Setting Up a Business in Hungary

An in-depth guide for foreign entrepreneurs and companies looking to enter the Hungarian market — home to the EU’s lowest headline corporate tax rate, though the full tax picture is genuinely more complex than that single figure suggests.
This guide covers legal structures (Kft, minimum share capital), business taxation — including a 9% corporate rate with zero withholding tax, set against the EU’s highest VAT at 27% and a real combined cost of dividend distribution that exceeds 30%, company formation (a notarial deed requiring mandatory legal counsel), the cost of labor (employer social charges around 31.5%), and immigration routes for executives, investors, and entrepreneurs — including Hungary’s distinctive residency-through-company-formation route introduced in 2024, and the Guest Investor Programme. Includes an operational checklist and useful contacts.
Available in English.