“In Bulgaria, my monthly net income is around €300 higher from my German salary,” said Kristina Borisova, who returned to Bulgaria in early 2025 after eight years in Germany. Today, the 41-year-old lives in Pomorie, a small town on the Black Sea coast. She continues to work remotely for a German company in the energy sector.
Her company, which is based in eastern Germany, pays her an ordinary German salary, even though Borisova works from Bulgaria. She now enjoys a higher net income, thanks to the country’s lower taxes and social security deductions.
She does not pay rent in Pomorie because she lives with her parents, which allows her to put more money aside each month. After all expenses, she has just over €700 left. That’s a big chunk of money, especially in a country like Bulgaria, where the average monthly salary last year was just €1,300 (about $1,500).
Borisova is very grateful that her German employer allows her to work remotely.
“The financial benefit is great,” she told DW. “But the best thing is that I’m close to my family.”
Remote work offers major income boost
Radimir Bitsov has also returned to Bulgaria after eight years living in Berlin. He’s based in Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia, working remotely for a small German IT company.
Bitsov moved back during the COVID pandemic. “That was when our child was born. It was very difficult to find a larger apartment in Berlin, and we wanted to be close to our family,” said the 38-year-old.
The fact that he enjoys a higher net income — “around 20% more” — after returning to Bulgaria is a very pleasant side effect.
“In recent years, I have observed a new trend — more and more young and well-educated Bulgarians are leaving Germany and working remotely from Bulgaria,” said Konstantin Ruskov, a Munich-based lawyer who advises German companies whose Bulgarian employees are moving back home.
“While we had five such clients at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are now at least 80 companies,” he said. “Some have just one employee working from Bulgaria, others have 20.”
There are no official statistics on how many Bulgarians are returning home to work remotely for German firms. However, 2024 data from Germany’s Federal Statistical Office shows that, for the first time in a long period, more Bulgarians left Germany than moved there.
The negative migration balance was minus 11,000 people. Around 432,000 Bulgarians currently live in Germany.
Data from the Bulgarian National Institute of Statistics, meanwhile, shows that more and more Bulgarians have been returning home since 2022.
In 2024, Bulgaria saw around 9,000 emigrations, while twice as many citizens returned to the country in the same period — more than 18,000 people.
After 10 years in Munich, Silvi Bojadzhieva has also returned to Bulgaria. The 34-year-old economist now lives in Sofia, where she continues to work for her German employer.
Bojadzhieva wanted to return to Bulgaria mainly for family reasons, but also because “earning a Western salary in Bulgaria has great advantages,” she told DW.
“The reasons for returning to Bulgaria are highly individual, but for quite a few of the young, highly qualified Bulgarians who take this step, the motivation is primarily financial,” Ruskov explained, relating a story about a 30-year-old client in Munich with a gross monthly income of €8,000.
“After all tax and social security contributions, he was left with a net income of around €4,500 owing to tax class 1. He still had to pay rent from this. And in a city like Munich, rents have risen massively in recent years. In Bulgaria, on the other hand, he is left with a net income of around €6,000 from his €8,000 salary.”
How German employers benefit
Ruskov said the relocation of employees also has advantages for German companies. That is because this lowers non-wage labor costs for them, as employees are insured through the Bulgarian rather than the German system.
“In addition, German companies do not incur any investment costs because they are not based in Bulgaria,” he said.
Such remote employment is excellently regulated within the EU, said the lawyer. “Registration is simple and inexpensive. Some documents have to be issued in Germany, which can take a few weeks, but everything works very quickly in Bulgaria.”
He said the main reason German companies allow their workers to relocate is employee retention — particularly important in light of Germany’s skilled workers shortage.
Return to Germany?
But Borisova and Bitsov both reported that the cost of living in Bulgaria has been increasing, slightly diminishing the value of their German salaries. Prices in Bulgaria, especially in Sofia, have risen sharply in recent years, long before the country joined the eurozone.
“Some things, such as clothes and food, are even more expensive in Bulgaria than in Germany,” said Borisova.
Borisova, Bitsov and Bojadzhieva also say they miss the German sense of orderliness and cleanliness, as well as good medical care.
Even so, Borisova wants to stay in Bulgaria forever. Bitsov, on the other hand, could imagine turning his back on his homeland once again if, for example, the political situation were to deteriorate.
Bojadzhieva, too, does not rule out leaving Bulgaria again. She is concerned about the country’s political situation. In December, the Bulgarian government resigned following mass protests triggered by a proposed tax increase in the draft 2026 budget.
“If the tax burden and social security contributions in Bulgaria increase without better services and infrastructure being offered, this will lead to a significant decline in the quality of life,” she said.
Ruskov, the labor attorney, is similarly concerned about political developments in Bulgaria, where seven parliamentary elections have taken place since 2020. If the situation does not improve, Bulgaria may see its highly qualified big earners leaving once more, he said.
This article was originally written in German.
