ИПИ Библиотека

The yearbook is conceived for all those who look for a dynamic understanding of tax and budgetary policies. This includes scholars and students, of course, but also journalists, businessmen and public decision makers. While avoiding technical jargon, authors do not hesitate to enter the details of a mechanism whenever it is necessary. For we all know that there is sometimes a world between notional and real taxation.
Those reports can be used all along the year for quick reference whenever mention is made of one of the twenty countries presented here. As a useful complement to this yearbook, country profile cards summarizing the main budgetary, fiscal and macroeconomic data for each country can be found on the website of the institute at irefeurope.org .

"Bulgaria
by Petar Ganev
29 November 2013
Reading time : 20 min

General assessment
2012 was rather good fiscal year for Bulgaria – while the economy is still underperforming, tax revenues almost fully recovered to their pre-crisis (2008) record high levels and the budget position was close to balanced, with deficit being far less than 1% for 2012. There were no big moves in tax policy, except for the introduction of 10% tax on interest payments from bank deposits – thus widening the base of the flat tax.
2013 already proved to be a challenging year for Bulgaria, with protests throughout the country and a caretaker government being appointed by the president. The social unrest in Bulgaria was fundamentally driven by the depressed labour market and the high electricity bills in the winter. While there are serious challenges ahead and a political uncertainty prior to the elections, one should note that there is no ""fiscal fire"" in Bulgaria. There are of course long term fiscal challenges – pressure of social systems (pensions, health), low fiscal reserve, the quality of public spending – but there are no immediate pitfalls that should be addressed in an urgent manner.
Summary
- Fiscal Policy & Economic Recovery
- Direct Taxation (Corporate Tax & Income Tax)
- Indirect Taxation (VAT & Excise Duties)
- Social Security Contributions
- Conclusions

Pierre Garello

Pierre Garello is currently Professor of Economics at the University Paul Cézanne Aix-Marseille. He received his Bachelor education from that same university and received his PhD from New York University.  He taught at the Universities of Montepellier and Saint Etienne, France and was invited to lecture in Warsaw, Sofia, Bucharest, Vilnius, Jena, Guatemala City, Washington, Roma, Vienna and Haifa.  He is Director of Academic Affairs for the Institute of Economic Studies-Europe and Director of Research for IREF.  He is editor of the “Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines”. Besides taxation and public finance (he is editor of the Yearbook of Taxation in Europe), his field of specialization includes Decision Theory and Law and Economics.  He is director of the Law and Economics Erasmus Mundus Master Program at The University Paul-Cézanne.  His recent publications include: “Is there a Third way?: The cognitive requirement for the implementation of a third way” (2003), “The Breach of Contract in French Law: between safety-of-expectations and efficiency” (2003),“The dynamics of fiscal federalism” (2003), “A special issue on Fiscal systems in of Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines”, (Vol.13, No. 4.), “Insider Trading and Takeovers: How efficient is the regulation?” (2004), “Peut-on éradiquer la corruption?” (2005),“Looking, without success, for a good reason not to worry about Public Debt” (2006), “The Road to efficient taxation in China” (2006),“Removing some obstacles to a better understanding of the trade-growth relationship: How can we deal with the race-to-the bottom argument?” (2006), “Feasibility of a Free Trade Agreement between Georgia and the European Union” (2007), “Reflections on the Nature of Competition Law” (2008), “Hayek’s challenges are worth pursuing” (2009), “The notion of damages to the economy in French Law” (2009), “Taxation in Europe 2010” (2010), “A study on counterfeiting and piracy in Georgia”(2010), ‘“Flat tax”, “Profit”, “Unintended Consequences”, entries for the Dictionnaire du libéralisme’ (2010).