The novelty in Hungary concerning the obligation of issuing invoices

In Hungary, taxpayers are exempted from the obligation to issue an invoice in case of the non-existence of a request for an invoice from the buyer. The legislator intended to allow for an exemption from invoicing in the case of payment methods that presuppose the simultaneous presence of the seller and the buyer since they provide immediate payment of the consideration upon performance. As technology advances, more and more payment methods provide payment for the purchase at the same time, which used to take longer time (e.g. due to the instant payment system, the transferred amount can reach the seller’s account within seconds now) or did not even existed (e.g. payment by mobile application), which would require a constant review of the previous system.

Therefore, from July 1, 2021, regardless of the method of payment, the taxable person shall be exempted from issuing an invoice if the purchaser of the product or service reimburses the amount of the consideration including tax, until the moment in which the taxable person would ask for an invoice.

From the second half of the year, you can even give the seller a receipt instead of an invoice in case of a transfer, of course, if the remaining conditions are met.

The criteria for exemption is still that the purchaser of the product/service cannot be a taxable person or a non-taxable legal person, and the amount of the consideration, incl. tax, cannot reach the amount of HUF 900,000.

There is no change in the fact that that if a taxable person is exempted from issuing an invoice in respect of consideration paid until performance – a taxable person must issue some kind of a receipt for the transaction.

The receipt can be paper-based or electronic, but it must be issued in Hungarian.

If it is not a receipt issued from the cash register, it must comply with the Hungarian so-called Account Decree.

On the other hand, it is prescribed in the Hungarian Cash Register Decree that if the entity is exempted from the obligation to issue an invoice, the taxable person is obliged to issue a receipt from the cash register.

Also, in the case of a receipt issued from a cash register, regardless of whether it is a legal obligation or a taxpayer’s own choice, a cash register capable of online data connection must be used and the requirements of the Cash Register Decree must be complied with.

From this year, Hungarian taxpayer may choose to issue an invoice instead of issuing a receipt, for example, because it does not want to invest in an online cash register.

Previously, Hungarian taxpayers had to provide data on each such invoice to the tax authority on the PTGSZLAH datasheet, broken down by day, based on the date of issue of the invoice, by the 15th day of the month following the month in question.

This obligation was terminated on January 4, 2021, and invoices issued in lieu of receipts from that date are no longer required to be reported.

From the same date, another obligation was extinguished.

The Hungarian Invoice Decree previously stipulated that the use or withdrawal of invoicing programs and online invoicing systems must be announced on the SZAMLAZO form within 30 days.

Since January 4, 2021, this notification obligation has not applied either.