Which bank paid how much to “patch up” the state budget (Chart)

Commercial banks have come to the aid of Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova in her attempt to “patch up” the growing budget deficit. At the end of June, the “hole” in the treasury reached BGN 3.3 billion, while at the same period last year it was around BGN 700 million. Petkova managed to nail the deficit at exactly half of the total amount planned for the whole year and thus, at least in theory, is not behind schedule.

However, this was apparently achieved thanks to commercial banks, which transferred around BGN 500 million in advance income tax for 2026.

This was first reported by former MP Vladislav Panev from the “We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria” party in a Facebook post, citing data from the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB).

It turns out that these are taxes that would otherwise have been due in 2026. In other words, in order to balance (only partially) this year's budget, the state has “convinced” the banks to pay half a billion in advance. Another BGN 500 million has been paid for the current year, i.e., these are not contributions that are currently due," Panev wrote.

The Corporate Income Tax Act (CITA) requires banks – and companies in general – to make advance payments every month or quarter, calculated on the basis of the projected taxable profit for the current year. If the contributions made at the end of the year exceed the financial result, the amounts are not deducted from those for the following year but are expressly refunded by the tax administration.

BNB statistics show that as of June 2025, BGN 512.8 million had been paid, while just a month earlier the amount was BGN 29.4 million.

The payment of advance tax for 2026 was first discussed at the beginning of the summer, when it was announced at a press conference that negotiations with banks were underway. At that time, the amount mentioned was BGN 1.1 billion – this was the revenue envisaged by the acting finance minister Lyudmila Petkova in her 2025 budget, but in the form of a “super profit” tax, which, as Economic.bg wrote, is applied in a quarter of European countries. After resistance from both the banks and the BNB, the idea was dropped, but according to Petkova, negotiations continued. At the time, she commented laconically on the proposal with the words:

This is an advance tax. Each bank will decide based on its accounting policy and ability to pay."

The banks have obviously decided that they are able to pay the amount in question.

Economic.bg extracted from the BNB data exactly how much each bank contributed to “patching up” the state budget in June.

At this point, neither the Ministry of Finance nor the BNB have commented on the amounts paid.

Translated with DeepL.