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Do I have to spend 183 days in Bulgaria to have a company there?

de Mircea Nicorici, Senior Consultant · updated 22 mai 2026

It's perhaps the most widespread fear: "if I set up a company in Bulgaria, does that mean I have to move there for half the year?" The short answer will put you at ease. But it's worth understanding why, because here two things that aren't directly connected get mixed up.

In short

No. The 183-day rule is about where you are a tax resident, as a person — not about the company's existence. You can have a company in Bulgaria while still living in Romania. They're two separate planes, and that's where all the confusion comes from.

Where does the 183-day story come from?

It's a real criterion, just applied somewhere other than people think. The 183 days help establish where you, as an individual, are a tax resident — that is, in which country you pay tax on your personal income, as a person. It has nothing to do with whether your company can or can't exist in Bulgaria.

The Bulgarian company lives on its own, regardless of how many days you set foot in Bulgaria. The confusion appears because people glue together two different questions: "where is the company" and "where am I". Let's keep them separate, otherwise the maths doesn't add up.

So I don't have to move to Bulgaria?

No. You can set up and own a Bulgarian company while keeping your home, family and life in Romania. Many Romanian entrepreneurs are in exactly this situation.

What matters isn't where you sleep at night, but where the company is actually managed. If the company has real activity in Bulgaria, the fact that you live in Romania doesn't turn it into a Romanian company overnight. Careful though — and this is the only trap — if you run it 100% from Romania, with no substance there at all, then "permanent establishment" comes into play, which we discuss at length elsewhere.

And me personally — where do I pay tax on what I earn?

This is where your personal tax residency comes in. The rule, put simply: you're a tax resident where your centre of life is — where you have the closest personal and economic ties.

In practice: if you live in Romania, with your family here, you're most likely a Romanian tax resident. That means your personal income — including the dividends you take from the Bulgarian company — is declared in Romania. The fact that the company is in Bulgaria doesn't move your residency. You stay where your life is.

And if I could be considered a resident in both countries?

It happens, and that's precisely why there's an agreement between the two states — the Romania–Bulgaria double taxation treaty. It sets a clear order for deciding which one you "belong to" for tax:

  1. first, the country where you have a permanent home available to you;
  2. if you have one in both, the country with which you have the closest personal and economic ties — the centre of your vital interests;
  3. then, as the case may be, where you habitually stay and what citizenship you hold.

The reassuring point: you can't be taxed twice on the same income. The treaty says plainly which country has the right. You don't get stuck "between" two tax authorities.

Can I be the director of the Bulgarian company while staying in Romania?

Yes. You can be both shareholder and director of a Bulgarian EOOD (single-member LLC) or OOD, as a Romanian citizen and resident.

The only concern, the same as above: if absolutely all the company's decisions are in fact made from Romania, the Romanian tax authority can say the company is managed from here. The solution isn't to hide anything — it's to have real substance in Bulgaria. That's it.

In short — can I sit comfortably in Romania with a company in Bulgaria?

Yes. With one simple condition: the company must be real, not just a piece of paper. Remember four things and you're fine:

  • "183 days" is about your personal residency, not the company;
  • you can live in Romania and have a Bulgarian company, it's perfectly possible;
  • your personal income you declare where your life is (usually, Romania);
  • the company stays Bulgarian as long as it has real substance there.

This myth about "having to spend 183 days" needlessly scares people who could, entirely legally, use a company in Bulgaria. Now you know how it really works.