Against the grey sector: Revenue Agency starts monitoring thousands of handymen doing home repairs

The National Revenue Agency has started monitoring thousands of home repair workers. The idea is to check whether they are reporting their income correctly. An analysis of the risk of profit and income concealment in this industry shows that receipts are not provided for 60% of repairs. The NRA advises people to request financial documents for their home repairs and later declare them in their tax returns. This way, they could receive a tax relief of around 200 BGN.

The NRA has started its campaign to get handymen out of the grey sector with so-called soft measures.

Anna Mitova, Director of the Communications Directorate at the NRA: "If they are not influenced by this partnership approach, we will move on to different types of control procedures. However, we are partner-oriented with all sectors, and we want to help people to be honest with the state."

However, people are skeptical about the success of this initiative. Their personal experiences show that home repair workers generally do not issue receipts. Svetla had repairs done at her home last year.

BNT: When you did the renovation, did the repair worker give you a receipt?

- No, they generally don't.

BNT: And you didn't ask for one?

- They don’t have a machine, how could they issue one?

The financial document helps not only in reporting the home repair worker's income but also serves as a guarantee for the service provided.

Georgi Penev: "Very often I fire the handymen and then fix things myself, so... It's when you don't do their job properly and you fire them... what receipt do you expect...

Kamen Burov: "These receipts are such a farce. When you go to the market, do they give you receipts?"

If you have managed to get a receipt from your handyman, you can fill out Annex 10 in your tax return and receive a relief of up to 200 BGN.