Some 1.2 million taxpayers in Hungary used the online tax returns system to donate one percent of their income tax to charities or churches this year, up 10 percent from 2020, a government official said on Sunday.
Under Hungary’s tax laws, taxpayers are offered an opportunity to donate one percent of their income tax to NGOs and another percent to churches.
Taxpayer donations are an enormous help to churches and civil groups, finance ministry state secretary András Tállai told MTI, adding that the simplicity of the online tax returns system was a likely factor in the jump in the number of people who used the platform to donate this year.
In principle, taxpayers eligible to donate part of their income tax to some kind of organisation could contribute a total of over 40 billion forints (EUR 111.3m) this year, he said.
The government’s measures aimed at reducing tax bureaucracy have also applied to taxpayer donations, Tállai said. Donating to NGOs, for example, has been made easier with the list of eligible organisations being available on the tax authority’s website, the state secretary said.
Meanwhile, those who donated to churches last year will automatically have 1 percent of their taxes sent to the same church again this year unless they rescind their donation or enter in a new beneficiary, he said.
Featured photo illustration by Tamás Vasvári/MTI
