The National Revenue Agency (NRA) is beginning large-scale inspections and audits to determine whether the payment of dividend tax is being circumvented by paying huge salaries, Mediapool reports. The revenue agency indicates that a hundred Bulgarians received a monthly salary of over 255,646 euros in 2025, which raises suspicions of accounting tricks.
Hidden profit distribution
The NRA explained to the media that a risk of hidden profit distribution has been identified when paying huge salaries to individuals associated with companies, such as owners and managers. “These large salaries, which are recognized as an expense of the enterprise (i.e., they reduce the real profit) and in the presence of a maximum threshold of social security income, above which social security contributions are not due, provide a tax advantage due to the lower personal income tax rate (10%) compared to the 15% general rate when declaring the real profit and distributing dividends“, the agency informs.
According to tax experts, this advantage reaches almost 5% for large amounts. It is planned to commission control proceedings in 2027 and 2028 to verify the treatment of this risk.
Record salaries in the past year
The data show that between 50 and 100 people received salaries exceeding 255,646 euros per month in 2025, with their number reaching almost 300 in December. The five Bulgarians with the highest labor incomes collected a total of over 15.34 million euros for the year. The monthly salary of about 30 people even exceeded 409,034 euros.
The tax agency refuses to disclose the highest individual salary for last year, although in previous periods this information was public. In 2022, the highest declared salary in the country was 1.64 million euros per month. Official statistics now show that over 10,000 people earn between €10,226 and €25,565 per month, and nearly 1,200 people declare between €51,129 and €255,646 per month.
Growth in average incomes
In contrast to the millionaire salaries, around 63% of all workers in the country, or nearly 1.6 million people, earned up to €1,023 per month in 2025. Of the total of just over 2.5 million people on an employment contract, nearly 900,000 were on a minimum wage of €551 or less, and another 700,000 people earned between €551 and €1,023.
The statistics show a steady decline in the lowest paid workers over the years. For comparison, in 2019, the minimum wage of 286 euros was received by over 930,000 people. At the same time, a significant increase in average incomes is being reported. People with a monthly salary between 1,534 and 2,556 euros have increased by about 65% in two years, reaching nearly 340,000 people in October 2025. People with incomes between 2,556 and 5,113 euros have increased by 53% to over 136,000 people.