In February 2019, 55 Members of the Hungarian Parliament filed a constitutional complaint to the Constitutional Court, requesting the Court to examine the laws regarding the Administrative Court System whether it is in compliance with the Fundamental Law of Hungary.

The Hungarian legislation introduced the asset management foundation as a new type of asset management in March 2019, which is very similar to the well-known trust. According to the bill on amending certain tax laws submitted by the Hungarian Government in June 2019, the foundation performing asset management will be considered as a taxable person for corporate income tax purposes. The foundation must fulfil its tax liability in the same way as the assets managed by a trust. However, if the foundation established by a natural person in favour of a natural person beneficiary has income only from financial instruments or from the exercise its rights of disposition of such instruments, the income from such activities are not taxable for corporate income tax purposes.

On 29 May 2019 the EU Commission published a guidance on the interaction between the Regulation on the free flow of non-personal data (FFD Regulation) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In particular, private businesses, notably small and medium-sized enterprises and other entities which process data in the course of their professional activities, will benefit from the guidance.

In order to advance the regeneration of brownfield areas, a reform package on the amendment to the Act on the Formation and Protection of the Built Environment was introduced on 4 June 2019.

The personal income tax exemption for mothers with four or more children will come into effect as of January 2020. In connection with the seven-step family protection action plan starting on 1 July 2019, this is another significant benefit for mothers. The tax exemption does not affect the family tax advantage, which can still be claimed by both parents.

The Member States of the European Union shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the EU Directive 2017/828 which establishes requirements in relation to the exercise of certain shareholder rights attached to voting shares in general meetings of companies by 10 June 2019. The most sensitive part of the directive is that it makes the remunerations of the directors public.

According to a recent amendment to the Hungarian Act on Sport in March 2019, an international sport association – recognized by the International Olympic Committee – will be classified and regulated as a subtype of sport associations in Hungary.

The Hungarian Public Procurement Act was modified as of 18 April 2019, in order to comply with the provisions of the Directive 2014/55/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of on electronic invoicing in public procurement.

On 1 April 2019 the Hungarian Parliament adopted a new act on the amendments necessary for the implementation of the European Union’s data protection reform (“Data Protection Reform Act”). The new act has a comprehensive nature, as it aims to finalise the implantation of the data protection reform in the affected (more than 80) sectoral laws.

In March 2019 the Hungarian Parliament voted to introduce a new form of asset management foundation, which will serve as a real alternative to the fiduciary asset management (trust) system (“bizalmi vagyonkezelés” in Hungarian).

„Hungary opposes the introduction of the common corporate income tax base, or a new type of VAT in the European Union, and insists on keeping its competitive tax system” said Hungarian Minister of Finance Mihály Varga in Bucharest at an informal meeting of the European Union’s Financial Ministers on 5 April 2019.

More than a thousand companies have decided to perform the corporate income tax as a member of a so-called corporate taxpayer group, which may result in a total savings of HUF 15 billion for the companies. One of the greatest advantages of the corporate taxpayer groups is the offsetting of positive and negative tax bases, better use of tax incentives, and the non-applicability of transfer pricing rules.

The main amendments to the act on the spatial plan (“területrendezési terv” in Hungarian) of Hungary and certain high priority regions (Spatial Planning Act) entered into force on 15 March 2019 aiming at the reform of spatial planning. The Spatial Planning Act rules and revises the national spatial plan, as well as the spatial plans of the agglomeration of Budapest and the Lake Balaton High Priority Holiday Zone which areas had been regulated in separate acts earlier.

On 13 February 2019 the European Parliament and Council agreed on how the EU’s copyright rules should be updated aiming to strengthen the position of the journalists and artists vis-á-vis the large online platforms.  According to the agreement, the big online platforms should no longer be able to earn money by using journalists’ and artists’ content without paying them. Crucially, start-ups and smaller online platforms (under 10 million global turnover or not more than 5 million unique monthly visitors) will be subject to less strict obligations than well-known large companies like Facebook or YouTube.

In principle, in the course of the land registry procedure, the position of an entry of record in the land registry, and the order of such records is determined by the filing date of the applications or requests. Under the Hungarian Land Registry Act, the order of the entries may be modified on the basis of an authentic instrument signed by all parties, a private document countersigned by an attorney or bar association legal counsel, or on the basis of a private document where the signatures of the parties are attested by a notary public.

In the absence of an agreement between the EEA and the UK (no-deal Brexit), the UK becomes a „third country” as of 00.00 am CET on 30 March 2019. This means that the organisations should revise those of their processing activities, which imply transfer of personal data to the UK.

According to the announcement of the state secretary for tax matters issued in February 2019, the Hungarian Ministry of Finance is planning to introduce a new system that prevents multinational companies to avoid tax burdens in Hungary.

The Hungarian Government submitted a bill to the Hungarian Parliament in February 2019. The goal of the new legislation is to amend more than 80 acts in order to comply with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). According to experts, these amendments could bring an easier and more uniform application of the data protection laws.