Hungary

In the last few years, the taxation of benefits in kind changed significantly. Most of the benefits that were subject to a zero or low tax rate lost their tax advantage and became taxable the same way and at the same rate as wage income. Also, some temporary beneficial rules were introduced in 2021 (in order to mitigate the negative economic effects of the COVID-19 epidemic).

Currently, only the Széchenyi Recreational card (SZÉP card as per its abbreviation in Hungarian), trade-union-supported recreation, and benefits provided by cooperatives to their members can be provided as ‘fringe benefit’.

Additionally, only a limited group of benefits can be provided as ‘other specific benefits’ (e.g. private use of company phones, meals on business trips, gift of small value once a year).

In addition to the above, it needs to be highlighted that the possibility to provide benefits by the employer under an internal policy (available to all employees) or applied equally to all employees cannot be taxed as other specific benefits anymore.

We would like to highlight that, from 1 January 2024, the double tax treaty (DTT) concluded between the United States (US) and Hungary has been terminated, and currently there are no signs of its reinstatement or that a new agreement will take its place in the near future. In this regard, US-sourced incomes of Hungarian tax resident individuals and the Hungarian-sourced incomes of US tax nationals might be subject to double taxation depending on the circumstances and nature of incomes.