Shipping from the UK to Bulgaria: A Plain English Guide for UK Sellers

Bulgaria is one of the smaller EU e-commerce markets by volume, but it's a growing one — and since it adopted the euro in January 2026, pricing and customs thresholds work exactly as they do across most of the EU. If you're building out your EU export coverage or receiving occasional orders from Bulgarian customers, here's what you need to know about how the import process works and what your customers will pay.

Bulgaria's VAT rate: 20%

Bulgaria applies a standard VAT rate of 20% to most goods — matching the UK's domestic VAT rate and placing it at the lower end of EU rates. Only Luxembourg (17%), Malta (18%), and Germany and Cyprus (both 19%) apply lower standard rates among EU member states. For UK sellers, this means Bulgarian customers face a more moderate on-delivery VAT charge than customers in Greece (24%), Sweden (25%), Finland (25.5%), or Hungary (27%).

VAT is charged on the total customs value — product price plus shipping — when the parcel clears Bulgarian customs. For a £75 gift set with £15 shipping, Bulgarian VAT at 20% on £90 comes to £18. Add a handling fee of approximately £6, and the on-delivery charge is around £24 on a £75 purchase. Not a fortune — but still worth communicating to customers upfront.

Import duty on UK goods

Goods that genuinely originate in the UK qualify for 0% import duty in Bulgaria under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement. Bulgaria is an EU member state and applies the same TCA rules as all other EU members. Standard EU duty rates apply to goods that don't meet UK origin requirements — if your goods were manufactured outside the UK and are simply being reshipped, you cannot claim TCA preference.

Bulgaria's currency: the euro

Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 January 2026, becoming the 21st member of the euro area. The lev was converted at a fixed rate of 1.95583 leva to the euro, dual circulation ended on 31 January 2026, and the euro has been sole legal tender since 1 February 2026. For UK sellers this is a genuine simplification: prices, customs values, and EU-wide figures like the €150 IOSS limit now apply directly in euros, with no conversion to think about.

The €150 threshold: what changed on 1 July 2026

A bigger change arrived on 1 July 2026, when the EU scrapped the €150 customs-duty exemption. IOSS still does what it always did for VAT: sell B2C with goods worth up to €150 (that's the goods alone, excluding shipping) and Bulgarian VAT is collected at your checkout — through your own IOSS registration or a platform such as Etsy or Amazon — so nothing is demanded at the door. What's new is a temporary flat customs duty of €3 per item on low-value consignments moving through IOSS or the postal special arrangements, running until 1 July 2028. It's levied on the seller or platform, not billed to the customer on delivery.

Outside IOSS, the position is stricter. Standard tariff duty now applies at any value, unless your goods are UK-originating and you claim TCA preference with a statement on origin — that keeps duty at 0%. Import VAT is then collected from your customer on delivery, at any order value, plus the carrier's handling fee.

A practical example

A UK gift brand ships a gift set worth £75 to a customer in Sofia.

Either way, tell the customer before they order. A surprise £24 demand on a £75 gift set is exactly how parcels end up refused at the door. Working out what each destination's charges add up to is part of calculating the full landed cost for each destination.

Shipping times and customs processing

Standard courier services reach Sofia and major Bulgarian cities in 4–6 working days from the UK. Bulgaria is well served by DHL, DPD, and Speedy (the local carrier with national coverage). Customs processing in Bulgaria can be variable — some shipments clear quickly; others take several additional days. Use a fully tracked service to give your customers visibility and to maintain the proof of export records you need for VAT zero-rating purposes.

One side note: Bulgaria joined the Schengen Area in stages — internal air and sea border checks were lifted on 31 March 2024, with full membership including land borders following on 1 January 2025. For UK parcel shipments the practical effect is minor, though it can smooth air transit routing through other Schengen hubs.

Is Bulgaria worth targeting as an export market?

Bulgaria's e-commerce market is smaller than Romania or Poland by volume, and average order values are lower than in Western Europe. But it is growing, and competition from other international sellers targeting Bulgarian customers is thinner than in the major markets. For UK sellers who already export to several EU markets, adding Bulgaria takes little extra work — and euro adoption has removed the one genuine quirk it used to have, so prices, customs values, and the €150 IOSS limit now behave exactly as they do across the rest of the euro area. ClearShip calculates the full charge breakdown for Bulgarian customers in the same way it does for all other EU shipping destinations.