Hungary sets 15 September 2026 for a firewood VAT cut to 5% — not yet enacted
This change is proposed and is not law. The rules below describe what would change if it is adopted.
This page records one dated change. For the rules in Hungary as they stand today, see the Hungary guide →
- Jurisdiction
- Hungary
- Tax
- VAT
- Change type
- Rate change
- Status
- Proposed
- Impact
- Plan ahead
- Announced
- 13 August 2026
- Effective
- 15 September 2026
- Authority
- Magyarország Kormánya (Government of Hungary)
- Systems
- Tax engine, POS
- Verified
- Fetched from official source · high confidence
Sellers of firewood and pressed/compressed wood fuels (pellets, briquettes, pucks) to Hungarian customers, and anyone maintaining Hungarian VAT rate tables — the standard 27% rate still applies until an amending Act is gazetted.
Prepare Hungarian rate tables for firewood and pressed wood fuels to move from 27% to 5% on 15 September 2026, subject to the bill passing.
Tax enginePOS
Hungary's government proposes cutting VAT on firewood from 27% to 5%, effective 15 September 2026, covering all forms of traditional firewood (logs, split and metered firewood, stumps and brushwood) as well as pressed/compressed wood fuels (wood pellets, wood briquettes and wood pucks/logs). Confirmed via an official government (kormany.hu) article dated 13 August 2026. No amending Act had been published in Magyar Közlöny as at 18 August 2026, so the cut is not yet law. Hungarian press reports that a bill was submitted to the National Assembly on 17 August 2026; that submission is not stated on the government page cited here and no official parliamentary source for it could be reached.
What changed in detail
This is a bill, not yet an adopted law. On 13 August 2026 the Government of Hungary confirmed, via a kormany.hu article, that VAT on firewood would fall from the standard 27% rate to 5%, covering all forms of traditional firewood (logs, split and metered firewood, stumps and brushwood) as well as pressed and compressed wood fuels (wood pellets, briquettes and pucks/logs), effective 15 September 2026.
No Act amending the VAT Act to implement it had been published in Magyar Közlöny as at 18 August 2026. Hungarian press reports that Finance Minister Kármán András submitted a bill to the National Assembly (Országgyűlés) on 17 August 2026; that submission is not stated on the kormany.hu article cited here, and no official parliamentary source for it could be reached — parlament.hu’s bill search is CAPTCHA-gated and njt.hu and magyarkozlony.hu surfaced no matching instrument. Treat the submission as reported, not verified.
An earlier report of this measure carried no fixed date, because the government had said only that the cut would apply “from autumn.” The date is now confirmed and a bill has been filed — but the bill has not been enacted.
What it means
The date is real, but conditional. A government confirmation plus a filed bill is a materially stronger signal than the earlier “from autumn” framing, but the Hungarian legislative calendar can still move a start date before final passage. Treat 15 September 2026 as the planning date for firewood and pressed-wood-fuel rate tables, and switch systems only once the amendment is adopted and published in the Magyar Közlöny.
Proof
Ezeknek a családoknak jelent segítséget, hogy szeptembertől az eddigi 27-ről 5 százalékra csökkenti a tűzifa áfáját a kormány.This is what helps these families: from September, the government is cutting the VAT on firewood from the current 27% to 5%.
Archived from the official distribution · kormany.hu, "A tűzifa minden formájára érvényes lesz az áfacsökkentés", published 2026-08-13 · kormany.hu