Bulgaria’s Tax Agency to Extend Media Sector Inspections to Online Editions

Bulgaria’s National Revenue Agency (NRA) said on Tuesday it will likely widen the scope of its financial inspections of media outlets to include online editions.

“The NRA is looking into potential tax evasion and outstanding tax payments,” the NRA spokesman Rosen Bachvarov said on Nova TV, dismissing allegations the inspections were somehow linked to the editorial policy of media outlets.

The NRA said earlier it is looking into the financial activities of all print media outlets over the last five years.

Sega, a newspaper published with the backing private gas company Overgas Inc., has claimed that it was being targeted by tax authorities after writing about alleged collusion between the governing GERB party and opposition DPS party to turn down recent reform legislation in Parliament.

“Being economic entities, the media outlets are subject to the same regulations that are valid for everyone else,” Bachvarov said.