Porn, the tax-free business in Hungary

The Hungarian government unobtrusively abolished the so-called cultural tax, which also affects pornographic content on the internet.

In the recent years, this tax has generated tax revenue of 310,000 – 470,000 Euros for the budget (100 and 150 million HUF), even though people did not have to pay for consuming internet content, writes HVG. Parliament approved porn tax in November 2011, expecting yield in the budget. Unfortunately, the cultural tax was not profitable over the years.

Books, newspapers, leaflets, catalogues, brochures, ads, postcards, stickers, calendars, but also films, recordings, CDs, videos, software, radio and television programs that meet the criteria of pornographic contents are not allowed to be published since 2011.

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However, legislators missed web contents (such as chatting and voyeurism), except for downloadable films, videos, audio content, ads and advertisements. Who knows why, but sexual tools that one can buy in sex shops were not issued for cultural tax.

The cultural tax was a type of traffic tax that charged the revenue. That is, if a company did not have a profit of at least 25 percent on pornographic activity, then it went unprofitable.

This tax was multiphased, so if, for example, a movie was marketed by a merchant chain, everyone had to pay the public bill, but no one could claim it back like VAT, explains Iván Vadász, vice-president of the Hungarian Tax Advisers Association, to HVG when the law was passed.

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Source: hvg.hu