Act XCII of 2003 on the Rules of Taxation includes the obligations of taxpayers in Hungary, and as such, it defines the range of tax returns and data to be submitted and provided electronically, whilst also regulating registrations for the government portal.
Government portal makes our lives as taxpayers easier
Based on the law, the Hungarian government portal is designed for electronic identification and safe delivery purposes. When registering through the government portal, and after a personal identification process, private individuals receive a user name and a password; once activated, they can access the portal through the www.magyarorszag.hu website.
Businesses have to initiate their government portal registration and report this to the NAV within 8 days of receiving their tax number. If they use an authorised representative to fulfil their tax return and data provision obligations, the representative must report the taxpayer’s name and tax number within 8 days of receiving the tax number. The authorisation is created by completing the “EGYKE” form, which can be downloaded from the http://www.nav.gov.hu/nav/letoltesek website in Hungarian language.
The most important documents, which have to be filed electronically for certain taxpayers:
- VAT returns and summary reports and other tax returns,
- employer, payer registrations, submissions of data,
- registrations, reporting of changes,
- requests for general tax certificates, certificates of no tax due, income certificates.
Apart from the above declaration and data provision obligations, the Hungarian tax authority, the NAV and other legislative requirements either allow or require administration through the government portal for an increasingly broad spectrum of matters, which facilitates the life of taxpayers considerably.
Taxpayers can enquire about their taxpayer rating through the electronic system, and the NAV notifies taxpayers of any changes therein through this portal as well. Taxpayers can also be added to the database of taxpayers with no public debt based on an electronic request. If taxpayers need a tax certificate, this can be requested and delivered through the government portal, which significantly shortens the deadline for administration.
No undelivered documents
If we are registered on the government portal it is important to know that the NAV can use it to deliver tax authority documents to us. This can be just information, but it can also be an engagement letter on conducting an audit. Documents from the tax authority delivered electronically qualify as delivered on the date of receipt, if the central electronic system confirms receipt of the document. A document from the tax authority can also be delivered to a taxpayer who has an authorised representative. In practice, when there are several authorised representatives or proxies, tax authority documents are not delivered to all of the authorised parties, so downloading them is particularly important. In respect of documents delivered electronically by the tax authority, the presumption of service takes effect on the fifth working day following the second notification on the delivery of the document to the electronic storage.
A new feature this year is that the NAV can prepare draft personal income tax returns for certain taxpayers and make them accessible through the government portal from 15 March of the year following the fiscal year. One other change is that even local business tax returns can be submitted through this portal from 1 January 2017. However, the NAV emphasises, that in such cases it only forwards the return, it does not review the content; this means the local authorities are still responsible for processing, correcting and potentially checking the returns. With access to the government portal we can also arrange land registry procedures, check our insurance status and even request certificates.
