Analysis of the Competitiveness of the Hungarian Tax System in an International Environment

Abstract

A composite indicator of tax competitiveness will be presented, which ranks Hungary among the moderately competitive OECD countries. It is compiled in such a way that corporate taxation and labour taxes pull the average upwards, and that an additional competitive advantage is the taxation of cross-border transactions. On the other hand, the significant tax administration burden, which worsens the value of the composite indicator, can be considered as a disadvantage. Hungary is in the worst position in terms of tax rates for consumption taxes. Overall, our tax competitiveness has improved by about 8 ranks from 2014 to 2021. We found that the Hungarian tax system is mostly characterised by a monetarist approach, but it also widely applies tax incentives, which is a characteristic of the Keynesian school. The evolution of tax revenues shows that sales taxes represent a significant share. Another feature of the Hungarian tax system is the significant reduction in taxes on labour, which is offset by increases in the personal income tax (PIT), which rises in line with income (solvent demand), and by increases in sales taxes resulting from the growth in consumption.