Tax changes 2026

Value Added Tax (VAT)

Tax Administration – VAT Return M Sheet

From 1 July 2026, in the summary report related to the VAT return (M sheet), data must be provided on the amount of VAT claimed as deductible, broken down by invoice and by tax rate.

Group VAT liability

If the status of the group representative ceases, the members must designate a new representative within 15 days and report this to the Hungarian Tax Authority.

If they fail to do so, the Tax Authority will designate as representative the member with the highest tax performance. Consequently, the VAT group will no longer be automatically terminated if the members do not appoint a new representative.

VAT Rate

From 1 January 2026, the VAT rate payable on the sale of meat suitable for human consumption, slaughter by-products and offal of domesticated cattle will be reduced to 5%.

VAT Exemption Threshold

The VAT exemption threshold will be HUF 20 million from 1 January 2026.

Corporate Tax

Threshold for the Frequency of Advance Tax Payments

From 1 January 2026, if the taxpayer’s payable tax for the previous tax year does not exceed HUF 20 million, the taxpayer is required to fulfil the advance tax payment obligation on a quarterly basis.

The advance tax payment frequency determined according to the increased threshold must be applied for the first time to advance payments for 2026, meaning that for calendar-year taxpayers the switch from monthly to quarterly payment frequency will apply from July 2026.

A further change affecting the payment deadline is that taxpayers obliged to pay quarterly corporate income tax advances must pay the advance attributable to the last quarter of the tax year by 20 December.

Development Tax Allowance

From 2026, a development tax allowance may also be claimed in the case of the commissioning and operation of an investment aimed at ensuring manufacturing capacity for clean technologies (the maximum combined aid intensity is 15% in Budapest and 35% outside Budapest).

Tax Allowance for R&D Activities

In the case of cooperation with a research institute or university, the tax allowance for research and development activities amounts to:

• 100% of eligible costs in the case of basic research,
• 50% of eligible costs in the case of industrial research,
• 25% of eligible costs in the case of experimental development,

with the proviso that the HUF 500 million cap remains applicable.

Environmental Protection Tax Allowances

A tax allowance may be claimed in the case of an investment or refurbishment with a present value of at least HUF 100 million aimed at the remediation of environmental damage or other specified environmental protection purposes.

The tax allowance may be applied in the tax year in which the investment or refurbishment is put into operation and in the five subsequent tax years. The aid intensity is 100% in the case of the remediation of environmental damage, 70–90%, depending on the size of the enterprise, in the case of other ecological developments, but in both cases up to a maximum amount corresponding to EUR 30 million.

Prior to claiming the allowance, a notification must be submitted to the designated ministry, and the allowance may not be claimed by an enterprise that itself caused the environmental damage to be remedied.
 

Rules of Taxation

Automatic Cancellation of Tax Number

The tax authority shall cancel the tax number and notify the commercial court of the initiation of proceedings for the dissolution of the company if 

•    the taxpayer fails to register a legal representative in accordance with the applicable rules, or 

•    the summary statement on value added tax or

•    the VAT return or 

• monthly tax and contribution return

despite being requested to do so within 90 days of the statutory deadline. On the following day, the Tax Authority shall also notify the commercial court of this fact.

Online receipt data reporting

From September 1, 2026, data must also be reported within three days for manually issued receipts, aggregated on a daily basis and broken down by tax rates (this data reporting obligation has already been in place for e-receipts since July 2025).

Subsequent transfer price adjustment

The amended provisions of the Accounting Act, which will enter into force on January 1, 2026, concern the special rules for subsequent transfer price adjustments, which affiliated companies may apply – depending on their decision in this regard – in cases where it becomes necessary at the end of the year to adjust the consideration accounted for in their transactions with each other during the year in accordance with the arm's length principle set out in Section 18 of the Tao tv.

Based on the changing rules, if affiliated companies do not wish to make the subsequent (year-end) transfer price adjustment by modifying the invoices originally issued for the transaction, but instead settle between themselves in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Accounting Act (in such a way that a receivable and a liability arise from an accounting perspective) and issue an accounting document for the financial settlement of the adjustment amount, this will only be legally possible in the future if the taxpayer does so by the date of preparation of the balance sheet at the latest.

Lump-sum self-employed persons

The cost ratio for self-employed persons applying the 40% cost ratio will increase to 45% from January 1, 2026.

Small Business Tax (KIVA)

Electronic funds in the cash register

The value of electronic funds is not included in the value of the cash register shown in the balance sheet for the current year.

Entry and exit thresholds

•    The entry thresholds for KIVA tax liability are rising: the maximum average statistical headcount is rising to 100, and the threshold for revenue and total assets is rising to HUF 6 billion.

•    The exit thresholds for KIVA tax liability are increasing: KIVA tax liability will cease to apply if the revenue threshold of HUF 12 billion is exceeded or the average statistical headcount of 200 is exceeded.

Special taxes, extra profit taxes

Global minimum tax

Domestic group members operating on a calendar year basis are required to submit their global minimum tax returns by February 28, 2026 (previously by December 31 of the given tax year).

The Minimum Tax Act has been supplemented with new concepts: simplified covered tax, simplified tax rate, recognized country-by-country reporting, and recognized financial reporting. In addition, it has been clarified what percentage value should be taken into account in the given tax year when applying the economic presence-based profit exclusion.

Advertising tax

The suspension of the advertising tax payment obligation (applicability of the 0% rate) will end on June 30, 2026, meaning that the advertising tax payment obligation will come back into effect on July 1, 2026.

With the change in registration rules, anyone who publishes advertisements but does not have a tax number will be required to register within 30 days.

Retail Sales Tax

The tax base brackets for retail sales tax will change, and retailers will be exempt from the special tax up to a tax base of HUF 1 billion instead of HUF 500 million.

The change in bracket limits does not affect motor fuel retailers.

Registration tax

The registration tax rate for 2026 is HUF 47,000.

The legislation specifies that if the owner and the operator are different persons, the owner is liable for the tax.

The company car tax rate will apply from 1 January 2026:
 

Official duties

Exemption from Duties upon Waiver of Shareholder Loan in Liquidation

The acquisition of assets resulting from the waiver of a shareholder loan granted by the owner within the framework of a voluntary liquidation shall be exempt from gift duty, provided that the liquidation ends with the deletion of the company from the company register.

Change in Residential Property Ownership

When calculating the duty base, a retrospective period of five years applies, within which the market value of a property sold may be deducted from the duty base of the purchased property.

Others

Termination of the AVDH (Identification-Based Document Authentication) service

With the termination of the AVDH service, document authentication is now possible using qualified electronic signatures (MEA) and solutions that comply with EU standards regulated by the eIDAS Regulation. The reason for the discontinuation was that AVDH did not meet the requirements of the eIDAS Regulation, so businesses and citizens must use new, more secure and internationally recognized signature solutions, such as qualified certificates.

As business entities are required to communicate electronically, they can also authenticate their various submissions electronically, for which only market-qualified electronic signatures may be used from November 1, 2025.

The electronic signature provided by DÁP (Digital citizenship program) cannot be used for this purpose because it only identifies the signatory acting as a private individual.

FEDOR (User Document Assignment Service) is the technical successor to AVDH. It can be used by private individuals. From November 1, 2025, the FEDOR service will be integrated into e-paper interface. However, FEDOR is not an electronic signature, it only certifies that the document in question has been submitted. The document will be authentic, but it will not be a private document with full probative value.

In the case of business entities, the qualified electronic signature includes the right of representation.

Services providing qualified electronic signatures are subject to a fee, and business entities must ensure that they enter into a contract with a service provider that complies with the concept of electronic signatures as defined in the EU Regulation on electronic identification and trust services (EIDAS).

Krisztina Gubizca, chartered tax expert