No mandatory use of online tills for hairdressers, cosmeticians

Budapest, December 30 (MTI) – Hair-dressers and cosmeticians will be exempt of the mandatory use of tills connected directly to the national tax office, but the industry can expect regular tax inspections as before, daily Magyar Idok said on Wednesday.

The government made online tills mandatory for retail shops in 2014 to eliminate VAT fraud as part of its efforts to whiten the economy.

The tax office has conducted close to 1,000 inspections at businesses in the beauty industry between January 2014 and November this year and reported a total of 72 million forints (EUR 229,000) in unpaid taxes, a spokesman for the tax office told the paper.

The authority has in addition levied fines totalling 96 million forints during the period, Andras Peter Kiss said.

Citing expert opinions, the paper said that installing online tills would put a heavier administrative burden on smaller players of the industry than the benefit expected.

At the same time the government has not abandoned plans to require further services such as car repair shops, casinos and gyms to install online tills next year, the paper said.

The economy minister told a conference in November the Hungary’s VAT revenues had increased by over 300 billion forints (EUR 968m) last year, of which some 180-190 billion forints had been generated as a result of the introduction of e-tills.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters