The rules of obligatory invoice data supply were modified as of 4 January 2021 in a way that the data of such invoices, modifying or annulling invoices, which are subject to the invoicing requirements of the Hungarian VAT Act, must be supplied to the tax authority. As a result, the invoices issued for domestic or foreign natural persons, legal persons or organisations not subject to VAT as well as for not domestic persons subject to VAT are affected by the obligation of invoice data supply from 4 January 2021.
The main part of the data to be supplied is the compulsory data content of the invoice under the VAT Act. In addition, in specific cases it also covers other data relating to the invoiced transaction. For example, the following must be indicated in the data supply: the transaction falls outside the territorial scope of the VAT Act, if the place of performance of the transaction is not in Hungary; whether the transaction must be considered as supply of goods for consideration or supply of services for consideration, if this transaction is performed to a different person or organisation; the currency used for determining the taxable amount.
The Hungarian tax authority published a statement on 16 December 2020 that under certain conditions, it will not impose default penalty for the period between 4 January and 31 March 2021 in case the persons subject to VAT does not supply at all or properly data on invoices. Furthermore, the persons subject to VAT have the opportunity to prepare their invoicing program for the data supply applying the new version 3.0 scheme until 31 March 2021 at the latest, without sanctions by the tax authority. After this deadline, in case of failing to perform the invoice data supply, or late, defective, incomplete performance or performance with false data content, the tax authority is entitled to impose default penalty by discretion of all circumstances of the case.
By Lidia Suveges, Attorney at law, KCG Partners Law Firm
