Bulgaria

Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Bulgaria

Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Bulgaria (Bulgarian acronym is IDES BICPA).

The Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Bulgaria is the official standard-setting body of the National Accounting Standards in Bulgaria.

The Council of Ministers is the approver of the National Accounting Standards.

The Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Bulgaria is the professional accountants’ body in Bulgaria. It advises the government regarding adoption of accounting standards and provides guidance on enforcement for standards that have been adopted at the government level.

Yes.

Refer to the European Union (EU) 1606/2002 Regulation on the application of international accounting standards (IAS) (hereafter referred to as the EU IAS Regulation): http://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2002/1606/oj

Yes.

Refer to the EU IAS Regulation.

Bulgaria joined the EU as of 1 January 2007. Even before that, Bulgaria had adopted IFRS Standards:

• Bulgaria required IFRS Accounting Standards for banks as a result of the Law on Bulgarian National Bank (1997).
• Bulgaria required IFRS Accounting Standards for publicly traded companies and some other companies under a law passed in 2001, with effect from 2003.

As a member state of the EU, Bulgaria is subject to the EU IAS Regulation.

Since 2005, the EU IAS Regulation has required the application of IFRS Accounting Standards as adopted by the EU in preparing the consolidated financial statements of European companies whose securities trade in a regulated securities market. The EU IAS Regulation gives member states the option to require or permit the application of IFRS Standards as adopted by the EU in preparing separate company financial statements (statutory accounts) and/or in preparing the financial statements of companies whose securities do not trade in a regulated securities market. See the Profile for the EU for more detailed information about the EU IAS Regulation.

Bulgaria has one regulated market—the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, Sofia JSC, whose securities trade in a regulated market:

• are required to apply IFRS Accounting Standards as adopted by the EU in preparing their consolidated financial statements; and
• are required to apply IFRS Accounting Standards as adopted by the EU in preparing their separate company financial statements.

Companies whose securities do not trade in a regulated market:

• are required to apply IFRS Accounting Standards as adopted by the EU in preparing both their consolidated and separate company financial statements if they fall into specific categories listed in Article 34 of the Bulgarian Accountancy Act. Such companies include, but are not limited to, credit and financial institutions, payment service providers, insurance and reinsurance companies, pension funds, investment funds and investment intermediaries.
• are permitted to apply IFRS Accounting Standards as adopted by the EU in preparing both their separate and consolidated financial statements on a voluntary basis, unless they are listed in Article 34 of the Bulgarian Accountancy Act. If a company has voluntarily adopted IFRS Accounting Standards as adopted by the EU, it is required to continue using IFRS Accounting Standards as adopted by the EU in preparing both its consolidated and separate company financial statements.

Not applicable.

Yes.

The EU has 24 official and working languages. They are: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish and Swedish.

Before they are published in the Official Journal of the European Union, and therefore become binding under EU law, individual IFRS Accounting Standards must be translated into all of those languages (other than English and Irish).

Pursuant to a copyright waiver agreement with the Directorate-General for Translation of the European Commission, the Commission takes care of the translation into the official languages according to its own translation process. The translation only covers the Standards and mandatory guidance, which are then published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

In addition, some jurisdictions (usually the standard-setter or professional accounting institute) have translation contracts with the IFRS Foundation to produce official translations of a bound volume of IFRS Accounting Standards (usually the ‘Red Book’) and, in some cases, individual Standards and exposure drafts.