In pursuance of our commitment to keep our clients well informed of any developments in the legal field in Bulgaria which may somehow affect them or otherwise be of interest to them, we would hereby like to draw your attention to some legislative amendments concerning the notifications sent by employers to the National Revenues Agency pursuant to Art. 62, para. 5 of the Bulgarian Labour Code. An Ordinance on the Amendment and Supplementation of Ordinance No. 5 dated 29.12.2002 on the Contents and Procedures for Submission of the Notification under Art. 62, para. 5 of the Labour Code (the “Ordinance”) was promulgated in State Gazette No. 23 dated 17th March 2016 and will enter into force on 1st April 2017. The Ordinance introduces a new requirement for indication of the code of the location where the relevant employee performs his/her work, as determined under the Unified Classification of Administrative-Territorial and Territorial Units (UCATTU), in the notifications regulated by the Ordinance (including notifications for conclusion, amendment or termination of employment agreements, as well as notifications for change of employer). The deadlines for submission of the notifications remain unchanged.

Notably, the amended and supplemented requirements of the Ordinance will affect not only the employment agreements which will be concluded after the effective date of the new rules (1st April 2017), but also employment agreements which have been concluded and already notified to the National Revenues Agency (except if terminated as at 1st April 2017). Thus, the employers in Bulgaria will have to submit an updated notification (containing the UCATTU information) for each effective employment agreement, to which they are a party. The deadline for filing of the updated notifications is 30th October 2017. Failure to submit the notifications in due and timely manner is generally considered a labour law violation and thus possibly subject to penalization by labour audit authorities (by an amount ranging between BGN 1,500 (approx. EUR 767) and BGN 15,000 (approx. EUR 7,670) for each respective case).

DGKV remains available should you have any queries and/or need further assistance regarding the matter.