Timea Bana, Radoslaw Goral, Marceli Kasperkiewicz, and Michal Wasiak have been promoted to Partner as part of Dentons' recent promotion round that also included the recently reported promotion of Tomasz Zwolinski to Partner (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on April 28, 2022).

The Hungarian National Authority for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (NAIH) recently published its annual report for 2021, which contains some useful information for data controllers.

CEE Legal Matters spoke with CMS Partners Alexander Rakosi, Horea Popescu, Philipp Mark, and Tetyana Dovgan about the impact the rise of ESG is having on the M&A landscape.

In “The Corner Office” we ask Managing Partners at law firms across Central and Eastern Europe about their backgrounds, strategies, and responsibilities. The question this time: Who was your favorite professor in university and why?

The summary below highlights the most important changes to the Hungarian Tax Regime for 2022.

Taylor Wessing has advised Seon on its recent USD 94 million series B funding round led by Silicon Valley-based IVP and including existing investors Creandum and PortfoLion. Reportedly, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati advised Seon as well.

In its recommendation issued at the end of March 2022, the European Commission urges Member States to immediately end their investor citizenship schemes and ensure strict controls to address the security, money laundering, tax evasion and corruption risks of investor residence programs.

CEE Legal Matters readers will likely be familiar with Patricia Gannon as one of the founders of Karanovic & Partners. Since her withdrawal from the firm (reported by CEE Legal Matters on September 21, 2020), Gannon ran her own "holistic strategic advisory business" (as reported on October 12, 2020) and, recently, she announced she is working on a new social media app for lawyers – Platforum 9. We caught up with her to learn more about her new project.

The prospective tax and retail business nationalization-related reforms, together with war-related sanctions, are the major discussion topics in Hungary, according to Bittera Kohlrusz & Toth Partner Milan Kohlrusz.

The Hungarian tax authority published its annual tax audit guidelines with the clear aim of supporting compliant taxpayers and take firm actions against intentional tax evasion by utilizing various data sources available in the process. E-commerce, real estate industry, data-based risk analysis remain key elements.

From 1 April 2022, substantial changes were made to the provisions of the government decree on the construction and construction-related profession exercising activities, i.e. designers, construction technical supervisors, responsible technical leaders and construction experts.

The Hungarian Government adopted a decree on 24 February 2022 that allows people fleeing the Russian-Ukraine war to enter Hungary and guarantees ‘temporary protection’ for them. This temporary protection applies to all Ukrainian citizens and refugees who lived in Ukraine and their relatives. The temporary protection, at this stage, is available for one year. In order to get the temporary protected status, after entering Hungary, people must register at the Immigration Authority or at one of its sub-offices at the reception centres located near the Ukraine border. With the temporary protected status Ukrainian citizens are entitled to get accommodation, food, medical care, also dental treatment, maternity care, vaccinations and education for children. They are also entitled for monthly cash allowance for the duration of their protection. The monthly amount of the allowance is HUF 22,800 (approx. EUR 62).

The Hungarian Data Protection Authority (Nemzeti Adatvédelmi és Információszabadság Hatóság, NAIH) has recently published its annual report in which it presented a case where the Authority imposed the highest fine to date of ca. EUR 670,000 (HUF 250 million).

The Hungarian register of ultimate beneficial owners contains the data of the data providers falling under the scope of the act ruling the register of ultimate beneficial owners, for instance limited liability companies, public limited companies, associations, foundations or notary offices.

From 14 February 2022 European patents registered in Hungary became available in the EFPR system. According to the statement of the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office (“HIPO”), by joining to the EFPR system, 34,000 patents registered in Hungary became available and searchable on the site of the EFPR. It is important to have a common platform for the patent registry, as customers do not need to look up national sites and search for similar patents before requesting registration. The system itself is capable of informing the user about countries in which the European patent in question is not protected anymore.

The Hungarian economy is performing well, despite all the turmoil Europe finds itself in currently, according to Kinstellar Budapest Managing Partner Kristof Ferenczi.

On 13 March 2022 the Hungarian Parliament approved an amendment to the Corporate Income Tax Act that modified the regulation of investment tax incentives. Based on the amendment, the only requirement to claim the investment tax credit is that the investment should be an initial investment implemented by a small and medium-sized enterprise, or is realized by a large company in the Northern Hungary, Northern Great Plain, South Great Plain, South Transdanubia, Central Transdanubia or Western Transdanubia regions. Mainly the Pest County region will benefit from the amendment, as the tax credit can be claimed after the investment projects realized in the whole region.

In accordance with its latest announcement, Hungarian Government decided to temporarily decrease the excise duty imposed on fuel products as of 10 March 2022. Other governments in the region also introduced similar measures to control fuel prices and thus inflation; compliance with the EU rules, however, might be of secondary importance.