2021 will have the latest tax Freedom day in 10 years, falls on May 20

Bulgarian people will be working 140 days for the government this year and tax freedom day will fall on May 20, according to the Institute of Market Economics (IME). It says that this is the latest tax freedom day in the past ten years.

Due to the hit that the economy is taking from the pandemic, the budget revenue target is set at 47.6 billion leva. The Gross Domestic Product will be 124.5 billion leva, which means that each day Bulgarians will produce goods and services worth 341 million leva. Assuming that everything that is produced will be going to the public purse from the start of the year, it will take 140 days to fill it up - hence the tax freedom day on May 20.

The share of GDP to be redistributed by the government is increasing and will reach 38.2 per cent.

During the period of recovery from the previous crisis, during a relatively long period from 2013 to 2018 the budget revenue was around 35-36 per cent of GDP.

Its increase this year shows that the government is taking a growing role in the economic life of the country. This trend is confirmed by one more major change: the considerably bigger public spending and the significant deficit, which is expected to reach 4.9 billion leva in 2021, IME said.

Despite the decline in economic activity in the first half of last year, working Bulgarians paid more taxes for 2020 than they did for 2019. IME expects that they will pay more taxes this year as well.