Gábor István
Lawyer · Budapest, Hungary
- 20 cases handled · 1 in this service
- 12+ years in practice
- Speaks: English, German, Hungarian
- Degree in law, University of Pécs
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5.00(1 review)
Self-Employed Visa in Hungary
Non-EU citizens who want to work for themselves in Hungary, or to run their own company there as its managing director, apply for a residence permit for guest self-employment (vendég-önfoglalkoztatási célú tartózkodási engedély). An English-speaking lawyer checks that the planned activity fits the permit, prepares the visa and permit file and coordinates the business side.
About Self-Employed Visa in Hungary
A self-employed visa for Hungary, also searched as a freelance visa, an entrepreneur visa or a self-employed residence permit, is under Hungarian law the residence permit for guest self-employment (vendég-önfoglalkoztatási célú tartózkodási engedély). It covers two situations: working independently for a fee, as a freelancer or a sole trader (egyéni vállalkozó), and acting as the managing director (ügyvezető) of a company, typically a kft. It is not a “business visa”, which is the short-stay visa for business trips.
Who it suits
Consultants, designers, developers, traders and craftspeople from outside the EU, and owners of a Hungarian company who will run it themselves. EU citizens can be self-employed in Hungary without a permit and only register their residence. Ordinary employee work in the company, beyond managing it, falls under an employment permit instead.
How it works in Hungary
A person who needs a visa to enter applies from abroad, through a Hungarian consulate, describing the activity and showing income or funds, accommodation and health insurance; the immigration authority (OIF) then issues the permit in Hungary. The business side, registering as a sole trader or setting up a company and any licence the activity requires, runs alongside the immigration file, and the two have to tell the same story.
What to watch for
- As the immigration authority describes it, a holder of this permit cannot switch to an employment permit from inside Hungary, so the choice of permit matters from the start.
- Relatives can join through family reunification only after the permit has been held for a while.
- Checklists for income evidence and business plans differ between consulates; a lawyer confirms what the relevant one asks for.
- Someone who plans to invest rather than work may look at the guest investor permit.
- Permits for self-employed foreigners were reshaped by the newer immigration law and are still being adjusted; a lawyer confirms the current rules.
What a lawyer does
A lawyer checks that the activity and the applicant's role fit guest self-employment, prepares the consular and immigration applications, coordinates the company or sole-trader registration, answers the authority's questions and handles renewals.
Questions and answers
Can I work for Hungarian clients on this permit?
Yes, independent work for a fee is what the permit is for. Working as an employee of a Hungarian business needs a different permit.
Can I set up a company and run it myself?
Acting as the chief executive of one's own company is one of the purposes the permit covers, provided the company really operates.
Is there a freelance or digital nomad visa in Hungary?
Freelancing with clients in Hungary goes through guest self-employment. Remote work for an employer abroad falls under a separate permit; a lawyer checks which one fits.
Is a business visa enough?
No. A business visa covers short trips such as meetings and trade fairs, not living and working in Hungary.
Hungary Income Tax Calculator: Net Salary and Self-Employed Flat Rate
Open the full tool →Your net salary in Hungary after the 15% income tax and the 18.5% contribution, with the family allowance — or what a flat-rate sole trader pays.
How it works
Using the calculator
- Choose your income: a salary, or a sole trader's business on the flat-rate regime (átalányadó).
- For a salary, enter the gross monthly pay, the children you claim the family allowance for and any exemption you have (under 25, or a mother who qualifies).
- For the flat-rate regime, enter the yearly revenue, the cost ratio of your activity and whether the business is your main activity.
The result shows each tax and contribution and the net salary a month, or the tax and contributions of the business a year.
Tax on a salary
An employee in Hungary pays a flat 15% personal income tax (SZJA) and an 18.5% social security contribution (TB járulék) on the whole gross salary, with no ceiling; the employer pays a further 13% social contribution tax (szocho) on top. Allowances reduce the tax base: the family allowance (in 2026, 133,340 Ft a month for one child, 266,660 Ft per child for two, 440,000 Ft per child for three or more — 20,000, 40,000 and 66,000 Ft of tax), the first-marriage allowance, and the exemptions — under-25s pay no income tax on their pay up to the average wage (715,765 Ft a month in 2026), and mothers under 30, mothers of two children under 40 (from 2026, with the age limit rising each year until 2029) and mothers of three or more children pay no income tax on their income from work. The part of the family allowance the tax cannot absorb lowers the 18.5% contribution instead. Since 2025 the under-25s', first-marriage and family allowances are open in full only to nationals of an EEA country, Serbia or Ukraine; other foreigners qualify in narrower cases.
The flat-rate regime for sole traders
A sole trader (egyéni vállalkozó) on the flat-rate regime pays tax on the revenue less a fixed cost ratio — 45% in 2026 for most activities (50% from 2027), 80% for the manual trades the law lists and 90% for retail only — without counting real costs. Half the annual minimum wage (1,936,800 Ft in 2026) of that income is tax-free; above it come 15% income tax, 18.5% contribution and 13% social contribution tax. When the business is your main activity, the contributions are due every month on at least the minimum wage (322,800 Ft) — or the guaranteed wage minimum (373,200 Ft) when the activity needs a secondary qualification. The regime is open up to a revenue of ten times the annual minimum wage (38,736,000 Ft), fifty times for retail only.
What the calculator leaves out
VAT, the local business tax, the KATA scheme (open only to sole traders who sell to private individuals), income other than salary or business and the itemised business-income regime are not calculated. A foreign worker who paid too much during the year — an allowance not claimed through the employer, for example — gets it back through the annual tax return, which the tax authority (NAV) prepares as a draft by mid-March and which is due by 20 May of the next year; an accountant or a lawyer in Hungary can file it and check what applies to you. This is legal information, not advice.
1Your details
Everything you invoice, without VAT
2Your result
| Income after the 45% cost ratio45% of the revenue counts as costs — no invoices needed | Ft 3,960,000 |
| Tax-free partHalf the annual minimum wage: up to 1,936,800 Ft a year | Ft 1,936,800 |
| Personal income tax (SZJA, 15%)On 2,023,200 Ft | Ft 303,480 |
| Social security contribution (TB, 18.5%)On 3,916,800 Ft | Ft 724,608 |
| Social contribution tax (szocho, 13%)On the same base: the income above the tax-free part, but every month at least 322,800 Ft | Ft 509,184 |
| Tax and contributions a year | Ft 1,537,272 |
- About 128,106 Ft a month, 21.4% of the revenue.
- A main activity pays the contributions on at least the minimum wage (322,800 Ft) — or the guaranteed wage minimum (373,200 Ft) when the activity needs a secondary qualification — even in the months covered by the tax-free part.
- The revenue is taken as spread evenly over the year; a mixed business uses the lowest cost ratio of its activities. The ceiling is 38,736,000 Ft a year (retail only: 193,680,000 Ft).
- Not included: VAT, the local business tax (HIPA) of the municipality, the mothers' and under-25s' exemptions of a sole trader.
An estimate for planning, not legal or tax advice. Figures checked 1 Nov 2026. Sources: NAV — this is how we pay tax in 2026 (family allowance, mothers' exemptions), NAV — mothers of two children under 40 exempt from January 2026, NAV — the allowance of mothers raising three children, NAV — the under-30 mothers' exemption from 2026, NAV — the allowances for foreigners from 2025 (nationality, the 75% rule), NAV — the flat-rate regime from 2026 (45% cost ratio), NAV — the minimum szocho base of sole traders from 2026, Gov. Decree 426/2025 — the minimum wage and the guaranteed wage minimum 2026, Novitax — the 2026 amounts tied to the minimum wage (caps, family allowance).
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What our clients say about our service in Hungary
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The lawyer was very helpful and knowledgeable. Most important to me, he communicated clearly and left no grey area. I appreciate how he follows up, and honestly I find the value for money very convenient. I was completely satisfied with the result.
— Mona13 Jun 2023 -
He replied incredibly fast and soon found the answers I needed, so I started to feel less stressed. He went out of his way to make certain I understood the procedure and the legal terms, and the assistance could not have been better.
— Danni23 Jan 2026 -
The lawyer handled my request very well, and his English was perfect. I am completely satisfied.
— Carl18 Feb 2025 -
I asked the lawyer to help me trace where my father was born in Hungary. The lawyer was very diligent and took up my request right away, since there was not much time before I travelled to Hungary. Sadly we did not manage to find the address, and that was in no way his fault: the records in Mezafalva lacked the information needed from the mid 1930s. Still, I highly recommend this service, and him in particular.
— Michael10 Apr 2024 -
I cannot praise my solicitor enough. He was patient, caring and knowledgeable, and he updated me on everything, even outside working hours and while he was on holiday! I am thankful to the service for connecting me with him, and to him for going above and beyond every time.
— Ciaran17 Oct 2022 -
Thanks to the lawyer I reached a compromise in a dispute over a deposit with my landlord in Budapest. He is a real professional who will do all he can to solve a legal problem, and while he worked on my case he stayed responsive and flexible. I recommend him to everybody who needs legal help in Hungary.
— Diar16 Dec 2021Rental Deposit Recovery, Hungary -
After my daughter died, I asked the lawyer to help me close her bank account in Budapest. He was extremely helpful in handling the bank. It was a difficult situation, since getting proper information from them was quite hard, but he kept firmly on top of the case and did everything he could to make sure everything necessary was done. He always kept me properly informed about progress, and he also supported me with the local steps I had to take here in Luxembourg with the Hungarian Consulate. He assisted with other Hungarian administrative papers that had come in for my daughter too, so that nothing stayed pending, and he took the time to contact the offices concerned to tell them she had died and to see that whatever needed doing with them got done. I could not have resolved this without him. He was very professional throughout, and I felt he got truly involved in the matter. His English was perfect, so we never had trouble understanding each other. I deeply appreciated his help, and it would be a pleasure to meet him one day and thank him in person. A better person and better support would have been impossible to ask for.
— Murielle02 Jun 2021Assistance with Official Procedures, Hungary -
I am very thankful to the lawyer, and completely satisfied with the result.
— Mohit30 Sep 2025 -
I cannot thank my solicitor enough. He was patient, caring and knowledgeable, and he kept me informed about everything, even outside working hours and while he was on holiday. Thank you to this service for putting me in touch with him, and thank you to him for going above and beyond every time.
— Ciaran29 Aug 2022 -
He was extremely helpful from beginning to end. I live with chronic fatigue and very little energy, so at times I had to pause the probate process, occasionally for a few months. Whenever I felt able to continue, he picked it up again straight away and we moved a little further. He could always explain what was going on in words I understood, and he sent me copies of every document, including the Hungarian ones, telling me what they contained and sometimes giving me an English version. I found the charges very good value for money. I know he put in quite a few hours, and I said more than once that he should tell me if I owed anything more. I was completely satisfied with how it all went and could not have asked for more.
— Pamela28 Jan 2026 -
The lawyer successfully solved the problem we brought him. He was always reachable by whatever means, and his advice and work were pro-active. He grasped the problem quickly and was not fazed by what seemed to us a large, esoteric and complex financial nightmare. He was excellent value for money, explained everything clearly and was approachable, professional and courteous. It was a fantastic experience, and we were very satisfied with the result. We do not want more legal problems, but we hope to stay in touch!
— Daniel07 Jul 2023