Hungary aligns its dental VAT exemption with the EU Directive from 1 January 2024

What changed in detail

Section 85(1)(e) of the Hungarian VAT Act (Act CXXVII of 2007, Áfa tv.) lists, among the supplies exempt from VAT because of their public-interest character, the work of human dentists and dental technicians. Act LXXXIII of 2023 on the amendment of certain tax laws, promulgated in Magyar Közlöny on 30 November 2023, restated point (e) by its section 34(1) with effect from 1 January 2024.

Before the amendment the exemption covered services provided by human dentists and dental technicians together with closely related supplies of goods. The restated text exempts two things: services supplied by a person carrying out human dental or dental-technician activity, in that capacity, and the supply of dental prostheses. The wording follows Article 132(1)(e) of the EU VAT Directive (2006/112/EC), which exempts services supplied by dentists and dental technicians in the course of their profession and supplies of dental prostheses by dentists and dental technicians.

The consolidated Áfa tv. on the National Legislation Database (njt.jog.gov.hu) carries the restated point (e), with a footnote recording that its text was set by section 34(1) of Act LXXXIII of 2023.

What it means

The change is in force and has not been reversed: as of November 2026, section 85(1)(e) still reads as restated in 2024. In practice it narrows the test to the capacity in which the dentist or technician acts rather than to whether goods are “closely related” to treatment, and it names dental prostheses explicitly. A dental practice that also sells goods outside its professional capacity — retail oral-care products, for example — should not assume those sales fall under the exemption. Exempt status also means no input VAT deduction on the related costs.