Government proposes reduced banking tax from January 1. 

Budapest, December 11 (MTI) – The government has proposed lowering the banking tax as of January 2016 from 0.31 percent to 0.24 percent, the economy ministry said on Thursday.

The reduction was proposed based on informal signals from the European Commission and an agreement with The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the ministry said. The tax’s lower bracket would remain the same, 0.15 percent up to 50 billion forints.

In line with the government’s agreement with the EBRD made in February, the changes will not alter the tax wedge on the whole sector and the central budget’s revenue from the tax in 2016 will not change either. The government consulted the Hungarian Banking Association and the Directorate-General for Competition (COMP) in the course of writing the bill, the ministry said.

The Hungarian Banking Association supports the proposal to reduce the banking tax and it has accepted the size of the cut for 2016, the general secretary of the association, Levente Kovacs, told MTI on Friday. The reduction is necessary in terms of supporting economic growth, Kovacs said.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters