In this post of ours we had the opportunity to talk extensively about difficulties of those who do business in Italy: bureaucracy, taxes, labor costs, infrastructure etc.
Today we partially resume this discussion but we do so to focus on a particular aspect which is that relating to business start-up costs.
Be careful because, it is worth specifying, we will not talk here about the costs linked to the purchase of goods and services functional to the life and processes of the company itself. To be clear: it is clear that if you decide to open a business that produces bread you will have to purchase mixers, ovens and rent suitable premises for this purpose. But these would be costs that, practically to a similar extent, you would incur wherever you chose to open the business.
What we are talking about here are the costs that we can define, if possible, as "most unpleasant" in launching the business itself because they are linked to taxes, permits and authorisations. Real "expenses" that aspiring entrepreneurs have to pay to realize their projects and which, even more seriously, are paid immediately regardless of whether the company makes money or not.
To explain what the numbers are at play, we decided to use this infographic created by the International Monetary Fund and which photographs the situation in 2020 (in 2021, incidentally, things have not changed).
Well, guess which country, among those analysed, is at the top of the list as the one in which the highest costs are incurred for launching a new business in Europe? Obviously Italy and, in this case as in others, it is a record that one would gladly conquer by hand.
The fact is that to date, according to the report, the cost of launching a business in Italy is close to 5000 euros. Following Italy we find the Netherlands and Austria where, however, these costs are less than half, i.e. 2200.
Now, if a cost of 5000 euros can be taken into account by those who are preparing to open medium-large sized businesses, at the same time this sum turns into an impediment "at the start" for those who instead want to start small entrepreneurial businesses and who, rightly, will think twice before putting 5000 euros on the table just to cover the administrative costs associated with launching their business.
Think for example about social security costs: if you decide to open a personal business (therefore the smallest possible) in Italy you will immediately have to pay 3000 euros to INPS as a contribution. And the great thing (in an ironic sense) is that this expense will have to be incurred even if, at the end of the fiscal year, your company will have a negative balance sheet!
But since in this blog we are dealing with those who want to do business in Bulgaria we cannot avoid evaluating the costs of launching a business in this country.
These are negligible costs, around 63 euros, which mean that Bulgaria is at the bottom of the report ranking together with Romania, Croatia and Slovenia.
In practice, it is possible to say without fear of contradiction that opening a new business in Bulgaria is free of charge.
Another incentive to do business in this small, rapidly growing country, which adds to the low levels of taxation we have already discussed in the past (10% taxes without increasing brackets) for both natural and legal persons.
