Address card, tax number and TAJ: the Hungarian numbers, and which office issues them

Can you sort everything in Hungary with one registration? No. There is no Hungarian counterpart of the Dutch BSN that opens every door. You get three numbers from three different offices: an address card with a personal identification number, a tax number and a TAJ number for healthcare. The cost is modest: the tax number and the first TAJ card are free, the address card costs 5,700 forint. The pitfall is the order, because almost every office asks for the paper from the office before it.

Which numbers do you get, and where?

Number	What for	Office	Cost	Processing time
Address card (lakcímkártya) with personal ID number	proving your address, at every other office	OIF immigration office, with the registration certificate	5,700 forint in advance, 2,000 under 14	card comes by post
Tax number (adóazonosító jel)	wages, pension from Hungary, tax return, bank	NAV, form T34	first card free	15 days
TAJ number with TAJ card	healthcare, GP, pharmacy	kormányhivatal, health insurance department	first card free	immediately up to 8 days if complete, otherwise 60 days
Ügyfélkapu+	online government business	kormányablak, NAV or consulate	free	activation code valid 5 days

How do you get the address card?

Not via the municipality, as you might expect, but via the immigration office. You give your first Hungarian home address when you apply for the registration certificate. The OIF passes that address on to the population register, and that creates two things: an official certificate of your personal identification number and the address card. The card is made by the Government Office of Budapest and sent to you by post; you don't need to apply for anything else yourself.

You do need to pay. Since 1 February 2025 the address card costs 5,700 forint per person, and 2,000 forint for a child under fourteen. You transfer that money to the OIF in advance, with your name, your date of birth and the word "lakcímkártya" in the payment reference, and for each family member in a separate transfer. If the proof of payment is missing, the office terminates the procedure.

The card has no expiry date. If you move within Hungary, you report the new address at the district office of your new place of residence and get a new card. Keep the address card with your registration certificate: the authorities may ask for it.

The landlord signs too. When you change address, the szállásadó, the person providing your accommodation, must also sign the notification form. That isn't needed if you have a valid written document entitling you to live there, such as a tenancy agreement with full evidential force. A landlord who won't sign therefore blocks your address. Sort this out when you sign the tenancy agreement, not when you have to move.

Why you don't get the tax number automatically

Hungarians get their adóazonosító jel at birth. Anyone coming from abroad doesn't get it automatically: the NAV writes that foreign employees can only apply for the tax card by post or at the counter, using form T34. You bring a passport or identity card and your address card. The first card is free; a replacement after loss costs 4,000 forint. Processing takes fifteen days.

You need the number as soon as you have taxable income in Hungary, or if you receive a Hungarian government benefit. The NAV records the details on your address card in its administration, and you report a change in your residence papers to the NAV with the same form T34. On that form you can also give a mailing address, so that letters from the tax authority reach you.

The TAJ card: free, but not without an address card

The TAJ number is your social security number. You apply for it at the health insurance department of the kormányhivatal where you live. As an EU citizen you bring your registration certificate, your identity document and your address card. If you were insured in another EU country just before, the form about that goes with it; anyone arriving with a pension hands in the S1 here (how that works is in the article on healthcare in Hungary).

The first card is free. If your application is complete, the office makes the card immediately, and within eight days at the latest. If something is missing, the standard period of sixty days applies, and the time you need to supply the missing item counts towards it.

Doing things online: Ügyfélkapu+

For almost everything that can be done online, from your tax return to a change of address, you log in with Ügyfélkapu. The first registration is in person: at a kormányablak, an okmányiroda, a major NAV office or a consulate. As an EU citizen your Dutch identity card or passport is enough. You then get an activation code by email, valid for five days. Ügyfélkapu+ is the same access with a second step, via an authenticator app or a code by email.

The order that works

First the registration certificate, because the address card follows from it. With the address card you then get the tax number and the TAJ card. You can arrange those two in the same week. How this fits into your whole move, and when the bank's turn comes, is in the step-by-step plan for Hungary.

If you later leave Hungary to live elsewhere, you hand in your address card when you report your departure. For anyone who isn't Hungarian, the right to that card then lapses.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 4 of 5 of the journey, step 4.3: 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 4.3 in the open plan.