Reducing the Tax Burden and Whitening the Economy in Hungary after 2010

Abstract

Whitening the economy is a constantly recurring theme in the tax literature, which can have significant effects in a range of areas. Among them the reduction of the tax burden and in a lucky combination the growth of tax revenues and the effect on the increase in the level of competitiveness and tax morale are the most important. In Hungary a positive example of reducing the tax burden and whitening the economy can be observed. The constellation of high economic growth rate achieved in the last decade and a lower degree of government intervention in the Visegrád countries, especially in Poland, should be considered in terms of our domestic economic policy. My study deals with the tax structure, the reduction of the tax burden and, in connection and within this topic, with the whitening of the economy. After a brief overview of the literature I describe the main specifics of the Hungarian tax system by way of an international comparison. Next I examine the transformation of the domestic tax system by analysing the changes in the tax burden, within this I separately discuss the important elements of the post–2016 tax changes.