Bulgaria’s revenue agency says tests for Covid-19 allowable expense by employers

Costs incurred by employers for PCR or other tests such as antigen tests of employees are recognised as allowable expenses for tax purposes, Bulgaria’s National Revenue Agency said.

The agency said that employers should provide documentation about the spending on such tests for employees that must be in line with the requirements of the Accounting Act.

It cited labour and health and safety legislation that obliges employers to provide a safe working environment for employees, while the Health and Safety at Work Act says that all costs related to providing healthy and safe working conditions are at the expense of the employer.

In other news related to the Covid-19 situation in Bulgaria on December 3:

The hospital for long-term treatment and rehabilitation in Pernik has been closed for two weeks because the entire medical staff is hospitalised.

More than half of the doctors are infected with new coronavirus, and the rest cannot work because of other illnesses. Nurses and paramedics are also infected.

The hospital has not been treating patients with new coronavirus, but after the infection was found in the hospital, it turned out that a third of the patients also tested positive.

Bulgarian National Television reported that weak internet and lack of devices are creating problems for online learning for children in Northwestern Bulgaria.

There are more than 1000 pupils in different classes who are experiencing difficulties. Most of them are in primary and lower secondary classes.

It is especially difficult for children in villages, where the coverage is not always sufficient for them to be able to open the tasks set for them by their teachers, the report said.

Plovdiv municipality has put a ban on all large-scale events in the city in December, without exception, acting mayor Todor Chonov said.

This means the cancellation of, among other events, the Christmas in Kapana bazaar that had been planned from December 19 to 26, and the farmers market.

In Plovdiv, the open-air ice rink on Central Square near the Military Club, the largest ice rink in Bulgaria, remains open, subject to compliance with anti-epidemic measures, Chonov said.

(Photo: Claude Truong Ngoc/Wikimedia Commons)

The Sofia Globe’s coverage of the Covid-19 situation in Bulgaria is supported by the Embassies of Switzerland and Finland.

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