BUDA PEST: Hungary’s Economic Minister Mihály Varga said that we are examining to reduce value added taxes by 2018. He further added that we are preparing for serious changes in the tax system and we are studying whether we can begin to moderate the value-added tax rate in the current parliamentary term, told at the conference of the Hungarian Business Leaders Forum.
At 27 percent, Hungary has one of the highest value-added taxes in Europe, Reuters said, adding that personal income taxes could also be in the single digits before 2018, down from 16 percent now. Plans for reducing personal income taxes was also hinted by PM Viktor Orbán recently, who said that “in an ideal case it would be zero“.
Meanwhile Hungary’s Economy Ministry has released detailed fiscal data for the second month of the year. These show a HUF 256.9bn deficit in the central sub sector of the state budget, well below the HUF 407.9bn shortfall registered in the same month of the previous year. According to the Ministry the positive development has been mainly the result of higher tax revenues generated by stronger economic growth and a sounder interest rate level. In the Ministry’s estimate, Hungary’s macro path in 2015 will be more favourable than the current Government prognosis, but the earliest date for modifying the general government budget deficit figure of 2.4 percent may be the end of April. This indicator is likely to be lower than the 2.9 percent prior estimate, but higher than 2.2 percent anticipated by the National Bank of Hungary (MNB) for 2014.
