The Hungarian parliament passed a bill modifying the Corporate Income Tax Law on 23 November 2016.

According to the law the early stage business will be defined as start-up company if the company has been registered as an early-stage business in accordance with the applicable law, and minimum number of employees of the company is two where at least one of them is a researcher/developer.

The base of corporate income tax of an early-stage business may be reduced by 2.5 times the cost of shareholdings acquired in the early-stage business where the taxpayer is liable to pay 10% corporate income tax in the tax year of acquisition, or 1.5 times the cost of shareholdings where the taxpayer would become liable to pay 19% corporate income tax.

The law introduces a new tax benefit to support the implementation and operation of equipment investments resulting in energy efficiency improvement in line with EU legislation.

The new tax will enter into effect as from 1 January 2017.