The collection account operated by the Hungarian National Film Fund (HNFF) – opened for the purpose of collecting tax contributions from corporations to finance the 25% tax rebate for films – has showed a steady rise in recent years. The available budget for 2018 published on 29 December, however, confirmed an amount equalling the budget available for 2017, i.e. HUF 33 billion (approximately USD 125 million).
Nevertheless, this amount remains significantly higher than any of the years before 2017 and is a guarantee for international filmmakers to get the tax rebate on a timely basis. As the Hungarian film industry has shown further growth in 2017, the good news is that the Hungarian Government is open for a mid-year increase of the available budget of the collection account – this has been confirmed by an official Government decision published on 4 January. The budget may be increased by max. HUF 3 billion (approximately USD 11.5 million) provided that the economic indicators of the first calendar quarter support it. The deadline set for the analysis of the economic data and based on the favourable results, for the draft bill to be submitted for the approval of the Government is 30 June 2018. Therefore, we expect a final decision only in the third calendar quarter of 2018.