Ideally, the reconciliation will show that the tax account data matches the taxpayer's own records. The debt must be settled immediately. This will avoid additional late payment surcharges and possible enforcement.
The outstanding debt can be settled by payment or transfer.
The method of payment basically depends on whether a person is obliged to open a payment account(mainly legal persons, self-employed persons liable to pay VAT) or not (natural persons).
- Payment
As a general rule, payments by taxpayers who are required to open a payment account should be made by bank transfer. If you are not obliged to open a payment account, you can pay by cheque or by bank transfer from your retail current account. Regardless of this, the debt can be paid online, by bank transfer from the Customer Portal (EFER House Bank service) and by credit card (VPOS) for certain tax categories. In addition to the above, arrears can also be settled in person at NTCA customer services via a POS terminal.
For more information on the credit card payment option, see "Information on paying taxes by credit card" section of Information Booklet no. 35 on paying tax by bank card, available on the NTCA website (Hungarian only), and for more information on how to pay, see "Who can and how to pay to the NTCA".
Cheques can be applied for by filling in and electronically submitting the form "Application for a Postal Cash Transfer Order (postal payment order)" or by sending it (by post or in person) to the locally competent directorate, i.e. the one where you live or have your registered office. For further information on how to fill in the form and how to apply for a postal payment order, please visit the postal payment order link (Hungarian only) on the NTCA website, to received instructions for filling in the postal payment order.
- Transfer
The debt can also be settled by transferring it between tax categories if there is an overpayment in another tax category in the tax account. The transfer can be requested using the "Transfer and Payment Request" (ATVUT17) form, most easily started from the Customer Portal, after the tax account has been retrieved. The form is available on the NTCA website, in the General Form Filling framework program under ATVUT17 - ÁNYK (Hungarian only) and directly from the Online Form Filling Application (ONYA) interface (Hungarian only).
You can also request the transfer by phone, via the Info Line.
| The NTCA Info Line
The service is available on weekdays, Monday to Thursday from 8.30am to 4pm, and on Fridays from 8.30am to 1.30pm. The service can be used after registration (after filling and submitting the TEL form (Hungarian only)) with a customer identification number. |
When making a transfer, please note the following:
- Only a real overpayment can be requested to be transfer between accounts. There are many reasons why an overpayment may only be "apparent", for example when the payment already appears in the tax account but the return is not yet filed because it is being corrected. An apparent overpayment may also be caused by the payment of a tax advance in the middle of the year and the late filing of a return (for example, if personal income tax is due on the rental of real estate).
- Attention should also be paid to the limitation period for overpayments. As a general rule, this will occur after 5 years from the last day of the calendar year in which the right to claim arose (for example, the year in which someone paid more than the required amount or has a refundable tax on their personal income tax return and has not claimed a payment or transfer). If the overpayment is already time-barred, it can only be requested for the debt outstanding on the day after the limitation period has expired.