Asen Vassilev is not taking a step back either: the authorities are preparing a new scheme for "bonus - whistleblowing"

Ministry of Finance, under the leadership of the official Minister Ludmila Petkova, is preparing a new version of the scheme bonus for information on tax evasion. Former finance minister Asen Vassilev tried to push a similar idea, which earned the nickname "bonus-denunciation".

Petkova spoke about a plan for the introduction of the scheme in the period 2024 – 2027 as part of the measures in the fight against money laundering and the exit of Bulgaria from the so-called "grey list” on money laundering of the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Bulgaria entered it in October 2023. In response to a parliamentary question, Petkova indicated that it is planned to introduce a financial incentive for persons who submit information containing specific facts and circumstances that were not known to the revenue authorities and lead to the establishment and collection of additional obligations for taxes, duties, mandatory insurance contributions and the interest on them, with a total value of over BGN 100,000.“

A similar regulation is contained in the legislation of the USA and Great Britain. The goal is to further motivate persons who have information about hidden or undeclared income to notify the competent authorities.

For comparison, in Asen Vassilev's proposal, the minimum threshold above which the scheme would apply was much lower – BGN 3,000, recalls economic.bg. It was not liked by the business, according to which it could become a "unfair competition tool", with which to send NRA checks to competitors. In the end, his proposal did not gather support from any political force other than "We continue the change – Democratic Bulgaria“.

According to data from the Ministry of Finance, more than 5,000 reports of hidden income are received by the NRA every year, of which about 100 are appointed – 120 checks. From them, an average collection of about BGN 700,000 is reached.

The scale shows that, according to Petkova's plan, the idea is now that the scheme applies only to major offenders, whose impact on the state treasury is even greater.

According to data of the financial department from the National Revenue Agency, the hidden taxes and insurances in Bulgaria are about 2 – BGN 2.2 billion per year.

There is no new draft of the Finance Ministry's proposal, and the only deadline for this and several other measures specified by the Finance Minister is 2024 – 2027

The Ministry of Finance has undertaken and is planning a number of measures to reduce the share of the so-called gray economy, to combat tax fraud, tax evasion and tax evasion, which will further improve the fight against money laundering, Petkova points out in your answer.

Bulgaria entered the "grey list” for money laundering in October 2023, and this was also reported by the European Central Bank in its report on the convergence of the member states of the European Union outside the Eurozone. In the first "update" on the list since Bulgaria entered it, it was left.

In her reply, Minister Petkova stated that "the efforts made by the Bulgarian institutions (to remove the country from the list) are already yielding very good results.