Value Added Tax

As a member of the European Union, Hungary’s VAT regulations are in compliance with the EU VAT Directive. Accordingly, the Hungarian VAT Act aims to achieve harmonisation with the EU regulations and legal practice and also to react to the processes of the Hungarian economy. Therefore, our clients find a legal environment in Hungary that is similar to the one they experience elsewhere in Europe, but it still differs from the practices of other countries in several respects, due to being adjusted to the specific circumstances of the Hungarian economy.

PwC has the largest team of VAT experts in Hungary. Team members have specialised in the different industries and have, therefore, a thorough understanding of not just VAT regulations but also our clients’ business activities. The Hungarian VAT team constitutes an integral part of PwC’s Central and Eastern European network of nearly 200 indirect taxation experts in 22 countries, and also PwC’s global network comprising some 1500 indirect taxation experts in 99 countries.

The analysis of our client’s business activities allows us to offer comprehensive and customised solutions to all of our clients’ local, regional or global VAT issues. We offer our clients means to reduce their VAT burdens, to optimise their VAT cash flows, to find the most beneficial VAT treatment, consultation on administrative and declaration obligations, and ways to optimise their enterprise resource planning systems. PwC Hungary maintains a continuous dialogue with the Hungarian authorities to discuss unclear provisions of the VAT Act. Although they specialise in value added tax, our team also works as part of Hungary’s biggest tax expert group and therefore keeps the impacts of all other tax categories in view.

Our key services:

• VAT cash flow planning
• VAT health check and analysis of business processes
• VAT registration
• services related to VAT returns, recapitulative statements and Intrastat declarations
• legislative compliance services, including company-specific trainings, VAT reclaims from foreign countries and VAT reclaims of domestic taxpayers
• web-based global information platform: Global VAT Online
• assistance in tax authority audits, preparing comments and appeals
• advisory services on VAT groups and cost-sharing groups
• advisory services on international VAT planning
• developing VAT-oriented logistics centre concepts              
• providing support to service centres in indirect taxation
• advisory services on e-compliance, including electronic invoicing and archiving
• finding innovative, VAT-effective solutions (e.g.: transfers of business lines of banks, head office transactions, finance leases)
• preparing and filing ruling requests, advance ruling requests and requests for supervisory review
• participation in court proceedings, from first instance to the Hungarian Supreme Court, and in cases brought before the European Court of Justice
• advising on the imminent amendments of the European VAT legislation serving as the basis for the Hungarian VAT system
• advising on matters related to the European Court of Justice’s authority to interpret EU VAT regulations
• review of operation and effectiveness of ERP systems from VAT perspectives.