SAF-T requirements in Hungary

Portugal, Norway and Poland have already introduced the reporting of accounting data in accordance with the international SAF-T standard. Hungary is now following suit. With the introduction of SAF-T in addition to the existing real-time invoice reporting, the Hungarian government wants to replace the Adatexport audit report. Until now, this report extracts certain accounting information from invoices at the request of the National Tax and Customs Authority (NAV).

A pilot project was organized for this purpose, involving many large companies and technology providers. The aim was to test the functionality of the new format. To do this, as many opinions and suggestions as possible were to be gathered and problems uncovered in order to test the format with regard to the new requirements.

The SAF-T requirements were originally scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2021, although the public consultation document on the NAV website still allowed comments until January 1. To date, however, no further official announcement has been made by NAV, and it is expected that the deadline may be delayed until late 2021 or early 2022.

Around the world, many governments continue to work to introduce measures to increase tax efficiency and reduce tax evasion. That is why it is important for companies to ensure that their processes and systems can meet the respective requirements. For this reason, SAF-T provides tax authorities with access to reliable accounting data in an easy-to-read format, ensuring effectiveness and compatibility.