Based on the new rules effective as of 1 January 2021, taxpayers are obliged to report data to the online invoice system of the Hungarian Tax and Customs Authority in relation to each invoice issued under a Hungarian VAT number, i.e. invoices issued to foreign taxpayers, as well as to private individuals will also be in scope. State Secretary Izer stated in his announcement published on 7 September 2020 that the purpose of the extension of the real-time invoice reporting obligation is to reduce the size of the underground economy, as well as to enable the Tax Authority to prepare and propose draft VAT returns to taxpayers next year, in line with the authorities' previous plans.

Full-scope data provision provides the possibility of using real-time reporting as electronic invoicing between business partners as well, since the supplier uploads the invoice data to the Tax Authority’s system and the customer may download them from there. KPMG in Hungary's Tax practice is able to provide technological solutions for the introduction of electronic invoicing with the help of the Tax Authority’s system, providing overall benefits to your business.

The State Secretary added that in order to enable a smooth transition to the new system the Ministry of Finance is granting a grace period for businesses, from 1 January 2021 until 31 March 2021.

As of 1 January 2021, version 3.0 of XSD schema is being introduced as well, which, in complying with the extended real-time invoice data reporting obligations, will assure that when invoices are issued to private individuals, the personal data of the customers are treated anonymously; even the Tax Authority will not see such data. In order to provide sufficient time for the transition to 3.0 XSD, the new schemas and a comprehensive description of the technical changes will be published for developers on the GitHub portal and on https://onlineszamla.nav.gov.hu/home.

The currently applied, 2.0 schema may be used until 31 March 2021 during the grace period; however, as of 1 April at the latest, only the 3.0 XSD schema will be allowed for real-time invoice reporting.

We remain at our your disposal regarding any queries you may have in relation to the upcoming changes to real-time invoice reporting obligations, as well as regarding electronic invoicing and archiving.