A bank account abroad - Tax Newsletter 2018/1

The data supply obligation, which was introduced in the interest of whitening out the economy, is prescribed by the new law on the rules of taxation, in effect from 2018, and the notification obligation needs to be satisfied by 31 January 2018 with the use of form no. 18T201T.

The scope of the one-time notification obligation includes all foreign bank accounts of the company, including the names of the financial institutions concerned, as well as the dates of opening and closing the accounts; however, any future changes in the data provided in January will also have to be notified within 15 days, following the general rules of notifying changes.

With a view to the automatic exchange of information between Member States of the European Union, as well as the supply of information based on requests, which the tax authorities of the individual countries use with increasing frequency, identifying bank accounts that were not notified is not an impossible task for the National Tax and Customs Administration. If this happens, the tax authority will first call upon the taxpayer to supplement the missing information within 15 days. If the taxpayer fails to do so by the relevant deadline, the tax authority imposes a penalty of HUF 100 thousand, and after an additional 15 days, HUF 500 thousand in fines.

In summary, if your company has a bank account in another country, make arrangements for the timely notification of the same in order to avoid the above penalties.