One of the last countries to do so, Hungary announced on Friday that it will join almost 140 countries in application of the 15% minimum global corporate tax rate proposed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Hungary – along with another European Union member state, Ireland – was among the last hesitants, but eventually it agreed to the tax after bargaining a ten-year transition period.
“We have managed to make a breakthrough on the issue of the global minimum tax agreement, so Hungary can join in the matter with a good heart,” Finance Minister Mihály Varga announced on Friday.
Varga also talked about the fact that the current 9% Hungarian corporate tax rate will remain for the time being, as the 15% percent tax floor will be a targeted solution for the countries concerned to collect the global tax.
The Hungarian economy was able to quickly regain the growth capacity it had before the epidemic, with GDP expected to grow by 7-7.5 percent this year and 5.5-6 percent next year, Varga said at the American Chamber of Commerce’s business forum in Budapest on Friday. He added that the growth rate in Hungary was higher than the EU average – almost 18 percent in the second quarter and 7.6 percent in the first half of the year – so, the country’s economy is back on track.
