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.

Numerous tax advantages can be gained if someone switches to being subject to the tax laws of another country (i.e. changes his tax residency). Although the country in which a private individual has residence is not a matter of choice, with careful planning of his personal circumstances it is possible to influence where he is taxed. And this affects anyone who takes on work abroad, whether for a short or a longer period.

The “new” Civil Code, which entered into force more than two years ago, has made it possible for businesses to shape, in their own image, the regulations governing their organisation and operation. This opportunity has certainly captured the imagination of legal practitioners. All sorts of extreme ideas were mooted. For example it was suggested that a limited liability company (Kft.) could issue shares or other securities embodying members’ rights. The company courts soon put a dampener on things, however, creating the category of “status rules”: no matter how flexible the law, it still isn’t possible to depart from the rules that constitute the defining features of a particular form of business entity.

While efforts to hunt down offshore companies may appear to be yielding results, there’s been no slackening of demand for setting up companies abroad. However, tax avoidance and tax evasion, as the primary motives for doing so, are giving way to other objectives.

Winning a tax lawsuit is a difficult and lengthy process, and often there are no guarantees of victory even when you’re totally confident that you correctly accounted for every transaction. So it’s worth paying particular attention to the opportunities for triumphing over the tax authority relatively easily and without any complications. What is more, recent case law has expanded the range of these options.

Under a less-known rule of the new Civil Code it’s now possible for a property owner to separate the titles to a plot of land and the buildings built on it, and to manage or commercially exploit these as separate properties. Businesses are taking a cautious approach to making use of this opportunity in practice: although splitting titles can make property development or borrowing more flexible, for the time being legal uncertainties are preventing it from becoming more widespread.