New Hungarian VAT refund rules implemented

The Hungarian Parliament has published a modification of the Act on Tax Procedure on 29 December. From 1 February 2012, the general deadline for the Hungarian tax office to refund the reclaimed VAT is 75 days.

The reclaimed VAT is refunded in 30 days if the reclaimed amount is below HUF 1 million and in 45 days if the reclaimed amount is above HUF 1 million provided that all invoices included in the reclaim are settled to the related seller. If only one invoice among the invoices submitted for reclaim was not settled (or it was not entirely settled), the entire VAT amount shall be refunded only after 75 days.
The deadlines shall be calculated from the day of submitting the VAT return but not earlier than the due day of submitting the tax document. In addition, the person filing the VAT return has to make a declaration on the VAT return about the settlement of the invoices. If this declaration proves to be false, the tax office will establish a penalty of 5% of the reclaimed amount or the maximum of HUF 500.000.

The above new rule is applicable as from the January 2012 VAT reporting.