Bulgaria or Romania? What to choose and why?

Until few years ago, Romania was still full of tourists spending their holidays in Mamaia, Eforie, 1 Mai, and was welcoming them, in the specifically hospitality spirit with inflated prices, lowest quality service and forced smiles. We were enjoying it or, better, we had to enjoy it because we had no choice.

Today, the situation is different. Our Bulgarian neighbors saw that we have a problem and found a very suitable solution to our needs: they learn Romanian language or employed Romanian-speaking Bulgarians, they nicely smiled to foreign investors and now, the majority of Romanian tourists but not only, already changed the itinerary of their holiday to Bulgaria. Who has not heard of Golden Sands, Albena and Balchik? 1-0 for Bulgaria.

Until few years ago, Romania was still full of tourists spending their holidays in Mamaia, Eforie, 1 Mai, and was welcoming them, in the specifically hospitality spirit with inflated prices, lowest quality service and forced smiles. We were enjoying it or, better, we had to enjoy it because we had no choice.

Today, the situation is different. Our Bulgarian neighbors saw that we have a problem and found a very suitable solution to our needs: they learn Romanian language or employed Romanian-speaking Bulgarians, they nicely smiled to foreign investors and now, the majority of Romanian tourists but not only, already changed the itinerary of their holiday to Bulgaria. Who has not heard of Golden Sands, Albena and Balchik? 1-0 for Bulgaria.

Then came the times when Romanians needed to buy cars, they entered in the age of convenience, managers and those who are running from one part to another of the city where buses and subways are not working. And we bought several cars until we glanced in Bulgarian neighbors yard and noticed that they already had found a much cheaper solution to buy and register cars in their country. And we chase them, because in their country the taxes were, of course, lower. 2-0 for Bulgaria.

Now, the time has come to calculate the profit of the small businesses that Romanians have opened during the years: we subtract from the profit the fixed costs, the state taxes, the sallaries and other costs and the result was negative. And then, we have glanced again over the fence of our Bulgarian neighbor and saw that they had found AGAIN a good solution to these problems:

• they set the corporation tax at 10%, while in Romania is 16%
• they set the tax dividend at 5%, compared with 16% of Romania
• they have no minimum tax rate, while Romania has the flat rate
• they pay 25-40% as taxes and social charges related to salaries, while in Romania we pay 85%
• they simplified the classification code of companie’s fields of activity in order to decrease bureaucracy
• they charge for founding a firm with around 110 euros, while in Romania the taxes are about 350 euros
• they stabilized the exchange rate

Conclusion: Bulgaria has simplified and reduced taxes to encourage investment.
3-0 to Bulgaria.

Bulgaria advantage: cheaper workforce
Romania advantage: higher domestic market

“It’s much to far” would say a Romanian saying and I would say it perfectly describes the situation we find ourselves in Romanian. “Far” is Bulgarian model, but “is more” up there, whispered the old reconciled voices of Romanian bureaucracy and taxation.

And if we still have neighbors that wants us, why should not choose them as partners of our business road especially now when everything is much easier?