New year started with delivery of known fiscal campaign promises

HUNGARY - In Brief 03 Jan 2026 by Istvan Racz

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A Happy New Year to all Readers!Just for the files, all the fiscal campaign measures promised by Fidesz with introduction at the start of 2026 have been indeed duly delivered, as shown by our standard table below:Sources: own compilation and estimates, based mainly on data from the Economy Ministry and Portfolio.huThe only exception among the items marked as 'From Jan'26' is the annual HUF1 mn housing subsidy to government employees, which is to be made available during 2026 according to a yet unknown mechanism. The rules for the rest appear to be known and clear: e.g. under-40 mothers with two children are expected to declare to their employers and the tax authority (NAV) that they are entitled for a life-long complete exemption from the income tax, in order for no monthly advances to be drawn from them and paid to NAV already from this month's wages, rather then getting their annual tax advances back only in May 2027, when their annual tax reports for 2026 are to be handed in.All this is to be followed by two major one-time payouts in February, including the transfer of six months worth of wages as an extraordinary bonus to members of the armed services, and also the payment of five weeks worth of pensions, of which four weeks is now normal and one week is extra, newly introduced this year as the first 'instalment' of what they call the 14th month's pension payment.In addition, the statutory minimum wage for unskilled workers has been raised by 11% and for skilled workers by 7%, implying an average 8% increase for the roughly one million employees affected. The effective average increase may be smaller than this for employees earning just a bit above the minimum wage...