KATA 2027: what the draft means if you are a foreign sole trader in Hungary

No. The Ministry of Finance published the draft on 6 October 2026 and the public consultation closed on 14 October. We have not been able to confirm whether it has been submitted to Parliament. Nothing has been published in the Magyar Közlöny.

What this means for you: do not change your tax arrangements yet. The numbers below are real — they come from the published text, not from press reports — but they are the numbers the government proposed, not the numbers that have been enacted.

A flat monthly tax of HUF 100,000 full-time or HUF 50,000 alongside employment, a HUF 22 million revenue cap, and — for the first time since 2022 — permission to invoice companies, with a 15% supplementary tax on company income.

Source: draft bill, §2, §5, §7, §8, §10, published at kormany.hu on 6 October 2026.

Yes. Under the current rules, taking payment from a company generally ends your KATA eligibility — the single restriction that made KATA unusable for most freelancers after 2022. The draft removes it: you would be able to invoice Hungarian and foreign companies.

There is a price attached. On income from companies, a 15% supplementary tax applies — but only on the part that exceeds the itemised tax you already pay for the year. For a full-time sole trader paying HUF 1.2 million a year, that works out at roughly HUF 8 million of company income before anything extra is due. Income from private individuals is not in the base at all.

Source: draft bill §8 and the government's own summary.

No. The draft contains no rule about citizenship, residence permits or tax residency as a condition of eligibility. The gate is the Hungarian sole trader registration itself — if you are registered under the Evectv., you are in scope.

But one thing does catch people, and almost nobody writes about it. If you are insured in another country under EU social security coordination rules or a bilateral agreement, the draft classifies you as not full-time (§2(2)c and d). That means:

• you pay HUF 50,000 a month rather than 100,000, and
• you are not insured in the Hungarian system — no Hungarian health or unemployment entitlement from this activity

Whether that is good news or bad news depends entirely on where your cover actually is. It is worth getting right before January rather than after.

One gap we want to be straight about. The draft does not address tax residency. If you are registered as a Hungarian sole trader but tax-resident elsewhere, the position would have to be worked out from the double taxation treaty and §1(2), which says international agreements override the Act. We could not find a professional source that discusses this, and the draft does not settle it.

The old regime and the new one would run in parallel through 2027 and 2028, and on 1 January 2029 anyone still in the old regime moves into the new one automatically.

• The 2022 regime stays available only to people who were already in it on 31 December 2026
• Its cap stays at HUF 18 million, and you still could not invoice companies
• Its monthly tax rises to HUF 75,000 in 2027 and HUF 100,000 in 2028
• On 1 January 2029 anyone still in the old regime is moved into the new one automatically, as a full-time taxpayer, unless they opt out by 31 December 2028

Source: draft bill §16–17, §29–30.

Partnerships, anyone whose tax number was recently deleted, and anyone with property-letting income in the year of the choice.

• Bt. and Kkt. partnerships — this is for sole traders only
• Anyone whose tax number was deleted in the year of registration or the preceding 12 months
• Anyone with income from letting or operating property (ÖVTJ 68.20) in the year of the choice — note this is tied to the income, not to the activity

The final text, the 2028 amount, the definition of "payer" and how mixed income fills the cap are all still open — we would rather tell you this than let you find out in January.

• The text itself can change. It still has to go through Parliament
• The 2028 monthly amount is a formula, not a number. It depends on the 2027 minimum wage, which has not been set
• "Payer" is not defined in the Act — it refers out to the Tax Procedure Act
• Where the cap and the two taxes meet is unclear. If your income is mixed — some from individuals, some from companies — the draft does not say which income fills the HUF 22 million cap first
• The impact assessment is conspicuously thin. It was dated 30 September, two days before the draft went out. The number of people affected is blank, as are the sections on necessity, implementation and expected effects
• NAV has published nothing about the new regime. Its current KATA guidance, last updated 20 February 2026, is about the 2022 rules

Registration opens on 1 December 2026 and the new regime starts on 1 January 2027.

That depends on four things: whether your clients are companies or individuals, whether one of them dominates, what you expect to earn, and where you are insured.

Right now, nothing is final — so the useful thing is not a decision, it is being told when there is one to make.