The new rules amending the Act on the Procedural rules of taxation (Art.), laid down in Act LXXVII of 2017 (which Act is meant to generically amend the various tax laws), will enter into force on 1 January 2018. Such new rules are primarily meant to facilitate an overall whitening of the national economy, as it is stated by the lawmakers.
According to such new Art. rules introduced, all Hungarian business entities will be obliged to report on the fact that they hold a bank account outside Hungary, if this being the case, and on the specifics of such bank accounts held. The mandatory reporting obligation will cover all open and valid bank accounts held with any foreign bank, specifying the actual bank account numbers, stating the account holder bank’s name, and the dates on which such bank accounts held by the entity were opened and closed, as the case may be. All foreign bank accounts already in use by the entities as of 1 January 2018 will need to be reported to the Tax Authority, by not later than 31 January 2018, in writing, by using the standard data form provided by the Tax Authority for such particular purposes, or in case of companies newly formed, the mandatory reporting deadline will be 15 days upon the relevant company registration application having been filed with the Company Registry. Any failure by any company to comply with such reporting obligations, i.e. submitting the designated data form by including errors, or incomplete, or containing untrue data, or any delayed submission of the same, or a failure to submit such form, will potentially trigger a fine, capped at HUF 600,000.