Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 18th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview General Session Author(s) Valeria Limpok Szechenyi Istvan University Gyor Hungary Title Crisis and Taxation - Case of Hungary File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract The latest global financial meltdown started to show its effects since the middle of 2007 and the financial crises affected also the real economy. Decreasing consumption and production, and increasing unemployment can be observed worldwide. The policy makers are trying to relieve the negative effects as much as they can. Hence as one of the most important government instruments, the fiscal policy came to the front. Lot of countries adopted tax changes or tax reform hoping their efforts can stimulate consumption, investment and drive towards economic recovery. Most of them have tried tax cuts and some raised their fiscal burden. Countries began supranational dialogues concerning tax havens and offshore financial centers. More and more economies are trying to get back the tax capacity from these territories. Motivated by the above facts, in this paper I will focus on the Hungarian “tax answer” for the crisis. On 11 May 2009 the Hungarian Parliament adopted changes in the tax rules. Among others the limit of the lower personal income tax bracket and the standard rate of value added tax increased. Meanwhile, the social security contribution of employers decreased. Tax changes are accepted for 2010, not only related to the central taxation, but also the local taxation. On one hand I tried to summarize the tax measures as responses to the economic crisis; on the other hand with the help of questionnaire I tried to understand better the expectations of the corporations in Hungary connecting to the taxation policy in the current economic situation. The hypotheses are listed in the following: H1 The impact of the global economic crisis can be recognized in the Hungarian taxation policy. H2 The tax changes in the other Central and Eastern European countries are pressurizing the Hungarian taxation policy. H3 The international “catching tax bases” trend can be recognized in the Hungarian taxation policy too. The working place of the Hungarian government is not so broad because of the budget deficit. The deficit has to be decreased according to the Maastricht convergence criteria. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the main characteristics of the current Hungarian taxation policy, and to present the results of the research among corporations.
