Due to a seemingly trivial error, a series of NAV decisions are being overturned in court: a good many of them don’t contain the proper signature. This procedural error, however, could be useful not only in ongoing lawsuits, but possibly in past, closed procedures too – hundreds of businesses could claw back the tax forints they thought were lost for good.

Following the recent reinterpretation by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) of the definition of closed-end finance leasing, a new Advocate General (AG) opinion has exploded another “VAT bomb” in relation to current practice. For many years, leasing companies have divided the fees payable under finance lease contracts into a VATable and a non-VATable part, but the latest AG opinion states that the whole lease fee should be liable for VAT in its integrity. This could have serious implications for the Hungarian leasing market too, so it is worth keeping an eye on how the case progresses.

The new Civil Code that came into force a couple of years ago broadened the autonomy of companies, which are now free to shape their internal organisation and operation to their own needs. Nevertheless, there are still several lesser-known, rigid company-law rules that, if ignored, can entail severe legal and financial consequences.

Ever since it was introduced eight years ago, the long-term investment account (TBSZ) has been a source of continuous excitement for tax advisors and their clients interested in saving on tax. This is not surprising, as the TBSZ allows business owners to take the income generated by their companies without any tax liability. And although some classic approaches to tax planning based on the TBSZ have closed over time, others are still available.

From early this year a new law accords to states the jurisdiction over lawsuits, i.e. which country has the right to decide on cases having international elements. Nevertheless, it is still true that in international legal disputes one of the most important (and far from simple) issues is: which country’s court will decide the dispute and under which country’s laws.

Our traditional survey again looks at how many types of taxes there are in Hungary. The number of Hungarian taxes has fallen by one again this year, so we’ve counted 58 this time. The decrease, however, is of a technical nature only, while at the same time we continue to live with taxes such as the seemingly ineradicable charge payable on household employees or the newly introduced poster tax.

Since the start of the year there have been new laws in place regulating tax audits and tax lawsuits. The stakes are pretty high: the National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV) conducts almost 30,000 audits annually, assessing tax deficiencies of about HUF 500 billion and imposing fines of almost the same amount. Therefore it is important to know the rights taxpayers have under the new rules and the most efficient ways to fight NAV.

While more and more people all around the world are being bitten by the bitcoin bug, tax authorities are subjecting transactions executed with the cryptocurrency to ever closer scrutiny. Meanwhile, it is increasingly obvious that the world of bitcoin is starting to give shape to a new form of tax haven.