year timeline, the thresholds and what the file actually requires are in our SAF-T guide — this post is the snapshot as of July 2026.