Need help with so called car tax owed!

@Abi19555

Welcome to the expat.com forum and good luck with your car tax drama!

Bulgaria's property (cars and houses and more) transfers require a notary. If you sold the car to your neighbour with just a scribbled bill of sale, then it was never transferred (and couldn't have been, as KAT wants to see the Notary Act). If you did go to the notary, then your Notary Act is proof that you disposed of the vehicle. Do you have the notary act, or the bill of sale, or neither?

Your neighbour almost certainly knew this, so he's the one that got you into this trouble. I'd be a bit skeptical about him and anything he had to say to me.

Most likely, you still own the car, and you owe car tax for lots of years. And you should pay it, and attempt to resolve the situation.

Whether you do or not, depends on your situation vis a vis Bulgaria, and whether you still own property here (other than your car) and whether you intend to ever return here.

You've been gone for 16 years, so that suggests you're not heading back this way. But you're still in contact with folks over here, so perhaps you're keeping the door open.

If 16 years ago you sold you car and your house and all your Bulgarian belongings... and didn't come back since... and have no intention of coming back in the future... then it's certainly a lot easier to ignore it. I'm not 100% sure what the potential repercussions are, but I doubt they can chase you in the UK for this debt.

If you feel bad about it and want to resolve it, you'll need to make a trip back to Bulgaria with your proofs of selling/leaving, and then spend time (with an attorney or interpreter) at a notary (to file some appropriate declarations), KAT (to get the vehicle de-registered) and your municipality (to pay the taxes and make sure they don't ask for any more). Which sounds like a right faff. :-)

The lesson here is that every transaction of real property must go through the notary and it is far cheaper to pay the tax now than later and deal with the penalties and headaches.  Like all areas Bg has things to improve however its tax collection, vat tracking and adherence to proper documentation is as good as it gets. 

@gwynj unfortunately the neighbours has passed away but he sold the car on to someone else years ago, it was a quick sell due to moving back to the UK,  have no intentions on returning and the house etc sold years ago, it now has néw owners but.... they are saying they have had to pay this debt because the company is now up and running again with money going in and its taken money out of the account that they were putting there money into.

It sounds abit fishy to me because surely when we went to the notary this would have popped up showing tax etc for the car is owed , not years down the line and then it pops up again. If I knew any of this I would have sorted it and paid etc but this many years later, I'm just hoping I'm not being fobbed off for someone trying to get money out of me .

I really appreciate your help

@Abi19555

Oh... even more complicated if there's a company! You bought years ago, even before Bulgaria joined the EU... so did you buy the house and car via a BG company, and not in your own name? And then when you sold the house you transferred the company to the new owners, rather than them buying the house from the company?

This seems to me like the only way a company would now be part of the discussion!

In this case, I suppose both assets (the house and car) are in the company, so that means there's some recourse for the municipality seeking their car tax (or their property tax).

And then it's plausible that it's happening (rather than being fishy). And it's certainly rather annoying for the new owners!

But they acquired the company, and the company had another asset and related obligations which they (or their attorney) didn't spot.

I think, in the nicest possible way, you should explain to them that you left Bulgaria 16 years ago, selling everything you own here. And you don't have the time or the money to investigate ancient history. You're very sorry if there is now a problem, but you don't see how you can help them.

In terms of chasing the car tax debt, this is on the company. And if the company is no longer owned by you, they will only chase the new owners. So that only leaves the new owners suing you personally, but that seems a bit far-fetched after 16 years. I don't think there's an reason to stress over this.

So they brought the house off me and the company,  non of it is in my name anymore , but the log book for the car is in my name,  because I don't have thr company or house anymore does this still mean I have to pay the tax for the car? You've been soo much help I really appreciate it!!!

@Abi19555

The car is definitely still yours then! :-)

But I really don't understand how the municipality ties that back to a company that you don't own any more. Unless... maybe you thoughfully set up some kind of automatic payment of your house and car taxes to the municipality from your company bank account? Or any other ideas?

My vote is still to ignore it. Maybe it's time to ghost them? They'll get the message eventually. :-)