Hungary introduced the EKAER system from 1 January 2015. Due to the new system it is possible for the tax authorities to control the movement of goods transported by road vehicles within Hungary in order to avoid VAT fraud.

Reporting

The following transactions have to be reported in the EKAER-system:

1. intra-Community acquisition (or import under any other title), or
2. intra-Community supply (or export under any other title), or
3. first domestic sale.

Transactions exempt from reporting

Risky products under 500 kg and HUF 1‘000‘000

Goods which are not considered as risky product:

• those which are transported by a road vehicle under 3,5 tons
• those which are transported by a road vehicle over 3,5 tons but are under the weight of 2500 kg and value of HUF 5’000’000

Risky products

The following goods are considered as risky products:

• Foodstuff
• Fodder
• Building materials
• Chemicals
• Wood
• Clothes
• Shoes

In case of transportation of risky goods (except of those transported for processing in the frame of a loan work agreement) you have to pay a risk deposit to the authorities. It can be done by

• direct payment to a specific deposit account, or
• bank guarantee.

The amount of the risk deposit is 15% of the value of the goods transported. The following companies are exempt from the payment of the risk deposit:

• companies having the qualified taxpayer status, or
• companies having more than 2 years of operation and being registered in the tax authority’s database of taxpayers with zero tax debt, and his tax number is not suspended from tax authority.
  
  The process of riporting

Each transport of a given seller and lading person to a given recipient and customer with a given vehicle requires a separate EKAER-Nr. The system will create an EKAER-Nr. automatically after filling-in the online form. This provision will be changed from 1 June 2015. From this time a single EKAER number is sufficient if goods are shipped from more than one site of the sender to more than one site of the buyer.

The application for an EKAER-Nr. must be done before lading of the goods. Therefore it is very important to forward all necessary information about the transport in time.

The EKAER-Nr. is valid for 15 days. If the transaction fails, the EKAER-Nr. will be deleted automatically and you have to apply for a new EKAER-Nr.

Simplified administration in certain cases

Manufacturing companies primarily may satisfy their reporting obligation by providing simplified content (including only the sender, addressee and registration number, and without product details) for the transportation of non-risky products, if

• their sales revenue exceeds HUF 50 billion,
• of which at least HUF 40 billion is from the sale of products that the company has manufactured itself and
• they are listed in the database of tax payers that do not have any overdue taxes or duties.

The same companies may request the exemption of a road section not exceeding 20 km between the loading and unloading address, citing the characteristics of how their manufacturing is organised, if the daily reporting obligation would impose a disproportionate burden on them (e.g. certain products are transported within the site).

Penalties

If you miss filing the report or you file an incorrect report, the tax authority is entitled to levy a penalty up to 40% of the value of the goods, or to impound the goods (except livestock and perishable goods).
The payment of the penalty does not make you exempt from the payment of any tax you have failed to pay. There is a grace period until end of January 2015, the tax authority is going to be apply penalties from 1 February 2015.

Read more information about EKAER in our latest Newsletter.

Our services

• Personal consultation about EKAER
• Introduce the funktions of EKAER System
• Support of the launching of the System
• Organising of the registration

We hope you find the information above useful.

Should you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.