Skip to content
Vertrekklaar
Menu
NederlandsLog inPrices and plans

Car and driving licence in Hungary: registration tax without relocation exemption, and sixty days

Within the EU Hungary is an exception: it charges a registration tax on every car you bring, even as relocation goods, and whoever lives there may not drive around on foreign plates. Sixty days to start the origin check, four counters, and whoever lets it slide loses plates and papers on the spot. The driving licence is the easy part: an EEA licence doesn't need exchanging.

5 min read

Written and checked by Auke on , against the sources at the bottom. Is something no longer right? Report it below and I'll fix it.

Yes, you may bring your car to Hungary, but you pay registration tax on it, even if it simply comes along with your move.

Two things to know in advance:

  • Hungary has no exemption for relocation goods: the tax applies to every car you bring.
  • You have sixty days to start the registration.

What it costs depends on the car. For an older, clean car it's manageable. For a young, heavy car in a low environmental class it runs into the hundreds of thousands of forint.

The registration tax, without relocation exemption

Every car that goes onto Hungarian plates pays the regisztrációs adó, the registration tax of the NAV (the Hungarian tax and customs administration). The exemptions apply to diplomats and international organisations, among others, not to relocation goods.

Since 1 March 2025 the NAV no longer calculates by engine capacity and fuel. The tax now depends on three things:

  • the power in kilowatts;
  • the environmental class;
  • the age.

The law gives a multiplier per category. You multiply it by a base amount that rises with inflation every year. In 2026 that base amount is 47,000 forint.

Power Class better than 14, first registered after 2020, or hybrid Class better than 14 Class 12 to 14 Class 9 to 11 Class 8 or worse
0–80 kW 1 1.5 6 12 24
81–100 kW 1.5 2.25 9 18 36
101–120 kW 2 3 12 24 48
121–140 kW 3 4.5 18 36 72
141–180 kW 4 6 24 48 96

An electric car, and any car in the clean environmental classes 5E and 5Z, pays nothing. The environmental class is set by the Hungarian transport authority at the inspection. As a guide, the authority names the years in which the European standards became mandatory: Euro 4 from 2006, Euro 5 from 2011.

How much does age count?

A lot. The amount from the table is reduced. The reduction depends on the number of months since the car was first registered:

  • after three years (31 to 36 months) 38 percent comes off;
  • after five years (49 to 60 months) 53 percent;
  • after ten years (109 to 120 months) 78 percent;
  • from 169 months 90 percent.

A worked example: a ten-year-old car with 110 kilowatts in class 12 to 14 has multiplier 12. That's 12 times 47,000 is 564,000 forint. Take off 78 percent, and you end up at about 124,000 forint. In the class better than 14 the multiplier is 3, and you end up at about 31,000 forint.

Rather have everything for Hungary on one list?

Then we'll send you the departure checklist for Hungary, with every step in order, and five mails about the pitfalls and the real costs. You can switch it off at any time.

We use your address, and your departure date if you fill it in, only for the checklist, the guide and the mails after it. You can unsubscribe under every mail.

The clock: sixty days, and no driving on foreign plates

Whoever has a residence in Hungary may not drive around there in a car with foreign plates. The exceptions are narrow:

  • a car borrowed from a foreign owner, for at most sixty days in half a year, with a written statement from the owner;
  • a car you use for your work from a foreign employer.

For your own car: within sixty days of import you start the origin check and the registration. The origin check is the check in which the authorities establish where the car comes from. Once you have applied for both, you may keep driving in the meantime.

Whoever lets it slide loses the plates on the spot. After the deadline the police take the registration certificate and number plates at a check. A private person pays half the amount for companies: 200,000 forint for a car up to 2,000 cc, 400,000 forint above that. If you can prove within eight days that you were allowed to use the car, it becomes 30,000 forint. The police also report it to the tax authority.

The four counters

The registration runs past four counters, in this order:

  1. The transport authority. If your Dutch inspection still holds, the honosítás suffices: a visual check without inspection, in which the Dutch validity is taken over. The car does have to be there itself. If the inspection has expired, a full inspection before registration follows. The authority names 8,000 forint for the honosítás, or 24,290 forint including an inspection. On top of that comes 22,800 forint for the individual registration, plus the inspection itself.
  2. The NAV. With the technical data sheet from the authority the NAV assesses the registration tax, and you pay it.
  3. The insurer. You take out Hungarian third-party insurance (the compulsory cover for damage to others), because without a policy no car is registered.
  4. The kormányablak, the government counter. There you get the plates, the registration certificate and the registration sticker for the windscreen. You really must stick that sticker on: without it the plate is invalid too. The title document, the törzskönyv, comes later by post. The office can prescribe an origin check and an authenticity check.

The driving licence: nothing to exchange

A valid driving licence from an EEA country (the EU plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) stays valid in Hungary. The deadlines you may come across do not apply to a Dutch licence:

  • the one-year deadline is for licences from outside the EEA;
  • the two-year one applies only to an EEA licence without an expiry date, and a Dutch licence has one.

Exchanging is possible, at the kormányablak and without an exam. You must then have a registered address in Hungary and declare that you usually live there. You bring:

  • your identity document;
  • your address card, the card showing your registered address;
  • the licence itself.

The fee is 4,000 forint, or 1,500 forint after pension age. If the application is complete, the new licence goes into production immediately. The standard period is eight days.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 3 of 5 of the journey, step 3.2: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Hungary or go straight to step 3.2 in the open plan.

Want to know more about this?

Then we'll send you the departure checklist for Hungary, with every step in order, and five mails about the pitfalls and the real costs. You can switch it off at any time.

We use your address, and your departure date if you fill it in, only for the checklist, the guide and the mails after it. You can unsubscribe under every mail.

What this rests on

The facts in this article come from these official pages. Rules change. When in doubt, go by the source, not this article.

Is this still correct?

Read on

Calculate your move in two minutes

Choose your country and answer a few short questions about your situation. You immediately get a range of what it costs. Free, no account needed.

Also want to know whether your departure date is feasible? Take the departure scan: seven questions, and you see your whole plan in miniature →

Calculate your move →

Start with phase 1 for Hungary

The first 6 steps for Hungary are open: what you arrange, in which order, and the source for every step. You don't need an account.

Read phase 1 free: 6 stepsBuy the plan for Hungary · € 199