Hungary

Starting a Business in

Hungary

Listed below is a detailed summary of the bureaucratic and legal hurdles an entrepreneur must overcome in order to incorporate and register a new firm, along with their associated time and set-up costs.  It examines the procedures, time and cost involved in launching a commercial or industrial firm with up to 50 employees and start-up capital of 10 times the economy's per-capita gross national income (GNI).

The information appearing on this page was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 183 economies. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2011.

  • Standardized Company

  • Legal Form: Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag (KFT) - Limited Liability Company
  • City: Budapest

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Hire lawyer who represents the company, creates company deeds, and prepares other legal documents.

The company must be represented by an attorney at law in the registration process. The lawyer’s fee is subject to free agreement, so it varies significantly according to the services provided and company size. Attorneys charge at least HUF 100,000 for registering a simple limited liability company (KFT), with the official cost of HUF 260,000 paid by the client.
1-2 days HUF 100,000-260,000 ; varies according to the complexity
2 Pay at least 50% of subscription amount (at least HUF 250,000) into the bank account designated at the time of subscription.

Half the cash contribution must be paid in at the time of company establishment. The remainder must be paid in according to the provisions of the articles of association, but no later than a year from establishment.
1 day no charge
3 Apply for registration at the Registration Court (simplified electronic registration)

When the registration court receives the application for registry a certificate is issued for the company with the company's name, address, temporary tax and statistical number and the number of reference of the registration. After receiving the above certificate the company may commence to operate in the form of a pre-incorporated company. This means that the company may operate as an incorporated company but special provisions regarding personal liability of the founder(s) apply.
Companies can be incorporated in 2 ways:

1. By simplified electronic filing
The stamp duty: HUF 15,000 and there is no publication fee.
Incorporation: 1 business day
In the simplified electronic filing, the companies must use a standardized template for the article of association. The companies have to fill out the application form and file certain corporate documents specified by the provisions of law. Certain other corporate documents are not required to be filed to the court but must be reviewed and kept by the attorney proceeding with the incorporation procedure. The simplified electronic registration shall take 1 working hour. If the court does not decide within the 1 hour, the chairman of the registration court must make a decision within 1 business day regarding the refusal of the application for registration or the incorporation of the company. If within this period the court does not provide a decision, the registration will occur ex lege on the following business day.

2. By standard electronic filing:
The stamp duty: HUF 100,000
Publication fee: 25,000
Incorporation: 15 business days

If the court does not decide within the aforementioned periods, the chairman of the registration court must take measures to reach a decision within 3 business days regarding the incorporation or the refusal of such application. If within this period the registration court does not decide in the given time frame, the registration will occur ex lege. The company may choose to meet publication requirements by publishing the required information on its website instead of the Company Gazette (Cégközlöny). In the latter case, no publication fees are payable.

Simultaneously with the submission of the registration application, the court registers companies with the State Tax Authority (for VAT and income tax purposes) and with the Statistical Office through an online system.


 1 day HUF 15,000 for registration
4 Register for social security


1 day no charge
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