Not later than the 30th day of each month, employers will have to inform the territorial directorate of the National Revenue Agency (NRA) of employment contracts concluded or terminated during the month.
This is envisaged in a bill amending the Tax and Social-Security Procedure Code that the Cabinet approved on August 17.
Under the current version of the code, employers must notify the NRA of a conclusion or modification of an employment contract within three days and of a termination within seven days.
The change is expected to ease the operation of businesses and cut down their costs. Now, employers are often forced to go to NRA and register each new employee. With the amendment, they will be able to register more labour contracts simultaneously.
If an employer now appoints three employees during the month, he or she will have to deal with NRA three times, while under the amended legislation, there need be only one visit to the NRA offices.
The NRA said the change was at its initiative. The agency has estimated that it will have the required capacity to serve businesses even if many customers appear at the end of each month. The NRA administration is usually under pressure around the14th every month, when businesses file their value added tax declarations.
An employer will also be able to notify the NRA administration online, provided that they have an electronic signature. Another option is to use the post.
The bill details the framework of a procedure for mutual assistance and information exchange with EU member states about taxes on income, property and insurance premiums, a procedure facilitating co-ordination and co-operation among member states in exchanging information on income and savings, and a procedure for mutual assistance with EU member states on the collection of expressly listed public receivables.
The changes to the Tax and Social-Security Procedure Code envisage also that banks will have to notify the NRA by April 30 each year on interest rates accumulated on the deposits of EU citizens. This is in relation to the interest tax. The first such notification campaign will take place in 2008.
The EU administration will help its Bulgarian colleagues to collect taxes, duties and other charges, if the citizens or companies are on the territory of another member state. The arrangement applies for dues of more than 1500 euro.
Record low unemployment
Bulgaria’s July unemployment rate fell to 8.96 per cent from 9.18 per cent for the previous month and 10.95 per cent for July 2005, mainly due to government-funded employment programmes, the Labour and Social Policy Ministry said on August 17. July unemployment rate was the lowest since August 1991, and it is close to the unemployment level of 8.1 per cent in the European Union for June, the ministry said. The number of unemployed people registered with labour offices in July was 331 796, down by 8263 from the previous month and also lower by 73 697 from July 2005. Overall, 17 458 people started work in July, most in the private sector, while job vacancies totalled 16 005. Government-funded employment programmes provided jobs for about 100 000 people.
