How are crypto gains taxed in Bulgaria — and is swapping coins a taxable event or only cashing out?

Good instinct to ask before selling — the answers change what you owe. The base rule is friendly: for individuals, gains from disposing of crypto are taxed at the flat 10 percent as income from sale of financial assets. You aggregate over the calendar year — total gains minus total losses across all disposals — and pay 10 percent on the net result, declared in your annual return (Annex 5) by 30 April of the following year. Bulgaria has no long-holding exemption: unlike Germany's one-year rule, your 2020 coins are taxable on sale here no matter how long you held them. Note also there is no step-up on immigration — your cost basis stays the original 2020 purchase price, so the entire gain accrued before you moved is taxed by Bulgaria when you dispose. On swaps: the NRA's position treats crypto-to-crypto exchanges as disposals too — you realize a gain or loss measured in euro at the moment of the swap, not only when you finally cash out to fiat. A dozen swaps a year means a dozen taxable events to compute. Export full transaction histories from your exchanges now, while accounts are open, because reconstructing cost basis years later is miserable. The worse regime is real but you are nowhere near it: someone trading habitually and by occupation — high frequency, systematic, a main income source — can be reclassified as a trader carrying on economic activity, taxed at 15 percent plus social contributions. Occasional portfolio rebalancing like yours stays comfortably in the 10 percent capital regime. For the wider picture of what else changed when you became resident, see /guides/bulgaria-tax-guide-for-foreigners.