Top 5 difficulties to overcome when you open company in Hungary

Our AccountingBudapest team has been working in company formation business for 20 years. The legislation changed quite a number of times in the past, and we had to overcome many issues and questions. We also had plenty of enquiries from our prospective clients. By these experiences, our team understood what the top 5 difficulties are when you open company in Hungary.

1. Integrated one-stop-shop service

Whenever it comes to complex services and real-life requirements then it is rather complicated to find a solution that is integrated.

Let me explain how we approach this problem.

During the years we identified this demand from our clients and we worked hard to assemble a complex service that provides seamless customer experience to you. Through this development and continue polishing our services we became masters of this area by today.

While you’ll find the whole procedure easy and flawless, in the background we still work hard to overview your individual needs, assemble the necessary legal documentation, communicate with authorities and arrange the facilities that your new company requires.

Our purpose was to develop our service to the highest level at which it looks easy as 1-2-3 to our clients.

2. Virtual office address

Every company in Hungary shall have a real physical seat address, therefore PO box addresses are of no use. The company may be registered in a building (address) to which you have proper access either by owning, renting or having contractual access.

Foreigner businessmen will find it difficult to acquire a proper address. Investing in ownership rarely comes into the picture. Leasing may fit your need if you will have a physical presence in Hungary. However, if you won’t need to set up an office or manufacturing space then virtual offices are the right solution.

Be aware that many virtual offices coax new clients in masses just to be able to make a huge profit, but in the end, their services are crap not leaving you with a bad taste in the mouth. Moreover, a poorly working address service company will most likely cause harm and damage to you or your business.

In addition virtual address providers shall comply with specific legal requirements which is an additional factor when you assess the credibility of such a service.

To overcome this difficulty we worked out reliable and high-quality virtual address service in cooperation with our partner companies. We’ve been working together for many years and we’re perfectly sure that the quality of the service is the highest level.

If you need then our team will be able to arrange the virtual address service when you open company. We’ll arrange the necessary liaison, identification and preparations, including the necessary contract and the legal documents that will be required to the incorporation procedure.

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3. Signature procedure

Many of our clients find it complicated or expensive to travel to Hungary to sign off the incorporation documents of the new company.

We can save you the cost of travel and accommodation because our team developed secure solution that will allow you to sign the documents at your place, wherever you live in the world.

This way we will save you the time of the travel too.

4. Opening bank account

When you set up your business in a new jurisdiction with which you’re pretty unfamiliar, then it is clear that banking is a sensitive area. We understood that and hence we are ready to give you a general overview of the banking system. The Central Bank of Hungary supervises the complete finance industry that comprises of banks, financial institutions, investment funds, stock brokers, stock exchange, initial public offerings.

The National Bank does not execute commercial services.

Banks are licenced institutions and need to meet strict prudential requirements. Licenced banks are guaranteed by National Deposit Insurance Fund (in Hungarian „OBA” or „Országos Betétbiztosítási Alap”). If a bank became insolvent, NDIF pays compensation for its depositors within 20 working days. The upper limit of payment is defined by law to be EUR 100 000. The NDIF insurance is valid for each credit institution respectively. What it means is that if a depositor deposits money in multiple banks, then they are insured in each bank up to the limit defined in law.

Hungarian banks operate a huge number of branch offices. To visit them you needn’t book an appointment upfront, but you need to queue up and wait for your turn.

When you want to open a corporate bank account, then the director(s) of the company shall pay a visit to the bank personally. Opening a bank account by POA is impossible due to anti-money-laundering regulations. The bank will identify the director, and moreover, they will need to make a statement about the person of the ultimate beneficial owner. These are required by law.

Electronic banking is widely spread and reliable. Banks implemented two-factor authentication processes that safeguard your money. You can use their online banking services from anywhere in the world. Be prepared that banks identification procedures are strict, and if you need to fix up an issue with the bank than you might need to reliably identify you over the phone or turn up personally in a branch office in Hungary.

Opening a bank account may take anywhere from 1-2 hours to some days depending on the policy of the respective bank.

Within our bank account opening service, we can recommend you credible, high-quality tier 1 banks. We’ll accompany you to the bank and help you with the paperwork and liaison with the bank representative.

5. Find a competent accountant

This is a real hot-potato as a bad accountant definitely will cause you damages or even ruin your business. Therefore you must be very careful when choosing the right accountant.

Even in Budapest, you can easily face trouble with communicating in English. Consequently, miscommunication leads to disturbance in your business that sure you don’t want. We’ve seen quite some clients arriving at us who had communication issues with their previous accountant.

As a company that specializes in business solutions for foreigners, we pay keen attention to responsive, clear, understandable and straightforward communication in English. We are proud that our team members are English-speaking.

Besides communication, you need to be aware of the experiences and qualifications of your accountant, as they will help you not only in bookkeeping issues but in tax compliance.

A good example is that the accountant needs to be able to assess the many required tax reports that your company needs to submit. Also, it is a cornerstone if your accountant is just an everyday accountant, or do they have relevant complex experiences in different questions.

Our team consists of certified auditor, tax advisor and qualified accountants who have broad experiences in tax questions, cross-border and international transactions.

Our attentive and responsive team is ready to team up with you along the full lifespan of your company right immediately from incorporation.

You may find more information about our accountancy and tax compliance services at our AccountingBudapest website.

Open company in Hungary

Register a company
Virtual office
Tax compliance
Accountancy