Hungary ÁFA — 2026 Guide

If you want to see what European VAT looks like after 1 July 2030 — when ViDA’s mandatory cross-border B2B e-invoicing and Digital Reporting Requirements come into force across all twenty-seven Member States — you do not need to read the Council text or model the timeline. You can simply look at Hungary today.

Hungary has been operating real-time invoice reporting through the NAV Online Számla system since 1 July 2018. Every invoice issued by a Hungarian ÁFA-registered taxpayer is transmitted to the tax authority within seconds of issuance. Cross-checking against the recipient’s input-tax claim happens automatically. Discrepancies are surfaced by NAV’s analytical engine within days. The architecture that the European Commission spent four years negotiating into ViDA is the architecture that Hungarian invoicing software has been calling against for eight years. The result, for foreign and local businesses trading into or inside Hungary, is a compliance environment that is simultaneously one of the most demanding in the EU at the data layer — every single invoice line is visible to NAV in near-real time — and one of the most predictable, because the structural rules are stable, well-documented, and operationally enforced through a public API rather than through ad-hoc inspections.

This guide is the operator’s view of how Hungarian ÁFA works in 2026: where the 27% standard rate applies and where the 18% and 5% bands take over, how Online Számla actually integrates with your invoicing system, what the EKAER road-freight regime adds on top of standard ÁFA, what foreign vendors need to know about Union OSS and IOSS as alternatives to direct Hungarian registration, and what changes for everyone between 2028 and 2030 as ViDA brings the rest of Europe up to where Hungary already is.

What this guide covers

01  Snapshot — Hungarian ÁFA at a glance

02  60-second self-check — does this guide apply to you?

03  Track 1 — Foreign EU vendor selling into Hungary

04  Track 2 — Non-EU vendor selling into Hungary

05  Track 3 — Higher-value goods, marketplaces, EKAER, and e-commerce

06  Track 4 — Local Hungarian business — ÁFA from registration onward

07  Cross-track essentials — Online Számla, invoicing, OSS/IOSS, VIES, ViDA

08  Common questions answered properly

09  Recent changes and the road to ViDA

10  Primary sources & official references

01 · Snapshot — Hungarian ÁFA at a glance

Everything you need to orient before reading the persona tracks. Every figure here is restated and sourced inside the relevant track.

02 · 60-second self-check — does this guide apply to you?

Six questions. If any answer is yes, the corresponding track is mandatory reading before you transact.

03 · Track 1 — Foreign EU vendor selling into Hungary

You are established in another EU Member State — Austria, Slovakia, Romania, Germany, Italy — and you sell goods or services to Hungarian customers. Your operational model determines whether you can stay registered only in your home Member State and use Union OSS, or whether you must take Hungarian ÁFA registration directly.

3.1  The Union OSS path for distance sales

The EU-wide €10,000 annual distance-selling threshold applies across all 27 Member States combined. If your cumulative cross-border B2C supplies of goods and digital services to consumers in other Member States — including Hungary — exceed €10,000 in either the current or the preceding calendar year, you must charge VAT at the destination rate from the first euro after the threshold.

Union OSS allows you to register once in your home Member State, charge 27% Hungarian ÁFA on B2C goods and digital supplies destined for Hungarian consumers, file a single quarterly Union OSS return, and pay the Hungarian share in your home Member State’s currency. The Hungarian share is settled inter-state.

Hungarian-specific considerations under Union OSS:

• Online Számla does not apply to Union OSS supplies — you do not need to transmit OSS invoices to NAV in real time. The reporting obligation sits entirely on the OSS quarterly return.
• Hungarian VAT classification (27% vs 18% vs 5%) still applies for OSS purposes. Wine, for example, is 27% as packaged retail product but 18% if served as part of a restaurant meal — for distance-selling purposes, packaged retail is the relevant classification.
• OSS does not cover supplies dispatched from stock physically located in Hungary. Hungarian fulfilment stock requires direct ÁFA registration.

3.2  When direct Hungarian ÁFA registration becomes unavoidable

Direct registration with NAV becomes mandatory in the following situations:

• You hold stock on Hungarian soil — Budapest, Győr, Debrecen, Pécs, or any marketplace fulfilment centre.
• You make domestic supplies from Hungarian stock.
• You acquire goods from another Member State and bring them into Hungary in your own name (intra-Community acquisitions).
• You import goods into the EU through a Hungarian customs office and clear them in your own name.
• You provide services with place of supply in Hungary that are not covered by reverse-charge mechanisms (immovable property services on a Hungarian building, conference/exhibition services held in Hungary).
• You transport goods by road into or out of Hungary at volumes that trigger EKAER (Track 3).

3.3  Registration mechanics

Hungarian ÁFA registration is filed through the Ügyfélkapu (Client Gate) electronic portal that NAV operates. The application — Form ʼTʼ on the unified taxpayer registration — requires:

• Certificate of incorporation and confirmation of VAT registration from the home Member State (apostille or e-apostille where required).
• Articles of association in Hungarian translation by a translator on the NAV-accepted list.
• Proof of intended Hungarian activity — contracts, lease, or marketplace fulfilment agreement.
• Bank account details — Hungarian or any EU SEPA account.
• Powers of attorney for any local Hungarian representative (typically a Hungarian-qualified könyvelő or tax advisor).

Processing target is 30 days. In practice plan for 6–8 weeks from clean submission to ÁFA number issuance, with additional substance queries common for high-volume e-commerce applicants.

3.4  The Hungarian VAT number

A Hungarian adószám (tax number) for ÁFA purposes takes the format NNNNNNNN-N-NN — for example 12345678-2-42. The middle digit is the ÁFA-status code (2 = standard ÁFA payer; 1 = small-business exemption; 5 = ÁFA-exempt activity). The final two digits indicate the county tax directorate. For EU VAT purposes the number is prefixed with HU and only the first eight digits are used — HU12345678. Always validate counterparties through

VIES (ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies) on the date of supply and retain a screenshot or saved confirmation in case of audit.

04 · Track 2 — Non-EU vendor selling into Hungary

You are established outside the EU — in South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, Switzerland, China, the UAE, or anywhere else. Hungary is part of the EU’s 27-Member-State harmonised VAT zone. Three architectural choices apply.

4.1  Worked example — Cape Town Wine Trading Pty Ltd

Cape Town Wine Trading Pty Ltd is a South African exporter of premium South African wines — Stellenbosch reds, Constantia whites, Cape Town single-vineyard releases — to European retailers and direct-to-consumer buyers. The company sells to:

• Hungarian wine importers and specialist retailers in Budapest (B2B, average order value €4,500 per pallet).
• Direct-to-consumer Hungarian wine enthusiasts through a Shopify storefront with a Hungarian-language landing page (B2C, average order value €120 per six-bottle case).
• A small number of wine-focused horeca operators in Vienna and Bratislava (intra-EU B2B chains).

Their compliance architecture decomposes into three streams plus one excise overlay (wine is excise-liable in Hungary, separately from ÁFA):

Stream A — High-value B2B pallet shipments above €150 declared value. Each shipment clears Hungarian customs in the customer’s name; the Hungarian buyer is importer of record. The buyer pays import ÁFA (27%) and excise duty at customs, then reclaims the import ÁFA in the same monthly return (cash-flow neutral for ÁFA-registered buyers). Cape Town Wine Trading invoices without Hungarian ÁFA, marks the invoice as “export from South Africa — VAT zero-rated under sec 11(1)(a) VAT Act”, and is not required to register in Hungary for this stream. Commercial reality: B2B buyers often demand DAP/DDP terms — in which case the seller becomes importer of record and Hungarian ÁFA registration follows.

Stream B — Low-value B2C wine cases at or below €150 intrinsic value. Two architectural options:

• IOSS registration in any EU Member State — operationally convenient given Cape Town Wine’s intended pan-European e-commerce expansion. They charge 27% Hungarian ÁFA at checkout to every Hungarian consumer, file a monthly IOSS return in the Member State of identification, and parcels clear EU customs through a fast-track “green channel” using the IOSS number. Important caveat for wine: excise duty on alcoholic beverages is not covered by IOSS — only ÁFA is. Excise duty on B2C wine imports must be paid separately under the EU excise harmonisation framework, typically through a Hungarian tax warehouse or a registered consignee arrangement. This is operationally complex and is the reason most non-EU wine exporters route through an EU-resident importer rather than direct B2C.
• Default import procedure — no IOSS registration, each parcel clears with the carrier collecting import ÁFA and excise from the consumer at delivery, plus a handling fee. Conversion rates collapse. For any meaningful B2C wine volume, this is not commercially viable.

Stream C — Goods held in a Hungarian bonded warehouse or fulfilment centre. Cape Town Wine Trading has tested a model where they ship a container into a Budapest tax warehouse and fulfil Hungarian and Slovak orders from there. The moment Hungarian stock exists, IOSS architecture breaks: supplies from Hungarian stock are domestic Hungarian supplies, not imports. They must register directly for Hungarian ÁFA, charge 27% on Hungarian B2C sales (plus excise), and treat Slovak sales as either OSS-eligible or directly registered in Slovakia. They must also issue every single Hungarian invoice through Online Számla — see Track 4.

4.2  The fiscal representative question

Under Hungarian VAT law (Act CXXVII of 2007 on Value Added Tax — ÁFA tv.), non-EU vendors registering for Hungarian ÁFA must appoint a Hungarian-resident fiscal representative (pénzügyi képviselő) who:

• Files all ÁFA returns on the foreign vendor’s behalf.
• Issues all Hungarian invoices and transmits them through Online Számla.
• Holds joint and several liability with the foreign vendor for all Hungarian ÁFA obligations.
• Must meet specific NAV credentialing requirements — typically a Hungarian-licensed könyvelő or tax advisor with at least three years’ practice.

Budget €3,500–€9,000 per year for a competent pénzügyi képviselő providing return preparation, Online Számla integration, and routine NAV correspondence. The joint-liability structure means representatives are commercially selective; expect due diligence on your business before they accept the engagement.

4.3  Non-Union OSS for digital services

If Cape Town Wine Trading expanded into digital services — for example, a paid online wine education platform with Hungarian-language video courses — those supplies fall under the Non-Union OSS scheme. They register in one EU Member State of identification, charge 27% Hungarian ÁFA on B2C digital supplies to Hungarian consumers, and file a single quarterly Non-Union OSS return. Non-Union OSS supplies are not subject to Online Számla.

05 · Track 3 — Higher-value goods, marketplaces, EKAER, and e-commerce

Hungarian e-commerce operates against a tighter operational ruleset than most EU jurisdictions because of two distinctive overlays: Online Számla on every domestic invoice, and EKAER on most cross-border road freight. Foreign and local operators ignore them at the cost of meaningful penalties.

5.1  Deemed-supplier rules for marketplaces

Article 14a of the EU VAT Directive (transposed into Hungarian ÁFA tv. §15/A) makes electronic interfaces deemed suppliers for:

• Distance sales of imported goods with intrinsic value ≤ €150 facilitated through the interface.
• Supplies of goods within the EU by non-EU established sellers, regardless of value, where the goods are already inside the EU when the sale is made.

Practical implications for the Hungarian market:

• Amazon EU, eMAG (the dominant local marketplace in Central Europe), and Allegro operate in-scope marketplace ÁFA mechanisms covering qualifying transactions.
• The marketplace’s VAT settlement report becomes the source-of-truth for your Hungarian ÁFA return. Reconcile monthly; gaps surface very quickly under Online Számla cross-matching.
• The marketplace will transmit Online Számla data for transactions where it is the deemed supplier; you transmit Online Számla data for transactions where you remain the supplier in your own right. Master-data hygiene is essential to prevent double-reporting.

5.2  EKAER — Electronic Road Freight Control System

EKAER (Elektronikus Közúti Áruforgalom Ellenőrző Rendszer) is the Hungarian system for monitoring cross-border and certain domestic road freight movements. It is separate from ÁFA but interlocks with it. Coverage applies to road transport of goods:

• Risk goods (defined commodity list — food, electronics, fuel, certain chemicals) above defined gross weight or tax-base value thresholds.
• All cross-border movements into, out of, or transiting Hungary above the relevant thresholds.
• Certain domestic Hungarian first-supplies of risk goods.

Before the truck enters Hungarian territory (for inbound) or before it departs the dispatch site (for outbound and domestic), the consignor or consignee must obtain an EKAER number through the NAV electronic portal. The number is valid for 15 days and must be provided to the driver. Roadside spot checks by NAV mobile units are routine. Penalties for missing or incorrect EKAER numbers can reach 40% of the value of the cargo, with the vehicle subject to detention until paid.

Cape Town Wine Trading, when shipping wine into a Hungarian buyer through any haulier, must ensure either it or its Hungarian counterparty obtains the EKAER number before the truck moves. The DDP/DAP allocation in the commercial terms determines which party carries the operational responsibility.

5.3  Domestic reverse charge

Hungary applies domestic reverse charge (fordított adózás) under ÁFA tv. §142 to a defined list of supplies between two Hungarian ÁFA payers, including:

• Construction and assembly works under specified service codes.
• Supplies of scrap metals, recovered materials, certain agricultural products (cereals, oilseeds).
• Emission allowances.
• Certain immovable property transactions where the supplier has elected to tax.

Hungary does not apply the higher-value electronics reverse-charge mechanism that exists in some other Member States. Mobile phones, laptops, and similar electronics are taxed at standard 27% with no domestic reverse charge.

5.4  Excise duty on wine, beer, and spirits

Wine attracts excise duty in Hungary under the EU excise harmonisation framework. Still wine excise is currently set at HUF 0/litre (still wine is excise-zero-rated in Hungary, a distinctive Hungarian choice as a major wine-producing Member State), but other alcoholic beverages — sparkling wine, beer, spirits — attract excise. Excise sits on top of ÁFA: the ÁFA base includes the excise. For non-EU wine exporters this means even if the wine itself is excise-zero, the entire customs and ÁFA process still runs.

06 · Track 4 — Local Hungarian business — ÁFA from registration onward

If you operate a Hungarian-resident business — a company registered in the Hungarian Company Registry (Cégnyilvántartás), a Hungarian-resident sole trader (egyéni vállalkozó), or a Hungarian permanent establishment of a foreign group — Online Számla is the single most operationally distinctive feature of your ÁFA life.

6.1  The HUF 12,000,000 alanyi adómentesség threshold

Hungarian-resident businesses with annual turnover below HUF 12,000,000 (approximately €31,000 at current exchange rates) may opt into the alanyi adómentesség (subjective tax exemption). Under this regime:

• The business does not charge ÁFA on its outputs.
• The business cannot reclaim ÁFA on its inputs.
• The business does not file monthly ÁFA returns (only an annual declaration).
• Online Számla still applies — every invoice issued must be transmitted to NAV in real time, even though the invoice carries no ÁFA.

The exemption is elective. A small business expecting heavy input-VAT recovery (capital-intensive start-ups, businesses with predominantly VAT-registered customers) routinely opts for standard ÁFA registration despite being below threshold. Once turnover crosses HUF 12,000,000 the choice is locked: the business becomes a standard ÁFA payer from the supply that crosses the line, and cannot re-elect into the exemption for at least three calendar years.

6.2  Filing cadence — monthly, quarterly, or annual

NAV assigns filing cadence based on the previous year’s ÁFA position:

• Monthly — default for newly registered ÁFA payers, and mandatory for businesses with annual ÁFA liability above HUF 1,000,000 in the previous year or with significant intra-EU supply activity.
• Quarterly — businesses below the monthly threshold but above the annual threshold, with no significant intra-EU activity.
• Annual — businesses with very low ÁFA liability and no intra-EU acquisitions or supplies.

Cadence is NAV-assigned, not elected; a taxpayer can request a different cadence and NAV decides. The 20th-of-the-month deadline applies uniformly.

6.3  Online Számla — the operational reality

Since 1 July 2018 every Hungarian ÁFA-registered taxpayer must transmit every issued invoice to NAV in real time through the Online Számla system. The architecture is:

• Invoicing software generates the invoice in line with §169 of the ÁFA tv. content requirements.
• Software immediately serialises the invoice to XML in the prescribed Online Számla format (current version 3.0).
• XML is transmitted to the NAV Online Számla API endpoint.
• NAV returns a transaction ID confirming receipt.
• Invoice is delivered to the customer in any standard format (PDF, paper, EDI).

Coverage has expanded in stages: from 1 July 2018, B2B invoices above HUF 100,000 of ÁFA; from 1 July 2020, all B2B invoices regardless of value; from 1 January 2021, all B2C invoices and intra-EU supply invoices. As of 2026 the regime covers every domestic invoice issued from a Hungarian ÁFA registration — there is no de minimis exemption.

Penalties for Online Számla failures are structured per invoice:

• HUF 500,000 per missed transmission (default penalty under the general tax procedure rules).
• Reduced to HUF 100,000 for self-corrected missed transmissions reported within 15 days.
• Zero penalty for technical failures of the NAV system itself, evidenced by Online Számla error codes.

In practice, every Hungarian ERP, accounting package, and invoicing tool sold into the market integrates with Online Számla natively. The risk is not in greenfield setup; it is in M&A, system migration, and edge-case scenarios (offline invoicing, correction invoices, void invoices) where transmission can fall through the cracks.

6.4  Correction invoices and Online Számla

Correction invoices (módosító számla) and void invoices (érvénytelenítő számla) must be transmitted to Online Számla in the same real-time manner as the original. The correction invoice carries a reference to the original invoice’s Online Számla transaction ID. Failures to transmit corrections are the most common Online Számla compliance gap because correction workflows are often handled outside the standard invoicing flow (manual finance team adjustments, post-month-end reclassifications). Map these processes carefully.

07 · Cross-track essentials — Online Számla, invoicing, OSS/IOSS, VIES, ViDA

7.1  Invoice content requirements

Hungarian ÁFA invoices must contain — at minimum — the elements set out in §169 of the ÁFA tv.:

• Supplier full name, address, and Hungarian adószám.
• Customer full name, address, and adószám (for B2B; for B2C above HUF 100,000 of ÁFA).
• Invoice number from a continuous numerical series.
• Date of issue and date of taxable supply (teljesítés időpontja).
• Description, quantity, and unit price of goods or services.
• Tax base, rate, and ÁFA amount, separately for each rate applied.
• Total payable amount in HUF, plus foreign currency where billed in EUR or USD with the MNB reference exchange rate.
• Reference to the relevant exemption, reverse charge, or simplification (“fordított adózás”, “adómentes közösségen belüli termékértékesítés”, “AAM” for alanyi adómentesség, etc.).

7.2  OSS, IOSS, and VIES

Restated for Hungary specifically:

• Union OSS — for EU-established sellers making B2C cross-border supplies of goods and services within the EU. Quarterly returns. Registered in your home Member State.
• Non-Union OSS — for non-EU-established sellers making B2C supplies of services to EU consumers. Quarterly returns. Registered in one elected Member State of identification.
• IOSS — for sellers (EU or non-EU) of low-value imported goods ≤ €150 to EU consumers. Monthly returns. Excise-liable goods (wine, spirits, beer, tobacco) excluded from IOSS.
• VIES — the EU VAT number validation system. Used for zero-rating intra-Community B2B supplies. Always validate on date of supply; retain evidence.

7.3  The ViDA timeline — what changes between 2028 and 2030

The VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) package, adopted by the Council on 11 March 2025, restructures three areas of EU VAT. For Hungary, ViDA is less transformative than for any other Member State because the architecture is already substantially in place:

• 1 January 2028 — Platform economy: deemed-supplier rules extended to short-term accommodation and passenger transport platforms. Hungarian-specific impact: Booking.com / Airbnb listings in Budapest already operate under platform-VAT collection by some marketplaces, but the ViDA mandate makes it universal.
• 1 July 2028 — Single VAT registration: expanded OSS absorbing many transactions that currently require direct ÁFA registration. Will materially reduce the population of foreign-vendor direct Hungarian registrations.
• 1 July 2030 — Mandatory cross-border B2B e-invoicing and DRR: real-time-or-near-real-time transactional reporting for intra-Community supplies. Hungary already runs domestic real-time reporting via Online Számla; the ViDA cross-border layer integrates into the existing Hungarian architecture rather than replacing it.
• 2035 — Full alignment: existing Member State derogations on domestic e-invoicing harmonise to the EN 16931 standard. Hungary’s Online Számla XML schema will need to align with EN 16931 by this date.

08 · Common questions answered properly

Q. We’re an Austrian company selling B2C wine to Hungarian consumers — can we use Union OSS?

Yes for the ÁFA element — Union OSS will handle the 27% Hungarian ÁFA on B2C wine sales. But wine is excise-liable across the EU, and excise is not part of Union OSS. You need either a Hungarian-side excise arrangement (typically a tax warehouse or registered consignee) or you ship through a Hungarian-resident wine importer who handles excise on import. Pure Union OSS distance sales of wine direct-to-Hungarian-consumer hit an excise wall unless you have engineered the excise compliance separately.

Q. Why is the Hungarian ÁFA rate 27% when most of the EU sits at 19–25%?

The 27% rate was set in 2012 as a fiscal-consolidation measure following the post-2008 economic adjustment, and has remained unchanged since. It is the highest standard VAT rate in the European Union (and one of the highest in the world; only a handful of jurisdictions globally — including some Scandinavian states — sit at 25%). The political consensus in Hungary has supported keeping ÁFA high in exchange for relatively low income taxes; that consensus has been stable across multiple government cycles.

Q. We registered for Hungarian ÁFA and our software vendor says they don’t support Online Számla. What now?

This is a deal-breaker. Online Számla integration is not optional. You have three options: (1) switch invoicing software to a Hungarian-market-aware platform (most major Tier 1 ERPs — SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics — support Online Számla through Hungarian localisation packs, and most local Hungarian platforms ship with it natively); (2) use a third-party Online Számla bridge (several Hungarian e-invoicing service providers offer API gateways that take a standard XML/JSON invoice and transmit it onward to NAV); (3) use your Hungarian fiscal representative’s invoicing system, which will be integrated by default. Option 3 is the lowest-friction starting point for foreign vendors with small Hungarian volumes.

Q. The EKAER thresholds — where can we get the current list?

EKAER threshold rules sit in Government Decree 51/2014 (XII. 31.) and the EKAER implementing regulations issued by NAV. The current main thresholds (as of 2026): for non-risk goods, gross weight above 2,500 kg or tax-base value above HUF 5,000,000 per truck per consignee; for risk goods (specified commodity list including food, electronics, fuel, chemicals), gross weight above 500 kg or tax-base value above HUF 1,000,000. Confirm against the current NAV guidance immediately before any planned road movement — thresholds and the risk-goods list are periodically updated.

Q. We made an error in last month’s Online Számla transmission. What’s the fix?

Issue a correction invoice (módosító számla), transmit the correction through Online Számla referencing the original invoice’s transaction ID, and adjust your monthly ÁFA return for the period in which the original supply fell. Self-corrected errors transmitted within 15 days of the original supply attract no penalty. Errors discovered through a NAV query attract HUF 500,000 per invoice. Speed matters.

Q. Is Hungary in the Eurozone? What currency should we invoice in?

Hungary is an EU Member State but not in the Eurozone. The Hungarian forint (HUF) is the legal currency. You may invoice in EUR (or any other foreign currency) for cross-border supplies, but the ÁFA amount on the invoice and in your ÁFA return must be in HUF using the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB) reference exchange rate of the date of taxable supply. The MNB publishes a daily reference rate that is the legally required conversion source.

Q. Do we need a Hungarian bank account?

Not legally — ÁFA payments can be made from any EU SEPA bank account and refunds can be paid to any nominated account. Practically, a Hungarian HUF account simplifies dealing with Hungarian B2B customers who routinely pay in HUF and incur conversion costs on cross-border SEPA. Most active Hungarian fiscal representatives will recommend opening a HUF account once trading volumes justify the administrative overhead.

Q. We’re a software-as-a-service company selling subscriptions to Hungarian businesses. Does Online Számla apply?

Yes if you are Hungarian-ÁFA-registered. Online Számla applies to every invoice issued from a Hungarian ÁFA registration, regardless of whether the underlying supply is goods or services and regardless of whether the customer is B2B or B2C. If you are not Hungarian-ÁFA-registered (for example, you are an EU-established SaaS provider invoicing Hungarian B2B customers under the intra-Community reverse-charge mechanism with VIES validation), Online Számla does not apply to you — your invoice is issued from your home Member State registration and follows that Member State’s rules.

09 · Recent changes and the road to ViDA

2018 — Online Számla launch

On 1 July 2018, Hungary became the first EU Member State to require real-time invoice transmission to the tax authority. The initial scope was B2B invoices above HUF 100,000 of ÁFA. NAV reported within the first 18 months that the structural VAT gap on covered transactions had narrowed materially, validating the architecture for further expansion.

2020–2021 — Online Számla universal scope

From 1 July 2020 the threshold was removed for B2B (all B2B invoices in scope). From 1 January 2021 B2C and intra-EU supply invoices were brought in. Version 3.0 of the Online Számla XML schema launched alongside the 2021 expansion.

2024 — eÁFA voluntary pre-filled return

NAV launched eÁFA in 2024 — a voluntary service that pre-fills the monthly ÁFA return from Online Számla data for opt-in taxpayers. Uptake has been moderate; eÁFA reduces preparation time but adds a verification layer that some taxpayers find no faster than running their own ledger-based reconciliation. Expect eÁFA to evolve toward mandatory status over the 2026–2028 window.

2026 — Threshold consolidation review

NAV consultation in early 2026 raised the prospect of revising the alanyi adómentesség threshold and the small-business simplification regimes. No legislative change was enacted by mid-2026, but watch the autumn legislative cycle.

2028–2030 — ViDA milestones

Hungary will adopt the ViDA package on the EU-mandated timeline. Because Online Számla is already in place, the operational change is incremental rather than transformative — the cross-border layer integrates into existing Hungarian architecture. Expect smaller integration effort in Hungary than in most other Member States.

10 · Primary sources & official references

Every fact in this guide is sourced. We list the primary references below. Where law changes between publication and your transaction date, the primary source governs.

• Nemzeti Adó- és Vámhivatal (NAV)
• Online Számla — NAV portal
• Online Számla XML schema (version 3.0) documentation
• Act CXXVII of 2007 on Value Added Tax (ÁFA tv.)
• EKAER — Electronic Road Freight Control System
• Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB) — daily reference exchange rates
• VIES VAT number validation
• EU VAT Directive 2006/112/EC (consolidated)
• ViDA package — Council adoption 11 March 2025
• EN 16931 European e-invoicing standard
• Peppol BIS Billing 3.0
• EU Commission — One-Stop Shop (OSS)
• Government Decree 51/2014 (XII. 31.) on EKAER

Disclaimer & methodology

This guide was prepared by TaxDo’s editorial team in collaboration with practising Hungarian VAT advisors. Every numerical threshold, statutory citation, and procedural detail was verified against the primary sources listed in section 10 on the date of publication (26 May 2026). Tax law changes. NAV issues binding interpretations and the Hungarian government publishes regulations that can modify operational detail without changing the underlying statute. Always confirm the position applicable to your specific transaction with a Hungarian-qualified könyvelő, ügyvéd, or directly with NAV. This guide is general information, not advice on any specific transaction. TaxDo accepts no liability for reliance on this guide in lieu of jurisdiction-specific professional advice.