Hungary drops EU VAT MOSS invoices

Hungary has formally dropped the requirement for foreign providers selling digital services to Hungarian consumers to produce locally compliance invoices. This includes B2C sales of broadcast and telecommunications (data and voice) services.

The new rules will apply from 1 January 2016. However, the Hungarian tax authorities have not been enforcing the requirement so will practically make little difference. However, customers may still request an invoice which then must be produced.

The Mini One Stop Shop (MOSS) regime applies to the new rules of determining the place of supply for VAT on B2C digital sales. From the start of 2015, foreign providers based in the EU had to start charging the VAT rate of their consumers, and paying the VAT to the relevant authorities. To eliminate the need to require in multiple EU states, the MOSS portals were introduced. These enable a single, quarterly VAT return to be filed with details of all sales in foreign EU states. The providers can remit the total VAT through the portal, and it is then distributed by the tax authorities to the correct countries.