What's how much in 2026 — wages, contributions, tax rates and thresholds

Wages and payroll minimums in 2026

The 2026 payroll year is anchored by two reference figures. The statutory minimum wage rises to HUF 322,800 per month, while the guaranteed wage minimum applicable to positions requiring a secondary qualification or professional skill rises to HUF 328,600 per month. The narrow gap between the two values shifts the upper edge of the wage scale and demands a full recalculation of related allowances, daily absence pay and accrued leave compensation at the very start of the year.

The lower threshold for contribution payment is fixed at thirty percent of the minimum wage, which equals HUF 96,840 per month in 2026. This minimum applies to part-time work as well, whenever the actual wage falls below it. The healthcare service contribution is HUF 12,300 per month, or HUF 410 per day, and applies to every gap in coverage where neither employment nor sole proprietorship secures statutory health insurance entitlement.

Tax rates and social contributions

The personal income tax rate remains a flat fifteen percent, and the social contribution tax rate is thirteen percent. On the employee side, the consolidated social-security contribution is eighteen and a half percent, of which ten percent is pension, seven percent is health insurance and one and a half percent is the labour market contribution. The small-business tax (KIVA) rate stays at ten percent, while the lump-sum levy under the small taxpayer regime (KATA) applicable to full-time sole proprietors is HUF 50,000 per month.

The annual upper cap for the social contribution tax is HUF 7,747,200, equal to twenty-four times the minimum wage. Above this cap, no further social contribution tax obligation arises within the same legal relationship. The rehabilitation contribution is HUF 2,905,200 per person per year in 2026 and applies to employers with more than twenty-five employees if the share of employees with reduced working capacity stays below five percent.

Mothers’ allowance — phased expansion

The most significant tax-policy change for 2026 is the multi-stage expansion of the mothers’ allowance. The full tax exemption for mothers raising four or more children remains continuous and applies to the entire scope of income from work. The allowance for mothers raising three children became a full exemption on 1 October 2025 and applies equally to employee and self-employed income. The allowance for mothers raising two children enters into force on 1 January 2026, initially for the under-forty age group.

The PIT exemption for mothers with two children reaches full coverage in a four-year ramp-up. From 2026 it covers those under forty, from 2027 those under fifty, from 2028 those under sixty, and from 2029 every mother with two children qualifies. Age is assessed by the status as of 1 January of the tax year, so a mother who turns forty after 31 December 2025 already qualifies from January 2026. The eligibility is declared either through the NAV ONYA online form or via a paper PIT advance declaration to the employer, and remains continuous until a new declaration is filed or the place of work changes.

The order of allowances does not change. The mothers’ allowances rank ahead of all other family and personal allowances. The portion that cannot be fully utilised against work income may be claimed as a family contribution allowance against social-security contributions.

Other tax allowances

Beyond the mothers’ allowances, the 2026 tax advance declaration may include six further base-reducing items. The newly-married allowance reduces the tax base by HUF 33,335 per month for twenty-four months. The allowance for mothers under thirty exempts income up to the average wage from the birth of the first child, and combines with the new two-children allowance for cases where a second child is born later. The allowance for those under twenty-five extends to the annual average wage. The personal allowance for those suffering from severe illness reduces the tax base by HUF 107,600 per month.

The family allowance is graduated by the number of dependants. With one child, the monthly tax saving is HUF 10,000. With two children, HUF 20,000 per child per month. With three or more children, HUF 33,000 per child per month. Application is continuous through monthly payroll on a declaration, and the year-end PIT return allows fine-tuning. The family allowance and the mothers’ allowances may be claimed jointly, with the order set by the declaration starting with the higher-priority item.

Higher thresholds for the flat-rate scheme

The flat-rate (átalányadó) scheme delivers perhaps the most favourable change for the entrepreneurial population in 2026. The general annual revenue threshold rises to HUF 38,736,000, and to HUF 193,680,000 for sole proprietors active exclusively in retail. The tax-exempt slice of the flat-rate income also rises, leaving the first HUF 1,936,800 of annual income free of personal income tax. A material reform of the cost-allowance system replaces the standard forty-percent allowance with forty-five percent, generating an immediate increase in disposable income for every flat-rate taxpayer.

The higher threshold also delays the moment at which a flat-rate taxpayer must move to double-entry bookkeeping. The election to enter the flat-rate scheme must be filed by 31 December of the preceding tax year, while existing flat-rate taxpayers benefit from the new threshold automatically. The transition from KATA to the flat-rate scheme remains common, and the choice between the two depends in large part on the composition of the client base.

VAT exemption and accounting thresholds

The threshold below which VAT registration can be avoided rises from HUF 18 million to HUF 20 million from 1 January 2026. The legislature has set a multi-year ramp-up: the threshold rises to HUF 22 million in 2027 and to HUF 24 million in 2028. The election of the VAT-exempt status is tied to the annual revenue threshold and continues to allow the taxpayer to issue invoices without VAT, while forgoing the right to deduct input VAT on purchases. The three-step increase gives independent professionals and the smallest enterprises a multi-year planning horizon.

The audit-exemption thresholds ease from 2025 onwards. Under Section 155 of the Accounting Act, a double-entry bookkeeping enterprise is exempt from audit if its two-year average annual net revenue does not exceed HUF 600 million and the average headcount does not reach fifty. Both conditions must be met simultaneously. If revenue equals exactly HUF 600 million, the obligation does not yet arise — only crossing the threshold triggers it. The new HUF 600 million threshold first applies to business years starting on or after 1 January 2025, while business years started during 2024 remain under the previous HUF 300 million limit.

Some categories remain subject to mandatory audit regardless of size, including credit unions, parent companies preparing consolidated accounts, Hungarian branches of foreign-seat enterprises and public-interest entities. For foundations and associations, exceeding either the HUF 600 million revenue threshold or the fifty-headcount limit on its own already triggers the audit obligation. Foreign-currency revenue must be translated to forint at the MNB mid-rate on each balance sheet date, and revenue of an entity founded mid-year must be annualised on a pro-rata basis.

Simplified employment and student work

Simplified employment is split into four categories, and from 2026 the agricultural seasonal day-cap expands materially. During the summer season, the classic one-hundred-and-twenty-day window is supplemented by a further ninety-day extension, available at a higher employer contribution and a higher pension base. A single worker may therefore work up to two hundred and ten days under the agricultural seasonal heading in a given year. The annual cap on casual work, between one employer and one worker, remains one hundred and twenty days.

The minimum base wage is eighty-five percent of the minimum wage, or eighty-seven percent of the guaranteed minimum for skilled positions, which equates to HUF 274,380 and HUF 285,882 per month in 2026. The employer contribution under simplified employment is a fixed daily amount per worker, defined as a percentage of the minimum wage and rounded to HUF 100. The table below gives the precise 2026 forint values, including the daily base used for pension entitlement.

The summary table below collects the wage and accounting key figures for EFO employment in 2026. The exempt daily allowance is the upper limit of tax-free daily income for the worker, fixed at one hundred and thirty percent of the daily wage. For corporate income tax purposes, the maximum recognised employer cost is twice the daily figure derived from the minimum wage. The maximum daily fee for film extras is twelve percent of the minimum wage, rounded to HUF 100.

Student work follows a separate regime with reduced contribution burdens compared with regular employment. The guaranteed monthly minimum is sixty-five percent of the minimum wage, namely HUF 209,820. The tax-free bands applicable to student work combine with the under-25 allowance, so typical summer student work income remains tax-free as long as cumulative annual income stays below the annual average wage. We discuss the underlying monthly workday planning in detail in our 2026 working-time calendar.

Other common thresholds and flat amounts

For fringe benefits, the SZÉP card annual cap remains HUF 450,000, and the associated fringe-benefit rate is unchanged. The tax-free employer advance is tied to a maximum repayment period of six months and is exempt up to HUF 1,614,000. Low-value gifts on festive occasions are tax-exempt up to ten percent of the minimum wage, three times per year.

What this means in business practice

Taken together, the 2026 thresholds and rates ease the burden on small and medium-sized enterprises. The higher VAT exemption threshold and the extended flat-rate revenue cap reduce the administrative load on entering sole proprietors. The cost-allowance increase by a fifth produces a direct income gain for the flat-rate population. Payroll and contribution base figures move proportionally with the minimum wage, affecting the entire net-to-gross conversion. The expansion of the mothers’ allowance brings a direct net-income gain for dual-income households, and the payroll module receives a new declaration category.

Some changes require redrafting of existing contractual frameworks. For long-running service and contracting agreements, the VAT-exempt to VAT-liable transition can affect invoicing, and the impact of the higher minimum wage shows up in performance-linked wages. Payroll software settings, NAV declaration forms and bookkeeping software parameters should be refreshed simultaneously at the start of the year, so that the new thresholds do not trigger retrospective self-corrections.

The distribution of workdays and working hours across the calendar year deserves separate examination during 2026 payroll planning. We have set out the full annual workload, the rescheduled days and the long weekends in detail in our 2026 working-time calendar. For payroll, leave planning and shift scheduling, the two documents serve as a combined reference.