Social and economic changes in 2022 have broken a long downward trend recently, with the number of tax categories increasing from 51 to 59 last year. We give you the latest lowdown.

The title may sound like a bogus question – but it is far from it. What many people do not know is that cash payments are prohibited or restricted between businesses in many cases. And even fewer people know that cash payments over a certain threshold are subject to the full rigour of money laundering regulations.

Some of the more exotic means of evidence that we typically think can only exist in movies or in serious criminal cases can also be surprisingly useful in business. In everyday life, too, you can prevent serious inconvenience by hiring a private investigator in time, or even by a well-directed lie detector test. Zsolt Bodnár and Dr. Béla Balla of Hori-Zone Security helped us to get to the bottom of the subject.

This is the seventh year that we’ve been taking stock of the types of taxes in Hungary – and the multi-year trend is decidedly reassuring. The number of taxes has decreased to some extent almost every year. This year we’ve counted 51 types of tax, and at this point one might reasonably ask: is it realistic to expect even fewer taxes?

For years now, opportunities to reclaim VAT on bad debts have come up again and again. Although many had thought they had definitely missed the boat on this one, taxpayers have just been given one last chance.

For the first time, the Supreme Court ruled on the merits concerning the refund of VAT on bad debts – and the decision was in favour of taxpayers. The judgments serve as a guideline in a number of similar cases, and may even help taxpayers with refunds claimed under the rules that came into force in 2020.

First reports under DAC6 were due recently from those who are parties to a cross-border transactions. Concurrently, at the last possible moment, the Hungarian Ministry of Finance published a Guide on certain issues related to the fulfilment of the reporting obligation. It is advisable, in particular, for accountants, consultants, lawyers and banks to carefully study this 38-page document, as any of them could easily fall within the scope of the reporting obligation.

Reclaiming VAT on bad debts under the new 2020 rules may well conjure up images of a TV show obstacle course.  Initial experiences suggest that anyone trying to reclaim VAT will be up against the wall. But the undertaking isn’t unfeasible.