Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office János Lázár proposes convening the Committee on Economics of the Hungarian National Assembly, in order to discuss possibilities regarding the modification of the advertising tax.

Since the entry into force of Act XXII of 2014 – as a result of the dispute between the Government of Hungary and the Bertelsmann Group – two EU proceedings have been initiated against Hungary.

In the focus of the parallel investigations of the Directorate-General for Taxation and the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission are the progressive nature of the tax and the deductibility of deferred losses, in the latter case with a view to the fact that the 2014 tax base could only be reduced with the deferred losses of 2013, losses of previous years could not be taken into account.

In the course of discussions held in the framework of the investigations the European Commission pointed out that in their view the advertising tax posed a selective advantage, thus providing state aid to taxable persons with low advertising revenues. At the beginning of February the Commission called on the Government of Hungary to modify the regulations concerning the advertising tax, otherwise a decree on suspending the tax would be issued and finally an infringement procedure would be launched.

As already signalled throughout the investigations, the Government of Hungary is willing to consider the modification of the advertising tax. In this respect, the final decision has to be taken by the Parliament based on the standpoint of the Committee on Economics.

(Prime Minister's Office)