With the Public Procurement Act (PPA) adopted on 18.10.2018, Bulgaria started to spread the usage of eInvoicing throughout the country. In this context, legal provisions on the necessities for receiving and processing eInvoices became mandatory as of 11.11.2019.
Following the current legislation, eInvoice is applied between sub-central level contracting authorities and public administrations.
Established in 2004 to protect the public interest in spending through public procurement, the Public Procurement Authority has created a portal called the Public Procurement Portal (EOP) that provides details of guidance for the legality, efficiency, openness, accountability, and accessibility.
e-Invoice platform and eInvoice management solutions
The Law for Amending and Supplementing the Public Procurement Act (LASPPA) provides the legal requirements for the founding of the EOP, a national platform for electronic public procurement. The Public Procurement Authority is responsible for the establishment and maintenance of the EOP.
With the help of the guide presented on the portal, how commercial organizations or contracting authorities will benefit from the EOP is supported by visuals and written explanations.
Bulgarian law makes eInvoicing mandatory for all contracting authorities but does not require the use of eInvoice for businesses that are not obliged to submit eInvoices to the EOP. The government envisages mandatory use of eInvoicing for the entire private sector.
e-Invoice receiving and processing approach
eInvoicing in Bulgaria is based on bilateral agreements between economic actors (or solution providers acting on their behalf) and public administrations. The government has approved the implementation of the European eInvoicing Standard in the eInvoice application. In eInvoice, the XML European Standard is mandatory for all contracting authorities by law.
Bulgarian legislators do not use any monitoring strategy regarding the use of e-Invoice.