Bulgaria gives tax agency access to crypto transaction data

Bulgaria’s parliament approved a law this month that gives the National Revenue Agency access to cryptocurrency transaction records and customer identification for tax inspection and enforcement.

The law requires exchanges, custodial wallet operators and other digital-asset service providers to keep detailed records of transactions and client identities. Required data includes transaction timestamps, amounts, sender and recipient wallet identifiers and the personal details tied to accounts.

Providers must retain transaction histories and respond to information requests from the revenue agency within set deadlines. The legislation establishes penalties for firms that fail to collect, store or disclose the required information.

The rules apply to firms operating in Bulgaria and to foreign platforms that offer services to Bulgarian residents. Foreign companies offering services to local users must register with Bulgarian authorities or appoint local representatives to handle tax reporting duties.

The law creates a legal basis for sharing crypto transaction data with tax authorities in other countries under existing bilateral and multilateral agreements, aligning national reporting with international efforts to trace cross-border crypto flows.

Industry groups and legal advisers have flagged technical and compliance challenges. Firms will need to upgrade logging systems, strengthen identity verification and build reporting pipelines to meet the format and scope of tax requests. The legislation includes transitional provisions to give providers time to update systems and designate officers responsible for reporting.

Bulgaria’s finance ministry described the measure as an effort to close tax gaps tied to trading, staking and token sales. The law includes data-protection safeguards, limits on access to legitimate tax investigations, penalties for misuse by officials and procedures for appeals by firms and taxpayers.

The National Revenue Agency plans to publish guidance for providers and taxpayers and to carry out targeted audits of large platforms and checks on high-value transactions flagged by the new reporting channels. Ministry and tax officials engaged industry participants during the drafting to identify technical needs for secure data transfers.