The award acknowledges, once again, the excellent work of the well-integrated Indirect Tax practice headed by Jürgen Scholz, partner of WTS in Germany. The WTS Global Indirect Tax practice includes experienced tax advisors from more than 100 countries. Its high ranking could be credited to its new thinking and innovative approach as well as its practice orientated solutions. The practice was also praised for its successful set up of an Indirect Tax practice in the Middle East in connection with the introduction of value added tax in Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

A number of WTS Global member firms also brought home highly prestigious trophies. WTS Germany was awarded “Germany Transfer Pricing Firm of the Year”, ICON was recognized as “Austria Tax Firm of the Year”, WTS Consulting was also awarded “Ukraine Tax Firm of the Year”. Sorainen, the exclusive partner of WTS Global in Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia won two awards: the “Baltic States Tax Firm of the Year” and the “Baltic States Transfer Pricing Firm of the Year”.

The European Tax Awards have taken place every year since 2005, organised by the International Tax Review in order to recognise the leading international tax firms of Europe. The nominees are assessed according to their size, innovation and complexity based on which they are ranked depending on the country and line of business.

Click here to read about the description of the competition and its winners on the official website of European Tax Awards.

A WTS Global is again the European Indirect Tax Firm of the Year bejegyzés először WTS Klient Hungary | tax | accounting | payroll | advisory | HR services | digital solutions | state aid-én jelent meg.

After labour shortages, online invoicing is the second major challenge for international companies operating in Hungary in 2018 – as revealed by our survey conducted among more than 100 finance managers at the beginning of this year.

At the beginning of 2018, WTS Klient Hungary asked the financial experts of more than 100 international companies cooperating with the group and operating in Hungary about the most challenging tax, legal and accounting issues for them in 2018. The results clearly show that the lack of the right workers is the biggest challenge for international companies in 2018, but the introduction of online invoicing from 1 July is also a major challenge for managers.

Focus on increasing revenues

Increasing revenues was set as the priority business goal for 2018 by most companies operating in the field of manufacturing, services and commerce, representing roughly equal proportions from each sector. This was mentioned by more than one third (36%) of the respondents, but increasing staff numbers (21%) as well as growing capacity on the fourth place (13%) are also closely related to the priority issue.

To achieve their goals, nearly two-thirds of the surveyed companies are planning to make modifications in their taxation processes, accounting and payroll systems in 2018. Tax optimisation – for example deducting research and development costs from the tax base – dominates here among the changes, mentioned by over one-third (35%) of the participants, along with transitioning to IFRS, which is a key issue for a quarter (24%) of the companies. For many businesses (19%) the online data reporting obligation applicable from 1 July is one of their planned changes, with optimising salaries and restructuring fringe benefit systems representing a significant proportion as well (14%).

Labour shortage main challenge for international companies

The lack of appropriate workers was mentioned by most respondents when asked about the challenges they faced in connection with the goals set and the changes planned. This issue was included in more than one-third (34%) of the answers, while online invoicing came second (18%) in the list. Competition in the market (15%), exchange rate risk (11%), IFRS (10%), transfer pricing (8%), and issues related to setting up a new permanent establishment (4%) were also mentioned by the respondents.

In line with this, the labour shortage (18%) and switching to IFRS (12%) are considered factors standing in their way of achieving the defined objectives. However, based on the research the greatest obstacle (34%) is that the already complex Hungarian taxation system is constantly modified, and it is very difficult to keep up and comply with the continuously changing tax and legal environment. Tax-related administrative burdens that are somehow connected to the above factors also pose challenges for a high number of companies (26%).

Consulting companies can mainly help with online invoicing

The fact that the two greatest obstacles are the continuously changing tax and legal environment and the administrative burdens correlates closely with the feedback received from companies working with WTS Klient Hungary, namely that consulting companies can mainly help and support clients in achieving their goals by providing up-to-date professional information.

When asked which challenge for international companies consulting companies can help overcome, nearly a quarter of them mentioned online invoicing. Almost the same number of responses were received for updating transfer pricing documentation (22%) and tax optimisation (19%).

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A Challenges faced by international companies in Hungary in 2018 bejegyzés először WTS Klient Hungary | tax | accounting | payroll | advisory | HR services | digital solutions | state aid-én jelent meg.