Pay your Hungarian Chamber of Commerce contribution on time

Chamber of Commerce in Hungary: MKIK and BKIK

The Hungarian Chamber of Commerce monitors and supports business activities in Hungary. The central office is called MKIK, short for Magyar Kereskedelmi és Iparkamara, while there are several local chapters around Hungary managing local issues, such as BKIK (Budapesti Kereskedelmi és Iparkamara) in Budapest.

Most importantly, the Chamber maintains a database of businesses where prospective partners and employees can easily check if a business

• is active,
• has no tax debts,
• has not had any complaints regarding consumer protection or labor law.

Additionally, the Chamber provides

• document verification,
• consultancy in matters of economy, finances, taxation, and taking loans,
• partner search,
• tender monitoring,
• trainings, workshops, conferences for businesspeople.

Chamber of Commerce contribution vs. membership fee

While every Hungarian business must be registered with the Chamber of Commerce, there are two tiers of involvement:

1. Simple registration: every business must update their information every year and pay a yearly registration fee. This is called the Chamber of Commerce contribution, and it is HUF 5,000 in 2026, which is less than EUR 15.
2. Voluntary membership: members of the Chamber of Commerce may participate in activities of advocacy in negotiations with the government. Membership fees are calculated yearly based on various factors such as type of activity.

Most small and medium-sized businesses are content with simple registration, and focus on their own activities. Voluntary membership is more relevant to somewhat bigger operations or in fields where advocacy might be more relevant.

The yearly registration fee is payable within 5 days of business setup, and then by March 31 each year. For example, if your business was set up on December 1, 2025, it was supposed to pay the Chamber of Commerce contribution for 2025 by December 6, 2025, and then for 2026 by March 31, 2026.

Pay on time to avoid penalties

While the Chamber of Commerce contribution is a small fee, overlooking it can cause serious issues for your Hungarian business. Overdue contributions are considered public liabilities, and their collection may be enforced by the Tax Authority as if they were taxes. While there is no fine for late payment, other costs related to the collection will be payable by the debtor. In extreme cases, the process may end with the deletion of the business from the Company Registry. These inconvenient consequences may be prevented by paying the Chamber of Commerce contributions on time.

Complete the yearly registration

The yearly registration and paying the Chamber of Commerce contribution is easiest done together, online, with your Client Gate (Ügyfélkapu) access and a bank card. You will just need to follow the instructions on the screen, and then make an online payment with your credit or debit card at the end.

• You can complete the registration without a Client Gate login, but then you need to create an account with MKIK during Step 1, and in the end you will need to send the PDF created at the end to regisztracio@bkik.hu. As a result, it is much easier to simply use your Client Gate account.
• You can also pay by wire transfer (see details below), but you have to fill in the yearly registration form anyway, and that can only be done online. As a result, it makes more sense to take care of the two procedures at the same time.

Step 0: Start the process

Go to https://knyr.mkik.hu/. The page is only available in Hungarian, but the process is straightforward enough, so you will be able to complete it even if your Hungarian skills are limited.

Go to the first block that says “Kamarai bejelentkezés / regisztráció”, and click the green button (“Ügyfélkapu bejelentkezés”) to log in to your Client Gate account. Once you complete the login process, you will be redirected to the yearly registration process described below.

Step 1: Mandatory data

Enter the Hungarian tax number of your business. Once it is verified that you can represent it, you will be shown a form with all the core information about your business.

• name
• type of business
• registered address
• main activity
• information on managing director and contact person(s)

If there are no changes, you can leave them intact and proceed to the next screen.

Step 2: Voluntary data

Here you can indicate if your business is involved in any export or import activities, and if you want to receive any of the newsletters of the Chamber of Commerce. If there are no changes, you can leave the fields intact and proceed to the next screen.

Step 3: Activities and premises

Here you may add any new activities and premises for your Hungarian business. If there are no changes, you can leave the fields intact and proceed to the next screen.

Step 4: Summary

Here you can download a PDF of the information you have just entered or confirmed. This is advisable for future reference.

Below, you can see a table called “Egyenleg” that shows the contributions you have / not paid up till now. At the top of the table you will see the current amount due in red. Below the table there is a button you should press if you want to proceed to payment by card.

Payment summary

On this last page before making the payment, you will see a table of contributions you were supposed to pay in past years. Ideally, only the last row is yet unpaid. Mark the square next to the unpaid amount, then press the button under the table to proceed to payment (“Befizetés indítása”).

Payment

You are now redirected to a payment processor. Here you can enter the data from your bank card of choice. Once you are done, you will be redirected to the registration website of MKIK, which should display a message of successful payment (“sikeres fizetés”). You should also receive an email from the payment processor. You can now log out from MKIK, and forget about this for another year.

Payment by wire transfer

If for some reason you cannot use a bank card to pay, you can complete the transaction with a wire transfer with the following data.

• Recipient: Magyar Kereskedelmi és Iparkamara
• Bank: Gránit Bank
• Account number: 12100011-10639683
• Comment: your 11-digit Hungarian tax number in the format 12345678-9-01 and the text “kamarai hozzájárulás”

Helpers Finance at your service

If you need help with paying your yearly Chamber of Commerce contribution, consult your Hungarian accountant. Helpers Finance offers comprehensive support to small and medium-sized businesses in Hungary, focusing on working with foreign owners and helping them navigate Hungarian bureaucracy. The Helpers Team also offers services for business setup, work permit applications, payroll administration and HR compliance.