Corporate Tax (TAO) Hungary 2026 – Complete Guide for Kft Owners
If you run a kft, bt or zrt in Hungary, corporate tax is one of your most important — and most often misunderstood — obligations. This guide walks through how much TAO you owe in 2026, exactly how the tax base is calculated, when the minimum tax base rule kicks in, and — the question most owners actually care about — how much money ends up in your own pocket if you take the profit out as a dividend.
Updated:
- How much is corporate tax in Hungary in 2026: Hungary's corporate tax (TAO) is a flat 9% – the lowest rate in the EU – and has been unchanged since 2017. It applies equally to every kft, bt and zrt, regardless…
- What is the difference between TAO and KIVA: TAO is a flat 9% tax that applies only to profit.
- How much tax do I pay if I take the profit out as dividend: After the 9% TAO, the after-tax profit paid out as dividend carries a further 15% personal income tax and – up to an annual cap – 13% social contribution tax…
Work it out for your own situation: Open the Corporate Tax Calculator – free, no registration required.
How much is corporate tax in Hungary?
Hungary's corporate tax (TAO) is a flat 9% — the lowest corporate tax rate in the European Union. The rate has been unchanged since 2017 and is completely independent of company size: a one-person kft pays exactly the same rate as a multi-billion-forint enterprise.
TAO is payable by every business association (kft, bt, zrt) and by a number of other legal entities (for example, associations and foundations on income from their business activity). Sole traders are not subject to it — they pay personal income tax (SZJA) instead of TAO; if you want to compare taxation options as a sole trader, see our business taxation comparison article.
How is the tax base calculated?
The corporate tax base is not simply your accounting profit (pre-tax profit) — it must be adjusted with correction items, some of which increase and some of which decrease the base. A few common examples:
- Base-increasing items can include costs not incurred in the interest of the business, certain provisions, or the difference between accounting and tax-law depreciation.
- Base-decreasing items can include losses carried forward from previous years (within certain limits), certain development reserves, or R&D expenditure.
In practice, for most smaller kft-s the corrections are modest, and the pre-tax profit is close to the final tax base — but for larger investments or provisions the difference can be substantial. It is always worth having an accountant confirm the exact tax base.
The minimum tax base rule – when NAV expects a minimum
There is a special rule that many owners are unaware of: the minimum tax base (jövedelem-minimum). If your company's actual tax base (or pre-tax profit) is very low relative to its revenue, the tax authority (NAV) may assume that you should have earned at least 2% of your corrected total revenue as profit.
If your actual tax base falls below this, you have two options: either declare this 2% minimum as your tax base (and pay 9% on it), or submit a separate declaration explaining in detail why your actual result was lower (for example, a start-up business, a one-off loss, or difficult market conditions). Filing the declaration does not by itself guarantee NAV won't scrutinise the company further — but it is a legitimate, documented way to justify a lower tax base.
A worked example: 10 million HUF profit
Let's take a simple, typical case. A kft has a pre-tax profit of 10 million HUF for the year, with no significant correction items:
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Pre-tax profit | 10,000,000 HUF |
| Corporate tax (9%) | 900,000 HUF |
| After-tax profit | 9,100,000 HUF |
Up to this point the calculation is straightforward. The real question is what you do with the after-tax profit: leave it in the company (reinvest or retain it), or take it out personally as a dividend. The latter carries further tax — let's look at exactly how much.
Taking out a dividend: how much do you actually keep?
The after-tax (post-TAO) profit can be paid out to the owners as a dividend — but only after the annual financial statements are approved, and only if the company has sufficient distributable retained earnings. For an individual owner, a dividend carries two further layers of tax:
- 15% personal income tax — uncapped, applies to every forint.
- 13% social contribution tax (szocho) — but this one does have a cap: 24 times the prevailing minimum wage per year. In 2026 that is 7,747,200 HUF (since the minimum wage rose to 322,800 HUF). Once your szocho-liable income (salary plus dividend combined) reaches this cap, any further dividend above it is taxed only at the 15% personal income tax rate.
Continuing the example above: if you take out the full 9,100,000 HUF after-tax profit as a dividend (and have no other szocho-liable income that year), the calculation looks like this:
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| After-tax profit (dividend base) | 9,100,000 HUF |
| Dividend PIT (15%) | -1,365,000 HUF |
| Dividend szocho (13%, up to the cap) | -1,007,136 HUF |
| Net dividend received | 6,727,864 HUF |
So out of the original 10 million HUF company profit — after TAO, personal income tax and szocho — roughly 6.73 million HUF ends up in your own pocket if you take everything out as dividend at once. That is a combined tax burden of around 33% across the company and the individual together — similar in magnitude to the tax burden on an average salary, just structured differently.
Work it out for your own company
Our calculator takes your pre-tax profit and instantly shows the corporate tax due — and, if you like, how much you would take home personally if you paid the profit out as dividend.
Open the Corporate Tax Calculator →TAO or KIVA? Which is better?
Alongside corporate tax there is an alternative regime, the small business tax (KIVA), which some smaller companies can choose instead of TAO. KIVA's rate is 10% — which looks more expensive than the 9% TAO at first glance — but there is an important difference: KIVA also replaces the social contribution tax, and it applies a single rate to both payroll and profit.
Since 1 December 2025, KIVA can be chosen by companies with fewer than 100 employees and annual revenue below 6 billion HUF. It tends to suit companies where payroll costs are large relative to profit, since the way the tax base is calculated also rewards investment and employment.
Don't forget local business tax (HIPA)
Alongside corporate tax, most businesses must also pay a separate, municipal tax: the local business tax (HIPA). Its rate varies by municipality, up to a maximum of 2%, and its base is not profit but net revenue (reduced by certain statutory items, such as the cost of goods sold, mediated services, and material costs).
HIPA therefore applies even if the company has little or no profit, since it is calculated from revenue, not from profit. It is not included in our calculator, since the exact rate varies by municipality — you can check the rate that applies to you on your registered municipality's website.
Frequently asked questions
When must corporate tax be filed and paid?
The corporate tax return is due by 31 May of the year following the tax year (for a calendar-year business). Advance payments are generally due monthly or quarterly, depending on the size of the prior year's tax liability — from 2026 the monthly advance-payment threshold has risen to 20 million HUF.
Can I pay a dividend if the company had losses in earlier years?
Dividends can only be paid from distributable, free retained earnings — if losses from earlier years have not yet been fully offset, this can limit or exclude dividend payments. Your balance sheet and accountant can tell you exactly where you stand.
Do I owe corporate tax if my company made a loss?
If your tax base is negative (a loss), in principle no corporate tax is due — but because of the minimum tax base rule, it is worth checking whether you might still owe some tax, and it is worth carrying the loss forward correctly into future years.