If you are a tax resident in Hungary, you have until May 20, 2025 to submit your tax returns for the year 2024. If you have an Ügyfélkapu or DÁP access, this will take only a few minutes, as the whole procedure is online.

Tax returns deadline: May 20

While personal income tax is supposed to be paid and reported throughout the year, after the end of the year, every tax resident is supposed to check if all is correct, then pay the difference if they missed something – or reclaim the difference if they overpaid. For this, you need to visit https://eszja.nav.gov.hu, log in with your Ügyfélkapu or DÁP access, and review the form that is already filled in for you based on the data you have submitted throughout the year.

If you do not have an Ügyfélkapu access, you should have already received a hard copy of your draft in the mail – which you were supposed to request by March 17, but you can still request it in person at any customer service office of the Hungarian tax authority.

Whether you want to submit your tax returns online or in the mail, the deadline is May 20, 2025.

What if you miss the deadline?

If you miss the deadline, your draft will be automatically submitted. This might not be a problem at all, especially you have made the reports and payments duly over the course of the previous year. Moreover, if you offered your 1+1% last year, the same organizations will automatically receive the donations this year.

Check and correct data in the draft

The draft you receive from the Tax Authority should include all the data you, your employer, or your accountant have already reported throughout the previous year. If your only income is your salary, you have probably nothing to do. If you have additional Hungarian income, make sure it is included. If you have income from foreign sources, it might not need to be included, as Hungary has agreements to prevent double taxation with most countries, but please check with an accountant or a tax advisor just to be safe.

Typical sources of income to include:

• Salaries and wages
• Dividends
• Income from freelancing
• Interests received after shares

Typical documents you might need to check the results:

• M30 document(s) from your employer(s)
• Reports from your pension or healthcare funds if you are a member
• Reports from your bank, broker, or fund manager
• Other income reports from your accountant

While the online interface is fairly user-friendly, it is available only in Hungarian, so it makes sense to ask for assistance from a Hungarian friend or your accountant. It also makes sense to start with creating a summary, see if everything is added, and then go back to the sections where something is missing.

To create the summary, go to your tax returns (it is the form on the left when you log in to the platform), then find the “További funkciók” (Additional options) button in the bottom right corner. If you click it, a menu will expand from it. Click the top one called “Nyomtatás” (Print), and a PDF will be generated. In the PDF, you will see at a glance which sections are completed and which sections need to be added or corrected.

Flat-rate taxpayers

Your data should be listed in a separate section called EV (for “egyéni vállalkozó”, or freelancer in Hungarian). If they are not, you will have to add them manually.

• First you will need to indicate that you are paying taxes under flat-rate taxation (“átalányadózás” in Hungarian)
• Then you have to indicate the expense rate you apply. You have boxes to mark for either 90% or 80%. If you don’t mark either, it is understood that you apply the 40% rate, which is the standard for most flat-rate taxpayers.
• In line 115, you can add your yearly revenue for 2024. Unless you are terminating your business or have received subsidies, only the first field needs to be completed.
• You will also need to indicate the taxation period here. Unless you are applying a different fiscal year, you should select a period from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024.

Reclaim your taxes

If tax benefits are available to you, those are usually applied right when you receive your salaries or dividends. As a result, usually there is little to reclaim. You will typically need this section in the following cases:

• If you are a member at a pension or healthcare fund, you can reclaim at most HUF 150,000 from the deposits you have made there (the reports indicated above will tell you how much to reclaim).
• If you became eligible for a tax benefit during the year and did not mention this to your employer, you can apply the benefit now and reclaim taxes based on them.

Please note: up till the end of 2024, tax benefits were available to all regardless nationality. While some benefits are not available to third-country nationals starting from January 1, 2025, that is not relevant for the 2024 tax returns.

Check and submit

Once you think you are done, check the form for possible mistakes. If you click the checkmark (labeled “Ellenőrzés”) in the top right section, the program will run a check and flag possible mistakes for you. If all is good, it makes sense to print the overview again so you can see every field you have filled.

If all looks fine, click “Beadás” (“Submit”) under the form. You will be asked to confirm again to avoid submitting unfinished forms by mistake.

Donate your 1+1%

In Hungary, you can decide yourself how 1+1% of your personal income will be used. You can offer 1% to a church, and another 1% to an NGO. This way you have direct control over part of your taxes instead of leaving the decision to the government.

Since you do not directly receive a service in exchange for this money, redirecting your 1% is generally considered a donation in Hungary, and you will see billboards and other types of advertisement asking you to donate around this time of the year. However, the 1% you redirect from your taxes will not cost you anything while it will benefit your community, and indirectly you as well.

To redirect your 1+1%, just fill in the other form available on the same platform where you filed your taxes returns. You will find it on the right of the welcome screen. The form has two sections: one for an NGO and one for a church. You can  search the database of available recipients right on the form, or you can check our previous article on last year’s top recipients if you need ideas.

Take advantage of the resources you have

Submitting your tax returns is free of charge in Hungary. You should receive summaries from your employer and other partners, at with those at hand, just use your Ügyfélkapu or DÁP access to simply log in to the https://eszja.nav.gov.hu platform and complete the process in just a few minutes. The only real decision to make is where to redirect your 1%.

If you are a client of Helpers Finance, you can rest assured that your data were reported correctly. The M30 form you received earlier this year includes not only the relevant sums, but also the relevant lines where data should be indicated in your tax returns, so you can easily identify which piece of information goes where.

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