What has changed, how prepared are businesses, how does Hungary compare, and what should be changed?
BBJ: What’s new for 2025?
Péter Bergmann, Bergmann Accounting: The increasing role of technology has been continuous in recent years, but we expect this process to accelerate significantly in 2025. The growing number of AI models available, their expanding capabilities, and the decreasing costs of general-purpose use mean that AI-based solutions will appear in areas where we previously did not expect them. We do not believe the accounting, auditing, or tax advisory professions will disappear, but they will undoubtedly undergo transformation.
Béla Kakuk, BPiON: Growing reliance on technology also demands significant effort. Companies often find it challenging to dedicate resources to specialized solutions without diverting attention from their core business and expertise. Clients envision an all-in-one, AI-powered technology that delivers rapid, seamless solutions. To meet these expectations, service providers must proactively monitor, evaluate, and capitalize on emerging opportunities to maintain a competitive edge in this dynamic landscape. The demand for technology transformations and the “noise” around various solutions is growing, meaning service companies should be more visionary professionals than ever before.
Nóra Rácz, LeitnerLeitner: Among the incredibly huge number of recent tax changes, I would like to highlight the expanding range of tax-advantaged and tax-exempt employee benefits.
Péter Hajnal, Moore Hungary: Hungary has introduced several key tax and accounting reforms, including implementing the OECD’s Global Minimum Tax, requiring multinational enterprises to comply with a 15% rate. E-invoicing requirements will be expanded to include more sectors, improving VAT reporting efficiency. Hungary is expected to enhance its R&D tax incentives and introduce green technology tax breaks to foster innovation and sustainability. Personal income tax rules may undergo revision. Additionally, the government will continue modernizing tax administration through automation and anti-tax evasion measures.
András Szalai, Process Solutions: There are just minor adjustments in accounting and taxation, not significant legislative changes have been introduced for 2025.
Helga Kiss, RSM: One of the biggest challenges in 2025 is fulfilling tasks that multinational companies subject to the global minimum tax under Pillar II must face regarding FY2024. For example, besides a preliminary notification obligation, Hungarian constituent entities have to declare and pay tax advances in respect of their top-up tax by Nov. 20, 2025, for the first time.
BBJ: How prepared is the market to respond to these changes?
Péter Bergmann, Bergmann Accounting: This year marks the moment when we must definitively state that compliance-focused services, such as accounting, auditing, and tax advisory, alone are no longer sufficient to meet the actual market needs of businesses. The winners of the technology-driven transformation will be those service providers who invest in solutions that deliver truly valuable end products: information and advice that can be directly used in business management and decision-making.
The biggest challenge of this paradigm shift in our field is workforce-related. The accounting profession, perhaps partly due to predictions about its potential demise, is becoming less attractive. Consequently, the resulting shortage of professionals and the relatively underdeveloped digital skills of those who remain in the field could limit technological advancement. Therefore, in every development project, the division of tasks between technology and employees must be designed so that creative tasks or those requiring judgment continue to be performed by staff who are also trained to integrate new AI-based solutions into their work.
Nóra Rácz, LeitnerLeitner: Although these were positive changes, employers haven’t responded quickly. The trend reversal in the range of cafeteria items has surprised everyone as it has narrowed in recent years. Now, it’s worth revising the benefits in kind to reward valuable staff cost-effectively. Larger companies should consider introducing employee share plans to provide additional income with favorable tax treatment for key employees and managers.
Péter Hajnal, Moore Hungary: While Hungary’s corporate and tax infrastructure is generally well-equipped to manage these changes, significant challenges will be ahead, especially for SMEs and sectors affected by the new taxes. Larger firms will likely navigate the reforms more smoothly due to better resources.
András Szalai, Process Solutions: Following EU-accepted standards and directives, ESG (under the Act on Accounting) reporting as a new requirement appeared for larger companies in Hungary starting from business year 2024, meaning that the first ESG reports are currently being prepared. This is a relatively new area requiring focus and specialized expertise.
Helga Kiss, RSM: Since this is the first year applying the GloBE rules, practicalities still need to be explored by taxpayers. Besides the diverse OECD rules and guidelines, Hungarian legislative requirements must also be met; therefore, companies usually require tax advisors’ assistance concerning their GloBE-related obligations.
BBJ: Does Hungary follow a fairly tried and tested approach, or is it an outlier (either a pioneer or a laggard)?
Nóra Rácz, LeitnerLeitner: In many ways, Hungary is a pioneer in digitalization, which is transforming the accounting profession. Nowadays, the accounting workforce is increasingly aging, and there is a shortage of staff. Thankfully, the repetitive part of the job can easily be replaced by automation, reducing the workload and freeing up time for more valuable tasks. So, we might see AI as a liberating force. But if AI takes over the tasks previously used to train juniors, how will they gain the experience to become real consultants? At LeitnerLeitner, we develop personalized training for our staff, involving beginners in automatable tasks to give them practice and test the machine solutions with them later.
Péter Hajnal, Moore Hungary: Hungary’s approach to tax and accounting reforms for 2025 follows a largely conventional approach in many respects, aligning closely with EU regulations. The adoption of the global minimum tax shows that Hungary is aligning its tax system with international standards. However, it does stand out in certain areas, particularly in its pioneering use of digital tax administration and the low corporate tax rate, as well as in the targeted tax policies it has introduced. The country has been a leader in implementing e-invoicing and digital reporting systems.
Béla Kakuk, BPiON: Hungary is leading the way in governmental digitalization, a trend that is rapidly accelerating technological advancements within the business sector. Supported by strong cybersecurity frameworks, Hungarian businesses continue to excel in their longstanding strength: connecting with the world from the heart of Europe and fostering relationships across the region. A crucial element of staying ahead is having an in-depth understanding of specific regions or countries. BPiON distinguishes itself through its extensive experience in Hungary, profound system expertise in Poland, and dynamic, market-driven growth in Romania.
András Szalai, Process Solutions: Focusing on domestic issues, the handling of the growing state budget deficit may be a priority. Previously handled by the introduction of extra profit taxes, we will need to see if we can expect continued postponed investments, reduced public spending or, with direct impact to the daily operation of taxpayers, by increasing the number of tax audits and possibly tax penalties.
Helga Kiss, RSM: A new data reconciliation procedure has been implemented in 2025, during which the National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV) requests taxpayers to reconcile their data reports if a mismatch is found in the data reported by different parties to the same transaction. Data reporting procedures must be validated, and companies should be prepared with IT solutions for data reconciliations. The eVAT system is an innovative step that improves the accuracy and immediate verifiability of the VAT declaration by the tax authority. Businesses and developers must prepare for the new system, which includes implementing standard NAV tax codes and optimizing business management systems and databases.
BBJ: What changes would you like to see that haven’t been made to date?
Nóra Rácz, LeitnerLeitner: I would like to make our profession attractive to today’s students so that I can continue to work with intelligent, enthusiastic and creative people in the future.
Péter Hajnal, Moore Hungary: Taking a more targeted approach to sectoral taxation, expanding R&D incentives, and improving cross-border tax systems could make Hungary’s market even more competitive and attractive.
Béla Kakuk, BPiON: A well-structured system of innovation hubs capable of driving future growth and efficiency has yet to emerge fully. Such hubs would stimulate economic advancement and create a need for more sophisticated financial solutions. We envision a future with more local decision-makers and thriving innovation hubs, which would, in turn, generate greater demand for complex financial solutions.
András Szalai, Process Solutions: Despite the moderate changes in the legislative environment, the market of professional services is rapidly evolving due to AI and digitalization driven by changing customer expectations and the need for scalability. This prompts major BPO firms to integrate AI-driven solutions for enhanced efficiency, starting from using the very basic AI-supported tools to touchless real-time accounting. In this revolutionary digital era, by mastering AI, analytics, and specialized skills accounting, professionals need to focus on high-value tasks that demonstrate human creativity and problem-solving, providing the fullest possible support to our clients.
Helga Kiss, RSM: Significant simplification of tax and procedural rules (for example, e-invoicing option through NAV’s online invoice reporting system has been introduced, but archiving the e-invoices is still the taxpayers’ burden).
BBJ: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Helga Kiss, RSM: ESG reporting tasks are to be performed for the first time this year with respect to FY2024; from year to year, more entities will become subject to ESG, which always requires the involvement of ESG experts.
Zoltán Lambert, WTS Klient: It is no longer sufficient to talk about automating business processes; we must act to be competitive or, more importantly, as a pioneer in this fast-changing environment. WTS Klient has a strong team of in-house IT experts and business analysts who can assist in finding and developing IT-based solutions to gather the required data. We aim to help our employees make processes smooth and make sure that our clients receive the best and most effective services where the chances of mistakes are reduced or eliminated. By doing this, our expert colleagues can focus more profoundly on the increasing number of different types of reporting liabilities (ESG, GMT, M2M, and so on) driven by Hungarian and EU lawmakers. The other major issue is probably cooperation with new investors in Hungary. The increasing number of Eastern investors impacts our business as well, and we are ready and prepared to handle their needs and, as the most critical factor, to explain to them the Hungarian and European accounting and tax differences.
• Péter Bergmann, managing partner, Bergmann Könyvelő Iroda Kft.
• Béla Kakuk, partner and CEO, BPiON Group
• Nóra Rácz, partner, managing director, LeitnerLeitner
• Péter Hajnal, managing director, Moore Hungary
• András Szalai, managing partner, Process Solutions Hungary
• Helga Kiss, director, tax services RSM Hungary
• Zoltán Lambert, managing partner, WTS Klient Gazdasági Tanácsadó Kft.
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of February 21, 2025.
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