Hungary's Draft Wealth Tax Brings Non-Resident Property Owners Into Scope

The date that matters is 31 December 2026, not the commencement date. The first liability attaches to what you hold at the end of this year, about eleven weeks away, though the first return and payment are not due until 31 August 2027. A disposal completed before 31 December takes the asset out of the first year's base entirely. The valuation hierarchy also rewards recent paperwork: a transaction completed within the previous twelve months sets the value, so if you bought this year, your own purchase price is the number, and the deed and consideration should be documented rather than left for the tax authority to model. Where no recent transaction exists, an older one within ten years is indexed forward before the authority falls back to its own mass appraisal model.

Get the valuation evidence into order before the end of December, because the assessment date will not wait for the final text.

What changed

Three parameters that were open through the autumn are now written down. The rate is tiered rather than flat: 1 percent on the base up to 100 billion forint, and 1.5 percent on the portion above that. The threshold sits at 1 billion forint of net wealth, roughly 2,736,877 euros at the National Bank of Hungary rate on the day of publication, and operates as an exemption rather than a cliff: net wealth of 1.5 billion forint produces a base of 500 million forint.

The timetable moved earlier than the 2027 start previously signalled. The law is intended to enter into force on 15 December 2026, creating a short transitional tax year that runs from 15 to 31 December. Liability is then assessed on the position at 31 December 2026, with filing and payment by 31 August 2027, and by 31 August of the following year thereafter.

The valuation method for property, absent from earlier drafts, is now set out in priority order: a suitable transaction within the previous twelve months, then the indexed value of a transaction no more than ten years old, then the tax authority's nationwide mass appraisal model value, then an independent expert's market value. Where property is worth at least 500 million forint, an expert valuation must be carried out by an authorised forensic expert using at least two methods. Valuation is the quiet half of any property tax change, as Bulgaria's upward revision of assessed values shows.

The mechanism

This is a draft released for public consultation, not an enacted statute. It has not been submitted to the National Assembly, no bill number has been assigned, and the text carries the standard warning that it remains subject to change before formal submission and enactment. The policy traces back to a government resolution of 14 May 2026, and the draft is published on the government portal.

That status is the practical risk. A measure moving by consultation draft toward a 15 December commencement leaves only weeks between final text and first assessment date. Rates, thresholds and the valuation hierarchy can all still shift, and the position measured is the one you hold on 31 December regardless.

Context

Hungary places no general restriction on foreigners buying built residential property, with the route for non-residents turning on an administrative permit rather than a prohibition, and agricultural land governed separately and far more tightly. No recurring national property tax of this kind is in force today, building and land taxes being levied municipally instead, so for a foreign owner this would be a new category of annual cost rather than an increase in an existing one. Hungary attempted a wealth tax once before, under legislation enacted in 2009 that did not survive constitutional challenge, which is part of why these valuation provisions are being read closely.

At the earlier stage of this bill the rate and threshold were already fixed, but no one in government had stated whether the charge reached assets held by people living abroad. That question now has a published answer, subject to the text holding.

Sources

- Hungary publishes draft wealth tax law (Schoenherr, 6 October 2026)

- Hungary's Proposed Wealth Tax: What You Need To Know (Mondaq, 12 October 2026)

- Hungary's Draft Wealth Tax Legislation Published (Andersen, 15 October 2026)