Special tax, supplementary tax, contribution – a significant increase in the number of taxes

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 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.
The law is constantly in flux. While many people may find this intimidating, for us it’s precisely what makes it so exciting. We’d like to share this attitude with businesspeople and managers, and with those who just have an interest in business law, in the form of a regularly updated blog that discusses the latest tax law and commercial law issues in an accessible style. Feel free to send your questions and suggestions for topics you’d like us to cover to blog@jalsovszky.com.