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Cover design: The Word Express Doing Business 2014 Hungary 3 CONTENTS Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 4 The business environment .......................................................................................................... 5 Starting a business ..................................................................................................................... 14 Dealing with construction permits ........................................................................................... 23 Getting electricity ....................................................................................................................... 34 Registering property .................................................................................................................. 41 Getting credit .............................................................................................................................. 50 Protecting investors ................................................................................................................... 57 Paying taxes ................................................................................................................................ 66 Trading across borders .............................................................................................................. 74 Enforcing contracts .................................................................................................................... 82 Resolving insolvency .................................................................................................................. 91 Employing workers .................................................................................................................... 96 Data notes ................................................................................................................................. 103 Resources on the Doing Business website ............................................................................ 109 Doing Business 2014 Hungary 4 INTRODUCTION Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to January–December 2012). medium-size business when complying with relevant The Doing Business methodology has limitations. Other regulations. It measures and tracks changes in areas important to business—such as an economy’s regulations affecting 11 areas in the life cycle of a proximity to large markets, the quality of its business: starting a business, dealing with construction infrastructure services (other than those related to permits, getting electricity, registering property, trading across borders and getting electricity), the getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, security of property from theft and looting, the trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving transparency of government procurement, insolvency and employing workers. macroeconomic conditions or the underlying strength In a series of annual reports Doing Business presents of institutions—are not directly studied by Doing quantitative indicators on business regulations and the Business. The indicators refer to a specific type of protection of property rights that can be compared business, generally a local limited liability company across 189 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, operating in the largest business city. Because over time. The data set covers 47 economies in Sub- standard assumptions are used in the data collection, Saharan Africa, 33 in Latin America and the Caribbean, comparisons and benchmarks are valid across 25 in East Asia and the Pacific, 25 in Eastern Europe economies. The data not only highlight the extent of and Central Asia, 20 in the Middle East and North obstacles to doing business; they also help identify the Africa and 8 in South Asia, as well as 31 OECD high- source of those obstacles, supporting policy makers in income economies. The indicators are used to analyze designing regulatory reform. economic outcomes and identify what reforms have More information is available in the full report. Doing worked, where and why. Business 2014 presents the indicators, analyzes their This economy profile presents the Doing Business relationship with economic outcomes and presents indicators for Hungary. To allow useful comparison, it business regulatory reforms. The data, along with also provides data for other selected economies information on ordering Doing Business 2014, are (comparator economies) for each indicator. The data in available on the Doing Business website at this report are current as of June 1, 2013 (except for http://www.doingbusiness.org. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 5 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT For policy makers trying to improve their economy’s regulatory environment for business, a good place to ECONOMY OVERVIEW start is to find out how it compares with the regulatory environment in other economies. Doing Business provides an aggregate ranking on the ease of doing Region: Europe & Central Asia business based on indicator sets that measure and benchmark regulations applying to domestic small to Income category: Upper middle income medium-size businesses through their life cycle. Economies are ranked from 1 to 189 by the ease of Population: 9,943,755 doing business index. For each economy the index is calculated as the ranking on the simple average of its GNI per capita (US$): 12,390 percentile rankings on each of the 10 topics included in the index in Doing Business 2014: starting a business, DB2014 rank: 54 dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting DB2013 rank: 52* investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, Change in rank: -2 enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. The ranking on each topic is the simple average of the DB 2014 DTF: 66.05 percentile rankings on its component indicators (see the data notes for more details). The employing workers DB 2013 DTF: 66.1 indicators are not included in this year’s aggregate ease of doing business ranking, but the data are presented Change in DTF: -0.05 in this year’s economy profile. The aggregate ranking on the ease of doing business * DB2013 ranking shown is not last year’s published benchmarks each economy’s performance on the ranking but a comparable ranking for DB2013 that indicators against that of all other economies in the captures the effects of such factors as data Doing Business sample (figure 1.1). While this ranking corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, tells much about the business environment in an Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the economy, it does not tell the whole story. The ranking on sample this year. See the data notes for sources and the ease of doing business, and the underlying definitions. indicators, do not measure all aspects of the business environment that matter to firms and investors or that affect the competitiveness of the economy. Still, a high ranking does mean that the government has created a regulatory environment conducive to operating a business. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 6 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Figure 1.1 Where economies stand in the global ranking on the ease of doing business Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 7 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT For policy makers, knowing where their economy relative to the regional average (figure 1.2). The stands in the aggregate ranking on the ease of economy’s rankings on the topics included in the doing business is useful. Also useful is to know how ease of doing business index provide another it ranks relative to comparator economies and perspective (figure 1.3). Figure 1.2 How Hungary and comparator economies rank on the ease of doing business Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 8 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Figure 1.3 How Hungary ranks on Doing Business topics Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 9 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Just as the overall ranking on the ease of doing business Doing Business introduced the distance to frontier tells only part of the story, so do changes in that ranking. measure. This measure shows how far on average an Yearly movements in rankings can provide some indication economy is from the best performance achieved by any of changes in an economy’s regulatory environment for economy on each Doing Business indicator since 2005, firms, but they are always relative. except for the getting electricity indicators, which were introduced in 2009. Moreover, year-to-year changes in the overall rankings do not reflect how the business regulatory environment in an Comparing the measure for an economy at 2 points in economy has changed over time—or how it has changed time allows users to assess how much the economy’s in different areas. To aid in assessing such changes, regulatory environment as measured by Doing Business has changed over time—how far it has moved toward (or away from) the most efficient practices and strongest regulations in areas covered by Doing Business (figure 1.4). Figure 1.4 How far has Hungary come in the areas measured by Doing Business? Note: The distance to frontier measure shows how far on average an economy is from the best performance achieved by any economy on each Doing Business indicator since 2005, except for the getting electricity indicators, which were introduced in 2009. The measure is normalized to range between 0 and 100, with 100 representing the best performance (the frontier). The overall distance to frontier is the average of the distance to frontier in the first 9 indicator sets shown in the figure and does not include getting electricity. Data on the overall distance to frontier including getting electricity is available at http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/distance-to-frontier. See the data notes for more details on the distance to frontier measure. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 10 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT The absolute values of the indicators tell another part business regulation—such as a regulatory process that of the story (table 1.1). The indicators, on their own or can be completed with a small number of procedures in comparison with the indicators of a good practice in a few days and at a low cost. Comparison of the economy or those of comparator economies in the economy’s indicators today with those in the previous region, may reveal bottlenecks reflected in large year may show where substantial bottlenecks persist — numbers of procedures, long delays or high costs. Or and where they are diminishing. they may reveal unexpected strengths in an area of Table 1.1 Summary of Doing Business indicators for Hungary Slovak Republic DB2014 Best performer globally Czech Republic DB2014 Moldova DB2014 Hungary DB2014 Hungary DB2013 Bulgaria DB2014 Austria DB2014 Poland DB2014 Indicator DB2014 Starting a Business 59 54 138 65 146 81 116 108 New Zealand (1) (rank) Procedures (number) 4 4 8 4 9 6 4 7 New Zealand (1)* Time (days) 5.0 5.0 25.0 18.0 19.5 7.0 30.0 18.5 New Zealand (0.5) Cost (% of income per 8.6 8.7 4.8 1.0 8.2 5.4 14.3 1.5 Slovenia (0.0) capita) Paid-in Min. Capital (% 9.4 9.4 47.8 0.0 29.5 8.1 12.6 19.3 112 Economies (0.0)* of income per capita) Dealing with Hong Kong SAR, Construction Permits 47 48 94 118 86 174 88 53 China (1) (rank) Hong Kong SAR, Procedures (number) 24 24 13 18 33 26 18 11 China (6) Time (days) 79.0 79.0 194.0 104.0 120.0 291.0 161.0 286.0 Singapore (26.0) Doing Business 2014 Hungary 11 Slovak Republic DB2014 Best performer globally Czech Republic DB2014 Moldova DB2014 Hungary DB2014 Hungary DB2013 Bulgaria DB2014 Austria DB2014 Poland DB2014 Indicator DB2014 Cost (% of income per 9.2 9.3 55.8 222.9 10.5 65.0 10.6 6.6 Qatar (1.1) capita) Getting Electricity 112 111 28 135 146 165 137 65 Iceland (1) (rank) Procedures (number) 5 5 5 6 6 7 6 5 10 Economies (3)* Time (days) 252 252 23 130 279 140 161 158 Germany (17) Cost (% of income per 116.4 116.9 101.7 320.0 179.0 542.1 205.2 10.6 Japan (0.0) capita) Registering Property 45 43 36 62 37 19 54 11 Georgia (1) (rank) Procedures (number) 4 4 3 7 3 5 6 3 4 Economies (1)* Time (days) 16.5 16.5 20.5 14.0 24.0 6.0 35.0 16.5 New Zealand (1.0)* Cost (% of property 5.0 5.0 4.6 2.9 4.0 0.9 0.4 0.0 5 Economies (0.0)* value) Getting Credit (rank) 55 52 28 28 55 13 3 42 Malaysia (1)* Strength of legal rights 7 7 7 9 6 9 9 8 10 Economies (10)* index (0-10) Depth of credit 4 4 6 4 5 5 6 4 31 Economies (6)* information index (0-6) Public registry coverage 0.0 0.0 1.7 61.0 6.4 0.0 0.0 2.7 Portugal (100.0)* (% of adults) Private bureau 73.2 15.8 51.8 0.0 76.0 4.5 82.8 61.6 22 Economies (100.0)* coverage (% of adults) Protecting Investors 128 127 98 52 98 80 52 115 New Zealand (1) (rank) Extent of disclosure 2 2 5 10 2 7 7 3 10 Economies (10)* Doing Business 2014 Hungary 12 Slovak Republic DB2014 Best performer globally Czech Republic DB2014 Moldova DB2014 Hungary DB2014 Hungary DB2013 Bulgaria DB2014 Austria DB2014 Poland DB2014 Indicator DB2014 index (0-10) Extent of director 4 4 5 2 5 3 2 4 Cambodia (10) liability index (0-10) Ease of shareholder 7 7 5 6 8 6 9 7 3 Economies (10)* suits index (0-10) Strength of investor 4.3 4.3 5.0 6.0 5.0 5.3 6.0 4.7 New Zealand (9.7) protection index (0-10) United Arab Emirates Paying Taxes (rank) 124 118 79 81 122 95 113 102 (1) Payments (number per Hong Kong SAR, 12 12 12 13 8 31 18 20 year) China (3)* United Arab Emirates Time (hours per year) 277 277 166 454 413 181 286 207 (12) Trading Across Borders 70 70 19 79 68 150 49 108 Singapore (1) (rank) Documents to export 6 6 3 4 4 7 5 7 Ireland (2)* (number) Time to export (days) 17 17 9 20 17 32 17 17 5 Economies (6)* Cost to export (US$ per 885 885 1,090 1,375 1,215 1,545 1,050 1,500 Malaysia (450) container) Documents to import 6 6 4 5 6 8 4 6 Ireland (2)* (number) Time to import (days) 19 19 8 17 17 35 14 16 Singapore (4) Cost to import (US$ per 845 845 1,155 1,365 1,190 1,870 1,025 1,480 Singapore (440) container) Enforcing Contracts 15 15 6 79 75 23 55 65 Luxembourg (1) (rank) Doing Business 2014 Hungary 13 Slovak Republic DB2014 Best performer globally Czech Republic DB2014 Moldova DB2014 Hungary DB2014 Hungary DB2013 Bulgaria DB2014 Austria DB2014 Poland DB2014 Indicator DB2014 Time (days) 395 395 397 564 611 337 685 545 Singapore (150) Cost (% of claim) 15.0 15.0 18.0 23.8 33.0 28.6 19.0 30.0 Bhutan (0.1) Procedures (number) 35 35 25 38 27 31 33 32 Singapore (21)* Resolving Insolvency 70 69 14 92 29 91 37 38 Japan (1) (rank) Time (years) 2.0 2.0 1.1 3.3 2.1 2.8 3.0 4.0 Ireland (0.4) Cost (% of estate) 15 15 10 9 17 9 15 18 Norway (1) Outcome (0 as piecemeal sale and 1 as 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 going concern) Recovery rate (cents on 38.3 38.8 82.4 32.6 65.0 32.8 54.8 54.1 Japan (92.8) the dollar) Note: DB2013 rankings shown are not last year’s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB2013 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the sample this year. For more information on “no practice” marks, see the data notes. * Two or more economies share the top ranking on this indicator. A number shown in place of an economy’s name indicates the number of economies that share the top ranking on the indicator. For a list of these economies, see the Doing Business website (http://www.doingbusiness.org). Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 14 STARTING A BUSINESS Formal registration of companies has many WHAT THE STARTING A BUSINESS immediate benefits for the companies and for business owners and employees. Legal entities can INDICATORS MEASURE outlive their founders. Resources are pooled as several shareholders join forces to start a company. Procedures to legally start and operate a Formally registered companies have access to company (number) services and institutions from courts to banks as Preregistration (for example, name well as to new markets. And their employees can verification or reservation, notarization) benefit from protections provided by the law. An additional benefit comes with limited liability Registration in the economy’s largest companies. These limit the financial liability of business city company owners to their investments, so personal Postregistration (for example, social security assets of the owners are not put at risk. Where registration, company seal) governments make registration easy, more entrepreneurs start businesses in the formal sector, Time required to complete each procedure creating more good jobs and generating more (calendar days) revenue for the government. Does not include time spent gathering What do the indicators cover? information Doing Business measures the ease of starting a Each procedure starts on a separate day (2 business in an economy by recording all procedures cannot start on the same day). procedures officially required or commonly done in Procedures that can be fully completed practice by an entrepreneur to start up and online are an exception to this rule. formally operate an industrial or commercial Procedure completed once final document is business—as well as the time and cost required to received complete these procedures. It also records the paid-in minimum capital that companies must No prior contact with officials deposit before registration (or within 3 months). Cost required to complete each procedure The ranking on the ease of starting a business is (% of income per capita) the simple average of the percentile rankings on the 4 component indicators: procedures, time, cost Official costs only, no bribes and paid-in minimum capital requirement. No professional fees unless services required To make the data comparable across economies, by law Doing Business uses several assumptions about the Paid-in minimum capital (% of income business and the procedures. It assumes that all per capita) information is readily available to the entrepreneur and that there has been no prior contact with Deposited in a bank or with a notary before officials. It also assumes that the entrepreneur will registration (or within 3 months) pay no bribes. And it assumes that the business:  Has a start-up capital of 10 times income per  Is a limited liability company, located in the capita. largest business city and is 100% domestically  Has a turnover of at least 100 times income per owned. capita.  Has between 10 and 50 employees.  Does not qualify for any special benefits.  Conducts general commercial or industrial  Does not own real estate. activities. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 15 STARTING A BUSINESS Where does the economy stand today? What does it take to start a business in Hungary? costs 8.6% of income per capita and requires paid-in According to data collected by Doing Business, starting minimum capital of 9.4% of income per capita (figure a business there requires 4 procedures, takes 5.0 days, 2.1). Figure 2.1 What it takes to start a business in Hungary Paid-in minimum capital (% of income per capita): 9.4 Note: Time shown in the figure above may not reflect simultaneity of procedures. Online procedures account for 0.5 days in the total time calculation. For more information on the methodology of the starting a business indicators, see the Doing Business website (http://www.doingbusiness.org). For details on the procedures reflected here, see the summary at the end of this chapter. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 16 STARTING A BUSINESS Globally, Hungary stands at 59 in the ranking of 189 regional average ranking provide other useful economies on the ease of starting a business (figure information for assessing how easy it is for an 2.2). The rankings for comparator economies and the entrepreneur in Hungary to start a business. Figure 2.2 How Hungary and comparator economies rank on the ease of starting a business Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 17 STARTING A BUSINESS What are the changes over time? The benchmarks provided by the economies that over 2.3) can help show what is possible in making it easier time have had the best performance regionally or to start a business. And changes in regional averages globally on the procedures, time, cost or paid-in can show where Hungary is keeping up—and where it minimum capital required to start a business (figure is falling behind. Figure 2.3 Has starting a business become easier over time? Procedures (number) Time (days) Doing Business 2014 Hungary 18 STARTING A BUSINESS Cost (% of income per capita) Paid-in minimum capital (% of income per capita) Note: Ninety economies globally have no paid-in minimum capital requirement. DB2013 rankings shown are not last year’s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB2013 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the sample this year. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 19 STARTING A BUSINESS Economies around the world have taken steps making greater firm satisfaction and savings and more it easier to start a business—streamlining procedures registered businesses, financial resources and job by setting up a one-stop shop, making procedures opportunities. simpler or faster by introducing technology and What business registration reforms has Doing Business reducing or eliminating minimum capital requirements. recorded in Hungary (table 2.1)? Many have undertaken business registration reforms in stages—and they often are part of a larger regulatory reform program. Among the benefits have been Table 2.1 How has Hungary made starting a business easier—or not? By Doing Business report year DB year Reform The new laws reduced the minimum capital requirements by DB2009 about 80% and introduced online filing and publication and made the use of notaries optional. Hungary further simplified the start up process by DB2010 implementing on-line registration with confirmation of registration requiring one hour from application. DB2011 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2012 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Hungary made starting a business more complex by increasing DB2013 the registration fees for limited liability companies and adding a new tax registration at the time of incorporation. DB2014 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Note: For information on reforms in earlier years (back to DB2005), see the Doing Business reports for these years, available at http://www.doingbusiness.org. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 20 STARTING A BUSINESS What are the details? Underlying the indicators shown in this chapter for STANDARDIZED COMPANY Hungary is a set of specific procedures—the bureaucratic and legal steps that an entrepreneur must complete to incorporate and register a new City: Budapest firm. These are identified by Doing Business through collaboration with relevant local Legal Form: Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag (KFT) - professionals and the study of laws, regulations and Limited Liability Company publicly available information on business entry in Paid in Minimum Capital Requirement: HUF that economy. Following is a detailed summary of 250,000 those procedures, along with the associated time and cost. These procedures are those that apply to Start-up Capital: 10 times GNI per capita a company matching the standard assumptions (the “standardized company”) used by Doing Business in collecting the data (see the section in this chapter on what the indicators measure). Summary of procedures for starting a business in Hungary—and the time and cost Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete Hire a lawyer who will represent the company; create the company deed and prepare any other necessary legal document. HUF 100,000- The company must be represented by a lawyer during the registration 260,000 ; varies 1 1 day process. The lawyer's commission fee is subject to free agreement and according to the it depends on the complexity of the case. complexity Pay at least 50% of subscription amount (at least HUF 250,000) into the bank account designated at the time of subscription. Half of the contribution in cash must be transferred to the bank account 2 of the company by the time of filing the submission to the Registry 1 day no charge Court. The remainder must be paid in according to the provisions of the articles of association but not later than a year from the establishment. Apply for registration at the Registration Court (simplified electronic registration) With the effect of 1st March 2012 a tax registration process has been introduced. The Tax Authority examines if the request for company’s registration was submitted to the Court of Registration and whether or 2 days HUF 50,000 for 3 not one of the statutory obstacles of the issue of a tax number exists. registration The Tax Authority refuse to issue a tax number if a hindrance (e.g. tax debt exceeding HUF 15 million) exists regarding a managing director; an owner entitled to represent the company; an owner/shareholder of a limited liability company; a closed company limited by shares whose voting rights exceed 50 per cent or who disposes over a qualified Doing Business 2014 Hungary 21 Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete majority influence. The Tax Authority also examines these circumstances and hindrances in case there is any change in the above enlisted persons. The Registry Court receives the application for registration, and after a certificate is issued with the company’s name, address, temporary tax and statistical number and the number of reference of the registration. If the National Customs and Tax Authority consider that the founder or the managing director falls under suspicion according to the above detailed statutory obstacles, Tax Authority does not duly send the tax number of the company to the Registry Court within one working day and the registration process will be suspended for the period of the pending investigation. After receiving the certificate, the company may commence to operate in the form of a pre-incorporated company. This means that the company may operate as an incorporated company but special provisions regarding personal liability of the founder(s) are applicable. Companies can be incorporated in 2 ways: 1. By simplified electronic filing The registration fee: HUF 50,000 and HUF 5,000 for publication fee. Incorporation: 2 business days (up to 8 business days) In the simplified electronic filing, the companies must use a standardized template for the articles of association. The companies have to fill in the application form and file certain corporate documents specified by the provisions of law. Certain other corporate documents are not required to be filed to the court but must be reviewed and kept by the attorney proceeding with the incorporation procedure. The simplified electronic registration shall take 1 working hour after the receipt of the tax number from the Tax Authority. If the court does not decide within the 1 hour, the chairman of the registration court must make a decision within 1 business day regarding the refusal of the application for registration or the incorporation of the company. If within this period the court does not provide a decision, the registration will occur ex lege on the following business day. 2. By standard electronic filing: The registration fee: HUF 100,000 Publication fee: HUF 5,000 Incorporation: 15 business days If the court does not decide within the aforementioned periods, the chairman of the registration court must take measures to reach a decision within 3 business days regarding the incorporation or the refusal of such application. If within this period the registration court does not decide in the given time frame, the registration will occur ex lege. The company may choose to meet publication requirements by publishing the required information on its website instead of the Company Gazette (Cégközlöny). In the latter case, no publication fees are payable. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 22 Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete Simultaneously with the submission of the registration application, the court registers companies with the State Tax Authority (for VAT and income tax purposes) and with the Statistical Office through an online system. Register for social security The company needs to register with the Hungarian Social Security 1 day no charge 4 office. * Takes place simultaneously with another procedure. Note: Online procedures account for 0.5 days in the total time calculation. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 23 DEALING WITH CONSTRUCTION PERMITS Regulation of construction is critical to protect the WHAT THE DEALING WITH CONSTRUCTION public. But it needs to be efficient, to avoid PERMITS INDICATORS MEASURE excessive constraints on a sector that plays an important part in every economy. Where complying with building regulations is excessively costly in Procedures to legally build a warehouse time and money, many builders opt out. They may (number) pay bribes to pass inspections or simply build Submitting all relevant documents and illegally, leading to hazardous construction that obtaining all necessary clearances, licenses, puts public safety at risk. Where compliance is permits and certificates simple, straightforward and inexpensive, everyone Submitting all required notifications and is better off. receiving all necessary inspections What do the indicators cover? Obtaining utility connections for water, Doing Business records the procedures, time and sewerage and a land telephone line cost for a business in the construction industry to Registering the warehouse after its obtain all the necessary approvals to build a completion (if required for use as collateral or warehouse in the economy’s largest business city, for transfer of the warehouse) connect it to basic utilities and register the Time required to complete each procedure property so that it can be used as collateral or (calendar days) transferred to another entity. Does not include time spent gathering The ranking on the ease of dealing with information construction permits is the simple average of the Each procedure starts on a separate day. percentile rankings on its component indicators: Procedures that can be fully completed online procedures, time and cost. are an exception to this rule. To make the data comparable across economies, Procedure considered completed once final Doing Business uses several assumptions about the document is received business and the warehouse, including the utility connections. No prior contact with officials The business: Cost required to complete each procedure (% of income per capita)  Is a limited liability company operating in Official costs only, no bribes the construction business and located in the largest business city.  Will be connected to water, sewerage (sewage system, septic tank or their  Is domestically owned and operated. equivalent) and a fixed telephone line. The  Has 60 builders and other employees. connection to each utility network will be 10 The warehouse: meters (32 feet, 10 inches) long.  Is a new construction (there was no  Will be used for general storage, such as of previous construction on the land). books or stationery (not for goods requiring special conditions).  Has complete architectural and technical plans prepared by a licensed architect or  Will take 30 weeks to construct (excluding all engineer. delays due to administrative and regulatory requirements). Doing Business 2014 Hungary 24 DEALING WITH CONSTRUCTION PERMITS Where does the economy stand today? What does it take to comply with the formalities to permits there requires 24 procedures, takes 79.0 days build a warehouse in Hungary? According to data and costs 9.2% of income per capita (figure 3.1). collected by Doing Business, dealing with construction Figure 3.1 What it takes to comply with formalities to build a warehouse in Hungary Note: Time shown in the figure above may not reflect simultaneity of procedures. Online procedures account for 0.5 days in the total time calculation. For more information on the methodology of the dealing with construction permits indicators, see the Doing Business website (http://www.doingbusiness.org). For details on the procedures reflected here, see the summary at the end of this chapter. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 25 DEALING WITH CONSTRUCTION PERMITS Globally, Hungary stands at 47 in the ranking of 189 other useful information for assessing how easy it is for economies on the ease of dealing with construction an entrepreneur in Hungary to legally build a permits (figure 3.2). The rankings for comparator warehouse. economies and the regional average ranking provide Figure 3.2 How Hungary and comparator economies rank on the ease of dealing with construction permits Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 26 DEALING WITH CONSTRUCTION PERMITS What are the changes over time? The benchmarks provided by the economies that over what is possible in making it easier to deal with time have had the best performance regionally or construction permits. And changes in regional globally on the procedures, time or cost required to averages can show where Hungary is keeping up—and deal with construction permits (figure 3.3) help show where it is falling behind. Figure 3.3 Has dealing with construction permits become easier over time? Procedures (number) Time (days) Doing Business 2014 Hungary 27 DEALING WITH CONSTRUCTION PERMITS Cost (% of income per capita) Note: DB2013 rankings shown are not last year’s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB201 3 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the sample this year. For more information on “no practice” marks, see the data notes. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 28 DEALING WITH CONSTRUCTION PERMITS Smart regulation ensures that standards are met while building safety while keeping compliance costs making compliance easy and accessible to all. reasonable, governments around the world have Coherent and transparent rules, efficient processes and worked on consolidating permitting requirements. adequate allocation of resources are especially What construction permitting reforms has Doing important in sectors where safety is at stake. Business recorded in Hungary (table 3.1)? Construction is one of them. In an effort to ensure Table 3.1 How has Hungary made dealing with construction permits easier—or not? By Doing Business report year DB year Reform DB2009 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2010 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Hungary implemented a time limit for the issuance of building DB2011 permits. DB2012 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2013 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2014 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Note: For information on reforms in earlier years (back to DB2006), see the Doing Business reports for these years, available at http://www.doingbusiness.org. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 29 DEALING WITH CONSTRUCTION PERMITS What are the details? The indicators reported here for Hungary are BUILDING A WAREHOUSE based on a set of specific procedures—the steps that a company must complete to legally build a warehouse—identified by Doing Business through City : Budapest information collected from experts in construction licensing, including architects, civil engineers, Estimated construction lawyers, construction firms, utility HUF 143,066,000 Warehouse Value : service providers and public officials who deal with building regulations. These procedures are those The procedures, along with the associated time and that apply to a company and structure matching cost, are summarized below. the standard assumptions used by Doing Business in collecting the data (see the section in this chapter on what the indicators cover). Summary of procedures for dealing with construction permits in Hungary —and the time and cost Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete Request and obtain certificate of site ownership and site map from the Földhivatal The site map is obtained by BuildCo. The site ownership certificate can be obtained either by BuildCo or by the local construction authority. 1 day HUF 10,000 1 The authorities have introduced electronic application and database, and internal administrative process has become more efficient and takes 1 day to complete. Request and obtain construction license Hungary passed a new Building regulation in October 2009 that 45 days HUF 105,000 2 reduced the legal time to issue a building permit from 60 to 45 days. * Received on-site inspection There is no need to request the inspection. After the permit is obtained, the local construction authority decides when it will conduct the 1 day no charge 3 inspection. In general, for smaller scale projects, the inspection may never even take place. * Received on-site inspection from the construction authority The inspection may take place anytime during the construction cycle. 1 day no charge 4 There is no need to request it. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 30 Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete * Request an authorization from the water authorities A written authorization from the water utility must be obtained. The 5 authorization must be obtained before the building permit is issued, 1 day no charge but it can be processed simultaneously with the building permit. * Request an authorization from sewage authorities A written authorization from the sewerage utility must be obtained. The 6 authorization must be obtained before the building permit is issued, 1 day no charge but it can be processed simultaneously with the building permit. * Receive inspection from water authorities 7 1 day no charge * Receive inspection from sewage authorities 8 1 day no charge * Obtain an authorization from the water authorities 9 29 days no charge * Obtain authorization from sewage authorities 10 29 days no charge * Request and obtain fire protection authorization The architectural plans contain the fire protection statement, which must be approved by the Fire Department. The authorization must be 30 days no charge 11 obtained before the building permit is issued, but it can be processed simultaneously with the building permit. * Provide evidence of the availability of a licensed site manager and notify about construction inception The builder is required to submit all documents 15 days prior to the start of the construction. The public works authority may require the investor to pay a regular fee to the public network (e.g., sewerage) to 5 days no charge 12 cover operational costs. The construction authority may conduct an inspection at any stage. If the value of any construction project exceeds HUF 30 million, BuildCo must notify the County Government Office of its intention to start construction. The Regional Administrative Office must either approve or Doing Business 2014 Hungary 31 Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete disapprove the start of construction. The office has authority over the participants, their liability, the building permit, the state of the neighboring buildings (which must be documented), and provides information to the tax authority (to curb unauthorized activity) and to the local authority. * Request and obtain Letter from Tax Authority Beginning in 2005, data reporting to the Tax Authority is required for all construction projects valued at more than HUF 10 million. The builder submits a letter to the Tax Authority along with the application for a building permit. 13 If the value of the construction project is above HUF 10 million, the 30 days no charge local authority informs the following institutions: • Tax Authority • Construction Authority (for quality control) • Labor Authority (to control the informal economy) * Request and receive connection to the sewerage network 14 21 days no charge * Contact a registered technician to set up sewerage system 15 1 day no charge * Request water connection The water connection consists of two parts: the on-site part (which must be done by a registered technician) and the off-site part (which is the connection from the existing utility to the on-site part). The builder must contact the people in charge of each part separately. 16 1 day HUF 100,000 The cost depends on the position of the building (distance from the source, local situation). Costs are specific to each case, depending on the expenditures involved. * Contact a registered technician to set up water connection 17 1 day no charge Doing Business 2014 Hungary 32 Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete * Receive on-site inspection to check on cleanness for water connection 18 1 day no charge The inspection is requested when the connection is requested. * Request and receive connection to telephone There are several network providers besides Hungarian Telephone and Cable Corp. There is a competition on this market, so it is 14 days HUF 30,000 19 recommended to obtain offers from several network providers. Costs therefore could vary between HUF 15,000.00 and HUF 100,000.00. * Receive connection to water 20 10 days no charge Notify authorities of the completion of construction When the building is completed and the municipality has been notified, the builder (owner) must arrange for a site inspection by the municipal experts; water, electricity, and sewerage providers; and the Fire Department. 21 After the on-site inspection, all the inspectors must declare that the 1 day no charge building has been completed in compliance with the technical plans or identify any unfinished work. If there is unfinished work, the deadline for completion must be stated in a document. After completion, the authority issues the occupancy permit. Receive final inspection of the completed building 22 1 day no charge Obtain Occupancy Permit When the building is completed and the municipality has been notified, the builder (owner) must arrange for a site inspection by the municipal experts; water, electricity, and sewerage providers; and the Fire Department. 23 After the on-site inspection, all the inspectors must declare that the 30 days no charge building has been completed in compliance with the technical plans or identify any unfinished work. If there is unfinished work, the deadline for completion must be stated in a document. After completion, the authority issues the occupancy permit. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 33 Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete * Register the building with the Land Registry Office The owner must submit a “realization plan” to the Land Registry Office to register the new building and the owner’s name on the official site map. In small villages, registration takes 30 days; in big cities and 24 especially in the capital, registration might take from 30 days to 4 years, 30 days no charge depending on the specifications of the lot. There is no registration fee, but there is the cost of a lawyer’s services (HUF 15,000.00), although the company’s own lawyer may handle the process. * Takes place simultaneously with another procedure. Note: Online procedures account for 0.5 days in the total time calculation. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 34 GETTING ELECTRICITY Access to reliable and affordable electricity is vital WHAT THE GETTING ELECTRICITY for businesses. To counter weak electricity supply, many firms in developing economies have to rely INDICATORS MEASURE on self-supply, often at a prohibitively high cost. Whether electricity is reliably available or not, the Procedures to obtain an electricity first step for a customer is always to gain access by connection (number) obtaining a connection. Submitting all relevant documents and What do the indicators cover? obtaining all necessary clearances and permits Doing Business records all procedures required for Completing all required notifications and a local business to obtain a permanent electricity receiving all necessary inspections connection and supply for a standardized warehouse, as well as the time and cost to Obtaining external installation works and complete them. These procedures include possibly purchasing material for these works applications and contracts with electricity utilities, Concluding any necessary supply contract and clearances from other agencies and the external obtaining final supply and final connection works. The ranking on the ease of getting electricity is the simple average of Time required to complete each procedure the percentile rankings on its component (calendar days) indicators: procedures, time and cost. To make the Is at least 1 calendar day data comparable across economies, several assumptions are used. Each procedure starts on a separate day The warehouse: Does not include time spent gathering information  Is located in the economy’s largest business city, in an area where other Reflects the time spent in practice, with little warehouses are located. follow-up and no prior contact with officials  Is not in a special economic zone where Cost required to complete each procedure the connection would be eligible for (% of income per capita) subsidization or faster service. Official costs only, no bribes  Has road access. The connection works Excludes value added tax involve the crossing of a road or roads but are carried out on public land.  Is to either the low-voltage or the medium-  Is a new construction being connected to voltage distribution network and either overhead electricity for the first time. or underground, whichever is more common in the economy and area where the warehouse is  Has 2 stories, both above ground, with a located. The length of any connection in the total surface of about 1,300.6 square customer’s private domain is negligible. meters (14,000 square feet), and is built on a plot of 929 square meters (10,000 square  Requires crossing of a 10-meter road but all the feet). works are carried out in a public land, so there is no crossing into other people's private property. The electricity connection:  Involves installing one electricity meter. The  Is 150 meters long and is a 3-phase, 4-wire Y, monthly electricity consumption will be 0.07 140-kilovolt-ampere (kVA) (subscribed gigawatt-hour (GWh). The internal electrical capacity) connection. wiring has been completed. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 35 GETTING ELECTRICITY Where does the economy stand today? What does it take to obtain a new electricity procedures, takes 252 days and costs 116.4% of connection in Hungary? According to data collected by income per capita (figure 4.1). Doing Business, getting electricity there requires 5 Figure 4.1 What it takes to obtain an electricity connection in Hungary Note: Time shown in the figure above may not reflect simultaneity of procedures. For more information on the methodology of the getting electricity indicators, see the Doing Business website (http://www.doingbusiness.org). For details on the procedures reflected here, see the summary at the end of this chapter. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 36 GETTING ELECTRICITY Globally, Hungary stands at 112 in the ranking of 189 regional average ranking provide another perspective economies on the ease of getting electricity (figure in assessing how easy it is for an entrepreneur in 4.2). The rankings for comparator economies and the Hungary to connect a warehouse to electricity. Figure 4.2 How Hungary and comparator economies rank on the ease of getting electricity Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 37 GETTING ELECTRICITY Even more helpful than rankings on the ease of getting performers on these indicators may provide useful electricity may be the indicators underlying those benchmarks. rankings (table 4.1). And regional and global best Table 4.1 The ease of getting electricity in Hungary Best performer in Best performer Indicator Hungary DB2014 Hungary DB2013 Europe & Central globally DB2014 Asia DB2014 Rank 112 111 San Marino (10) Iceland (1) Procedures (number) 5 5 San Marino (3) 10 Economies* (3) Time (days) 252 252 San Marino (45) Germany (17) Cost (% of income per capita) 116.4 116.9 Lithuania (48.1) Japan (0.0) Note: DB2013 rankings shown are not last year’s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB2013 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the sample this year. * Two or more economies share the top ranking on this indicator. For a list of these economies, see the Doing Business website (http://www.doingbusiness.org). Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 38 GETTING ELECTRICITY Obtaining an electricity connection is essential to safety in the connection process while keeping enable a business to conduct its most basic operations. connection costs reasonable, governments around the In many economies the connection process is world have worked to consolidate requirements for complicated by the multiple laws and regulations obtaining an electricity connection. What reforms in involved—covering service quality, general safety, getting electricity has Doing Business recorded in technical standards, procurement practices and Hungary (table 4.2)? internal wiring installations. In an effort to ensure Table 4.2 How has Hungary made getting electricity easier—or not? By Doing Business report year DB year Reform DB2012 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2013 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2014 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 39 GETTING ELECTRICITY What are the details? The indicators reported here for Hungary are based on OBTAINING AN ELECTRICITY CONNECTION a set of specific procedures—the steps that an entrepreneur must complete to get a warehouse connected to electricity by the local distribution City: Budapest utility—identified by Doing Business. Data are collected from the distribution utility, then completed and Name of Utility: Budapesti Elektromos verified by electricity regulatory agencies and Művek Rt. (ELMű Rt) independent professionals such as electrical engineers, The procedures are those that apply to a warehouse electrical contractors and construction companies. The and electricity connection matching the standard electricity distribution utility surveyed is the one assumptions used by Doing Business in collecting the serving the area (or areas) in which warehouses are data (see the section in this chapter on what the located. If there is a choice of distribution utilities, the indicators cover). The procedures, along with the one serving the largest number of customers is associated time and cost, are summarized below. selected. Summary of procedures for getting electricity in Hungary—and the time and cost Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete Submit application with ELMŰ Hálózati Kft. and await estimate (preliminary grid connection contract) The application can be submitted in person or by mail or e-mail with advanced electronic signature. Document that need to be attached is a 1 map with the detail of location of withdrawal. The electrician who did the 20 calendar days no charge internal wiring has to sign a statement saying that the internal wiring was done in accordance with approved engineering plans and all relevant standards. ELMŰ Hálózati Kft. carries out external inspection of the site An external inspection carried out by the utility is necessary for a technical study plan. It is required that someone from the customer's 2 party is present. The preliminary technical-economic briefing concerns 1 calendar day no charge the preliminary technical contents of the external connection. There is no inspection of the internal wiring. Obtain external connection works by ELMŰ Hálózati Kft. The utility is carrying out the design and the actual external connection 3 works. The utility also obtains all necessary permits (from other utilities, 224 calendar days HUF 3,094,800.0 municipality) on behalf of the customer. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 40 Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete ELMŰ Hálózati Kft. carries out second external inspection Before starting to build the cable line, the utility checks if the actual circumstances of the location of the warehouse fit to the electrical plans. This is an intermediate step after the design of the external connection 1 calendar day no charge 4 and obtaining the permits, before the actual external connection works. The determination of the final technical content is done upon execution planning where the customer's presence is required. Sign Grid Usage contract, grid connection contract and supply contract, obtain meter installation, final connection and flow of electricity The customer has to sign the grid usage contract, grid connection contract and supply contract. These three contracts are not necessarily signed in parallel. Upon connection, the grid charge becomes due and payable, while the date of conclusion of the supply contract is up to the 8 calendar days no charge 5 customer. The first two contracts take only few hours (sample contracts to fill in) while the third one takes some days. The installation of the meter and the start of supply of electricity require all three contracts to be signed. The meter is not installed at the same time as when the connection is done. The utility (Measurement technology and meter controlling department) is installing the meter. * Takes place simultaneously with another procedure. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 41 REGISTERING PROPERTY Ensuring formal property rights is fundamental. WHAT THE REGISTERING PROPERTY Effective administration of land is part of that. If INDICATORS MEASURE formal property transfer is too costly or complicated, formal titles might go informal again. And where property is informal or poorly Procedures to legally transfer title on administered, it has little chance of being immovable property (number) accepted as collateral for loans—limiting access to Preregistration (for example, checking for liens, finance. notarizing sales agreement, paying property transfer taxes) What do the indicators cover? Registration in the economy’s largest business Doing Business records the full sequence of city procedures necessary for a business to purchase property from another business and transfer the Postregistration (for example, filing title with the municipality) property title to the buyer’s name. The transaction is considered complete when it is opposable to Time required to complete each procedure third parties and when the buyer can use the (calendar days) property, use it as collateral for a bank loan or Does not include time spent gathering resell it. The ranking on the ease of registering information property is the simple average of the percentile rankings on its component indicators: procedures, Each procedure starts on a separate day. time and cost. Procedures that can be fully completed online are an exception to this rule. To make the data comparable across economies, Procedure considered completed once final several assumptions about the parties to the document is received transaction, the property and the procedures are used. No prior contact with officials The parties (buyer and seller): Cost required to complete each procedure (% of property value)  Are limited liability companies, 100% domestically and privately owned. Official costs only, no bribes  Are located in the economy’s largest No value added or capital gains taxes included business city. and no rezoning is required.  Have 50 employees each, all of whom are  Has no mortgages attached and has been nationals. under the same ownership for the past 10  Perform general commercial activities. years. The property (fully owned by the seller):  Consists of 557.4 square meters (6,000 square feet) of land and a 10-year-old, 2-story  Has a value of 50 times income per capita. warehouse of 929 square meters (10,000 The sale price equals the value. square feet). The warehouse is in good  Is registered in the land registry or cada- condition and complies with all safety stre, or both, and is free of title disputes. standards, building codes and legal requirements. There is no heating system. The  Is located in a periurban commercial zone, property will be transferred in its entirety. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 42 REGISTERING PROPERTY Where does the economy stand today? What does it take to complete a property transfer in procedures, takes 16.5 days and costs 5.0% of the Hungary? According to data collected by Doing property value (figure 5.1). Business, registering property there requires 4 Figure 5.1 What it takes to register property in Hungary Note: Time shown in the figure above may not reflect simultaneity of procedures. Online procedures account for 0.5 days in the total time calculation. For more information on the methodology of the registering property indicators, see the Doing Business website (http://www.doingbusiness.org). For details on the procedures reflected here, see the summary at the end of this chapter. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 43 REGISTERING PROPERTY Globally, Hungary stands at 45 in the ranking of 189 regional average ranking provide other useful economies on the ease of registering property (figure information for assessing how easy it is for an 5.2). The rankings for comparator economies and the entrepreneur in Hungary to transfer property. Figure 5.2 How Hungary and comparator economies rank on the ease of registering property Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 44 REGISTERING PROPERTY What are the changes over time? The benchmarks provided by the economies that over what is possible in making it easier to register time have had the best performance regionally or property. And changes in regional averages can show globally on the procedures, time or cost required to where Hungary is keeping up—and where it is falling complete a property transfer (figure 5.3) help show behind. Figure 5.3 Has registering property become easier over time? Procedures (number) Time (days) Doing Business 2014 Hungary 45 REGISTERING PROPERTY Cost (% of property value) Note: DB2013 rankings shown are not last year’s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB2013 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the sample this year. For more information on “no practice” marks, see the data notes. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 46 REGISTERING PROPERTY Economies worldwide have been making it easier for have cut the time required substantially—enabling entrepreneurs to register and transfer property—such buyers to use or mortgage their property earlier. What as by computerizing land registries, introducing time property registration reforms has Doing Business limits for procedures and setting low fixed fees. Many recorded in Hungary (table 5.1)? Table 5.1 How has Hungary made registering property easier—or not? By Doing Business report year DB year Reform A new registry office operating in Budapest has reduced the total time to register a title in Budapest. Increased internal DB2009 cooperation among these agencies reduced the total time to register property from 63 to 17 days. DB2010 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Hungary reduced the property registration fee by 6% of the DB2011 property value. DB2012 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2013 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2014 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Note: For information on reforms in earlier years (back to DB2005), see the Doing Business reports for these years, available at http://www.doingbusiness.org. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 47 REGISTERING PROPERTY What are the details? The indicators reported here are based on a set of STANDARD PROPERTY TRANSFER specific procedures—the steps that a buyer and seller must complete to transfer the property to the buyer’s name—identified by Doing Business through information collected from local property City: Budapest lawyers, notaries and property registries. These procedures are those that apply to a transaction Property Value: HUF 132,974,512 matching the standard assumptions used by Doing Business in collecting the data (see the section in The procedures, along with the associated time and this chapter on what the indicators cover). cost, are summarized below. Summary of procedures for registering property in Hungary—and the time and cost Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete Obtain a certified title record at the Land Registry Office Obtain an original certified title sheet folio at the Land Registry Office to check the current data of the property. The title sheet folio includes information on liens and outstanding taxes. According to the Hungarian Hard copy law, the countersigning lawyer may use a title sheet which is issued certificate HUF within 30 days preceding the signing. Due to the amendment of the land Less than a day 6,250; Electronic 1 registry rules, the fee of the hard copy of a certified title record was (online certificate HUF increased to HUF 6,250. Since January 1, 2010, the request for electronic procedure) 3,600; and land registry sheet is also possible for HUF 3,600 for certified sheet and Uncertified sheet for HUF 1,000 uncertified sheet. Please note that the printed form of the HUF 1,000 electronic certified sheet is not considered as certified land registry sheet. The sale and purchase agreement is signed by a lawyer After the negotiations between parties, a written sale and purchase agreement is required, and each page has to be initialed/signed by the parties. The contract becomes valid by the countersignature of a lawyer 1% of the (signature, stamp and dry stamp on each page). The countersignature purchase price 2 certifies the identity of the signing parties and that the content of the 1 day (lawyer’s fees) – agreement is in accordance with the legal regulations and the will of the subject to the parties. The lawyers fees are subject to the parties agreement and may parties’ agreement vary between 1 and 3%. Current market conditions have been pushing fees down to around 1% of the property value. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 48 Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete Obtain the extract of the purchaser from the Court of Registry An extract of the purchaser from the commercial registry must be obtained. The extract (as well as the specimen of signature) is to be filed with regard to the seller of the property as well. With the data indicated in the extract the officer can check that the legal entity really exists and that the manager is really entitled to sign for the company. The commercial register is public, so anybody can go there and ask for a company extract. The extract has to contain the deleted and actual data 3 of the company, and may not be issued earlier than 30 days preceding 1 day HUF 5,000 the sale. In case the data of the seller have not been amended as of the date of purchase (or any further filing), it is sufficient to refer to this fact on the standardized application form, together with the case number in which the required documents had been filed. If no such reference is made, the cost of the extract is payable both in relation to the seller and the buyer. The cost varies according to the issuing agencies and the length of the extract. Generally, the cost is about HUF 5,000. Register the title at the Land Registry Office As of January 1, 2010 there are two Land Registry Offices operating in Budapest. The land registry offices accept specimen of signatures both from notary public and from attorney-at-law. A new fast-track procedure has been introduced to reduce the registration time at the Land Registry for a higher registration fee of HUF 16,000. The registration fees for the regular procedure is HUF 6000 as a 4% of property result of the Act 122 of 2006, effective February 4, 2007. As of January value (Stamp duty) 2006, it is possible to retrieve a standardized application form online at: up to value HUF 1 www.takarnet.hu. billion (or 2% for The Registry office only accepts this standard form. Once the application has been submitted to the land registry office, one set of the documents 9-19 calendar values above with are forwarded to the stamp duty office. The purchaser then receives a a cap of HUF 200 days (expedited letter from the stamp duty office and will pay stamp duty by postal check procedure) or 30- million) + HUF 4 or bank transfer. 16,600 60 days (regular (registration fee, procedure) Note: Usually, if the purchaser does not pay the full purchase price at expedited the signing of the contract, the vendor retains its ownership. (Such procedure), or retention may be registered until the payment of the full purchase price). HUF 6,600 The application may request the registration of the sale with retention of (registration fee, ownership, or the registration of title. As of a regulation issued in January regular procedure) 2006, the seller may declare that he/she will request registration of the purchaser's title at a certain date, but no later than 6 months from the date of the agreement. During this time period the registration is pending and no other registrations or applications may be fulfilled regarding the property. In the event that the land registry office does not receive the consent from the owner of the property, the pending application is deleted. The fact of sale with retention of ownership is indicated on a side note in 24 hours from the submission. This means that some kind of application was submitted with regard to the property Doing Business 2014 Hungary 49 Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete but it was not judged by the land registry office yet (not registered, not refused). For sales with retention of ownership, a declaration has to be submitted stating that the title may be registered, simultaneously with the deletion of the retention of ownership. Following the submission of the declaration, a new side note will be indicated, and the title of the purchaser will be registered. Transfers of property might be subject to a 27% VAT. As of 2010, the general duty rate on the transfer of property for consideration was reduced to 4% from 10% on up to HUF 1 billion in sales value. The documentation shall include: (i) The standardized application form; (ii) Two original copies and one photocopy of the contract; (iii) Original extract of the purchaser from the commercial register; (iv) The company extract and the specimen of signature of both the seller and the purchaser are to be filed. * Takes place simultaneously with another procedure. Note: Online procedures account for 0.5 days in the total time calculation. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 50 GETTING CREDIT Two types of frameworks can facilitate access to WHAT THE GETTING CREDIT INDICATORS credit and improve its allocation: credit information MEASURE systems and borrowers and lenders in collateral and bankruptcy laws. Credit information systems enable lenders’ rights to view a potential borrower’s Strength of legal rights index (0–10) financial history (positive or negative)—valuable Rights of borrowers and lenders through information to consider when assessing risk. And collateral laws they permit borrowers to establish a good credit Protection of secured creditors’ rights through history that will allow easier access to credit. Sound bankruptcy laws collateral laws enable businesses to use their assets, especially movable property, as security to generate Depth of credit information index (0–6) capital—while strong creditors’ rights have been Scope and accessibility of credit information associated with higher ratios of private sector credit distributed by public credit registries and to GDP. private credit bureaus What do the indicators cover? Public credit registry coverage (% of adults) Doing Business assesses the sharing of credit Number of individuals and firms listed in information and the legal rights of borrowers and public credit registry as percentage of adult lenders with respect to secured transactions population through 2 sets of indicators. The depth of credit Private credit bureau coverage (% of adults) information index measures rules and practices Number of individuals and firms listed in affecting the coverage, scope and accessibility of largest private credit bureau as percentage of credit information available through a public credit adult population registry or a private credit bureau. The strength of legal rights index measures whether certain features that facilitate lending exist within the applicable collateral and bankruptcy laws. Doing Business uses case scenarios to determine the scope of the  Has up to 100 employees. secured transactions system, involving a secured  Is 100% domestically owned, as is the lender. borrower and a secured lender and examining legal The ranking on the ease of getting credit is based on restrictions on the use of movable collateral. These the percentile rankings on the sum of its component scenarios assume that the borrower: indicators: the depth of credit information index and  Is a private, incorporated, limited liability the strength of legal rights index. company.  Has its headquarters and only base of operations in the largest business city. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 51 GETTING CREDIT Where does the economy stand today? How well do the credit information system and Globally, Hungary stands at 55 in the ranking of 189 collateral and bankruptcy laws in Hungary facilitate economies on the ease of getting credit (figure 6.1). access to credit? The economy has a score of 4 on the The rankings for comparator economies and the depth of credit information index and a score of 7 on regional average ranking provide other useful the strength of legal rights index (see the summary of information for assessing how well regulations and scoring at the end of this chapter for details). Higher institutions in Hungary support lending and scores indicate more credit information and stronger borrowing. legal rights for borrowers and lenders. Figure 6.1 How Hungary and comparator economies rank on the ease of getting credit Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 52 GETTING CREDIT What are the changes over time? While the most recent Doing Business data reflect how institutions and regulations have been strengthened — well the credit information system and collateral and and where they have not (table 6.1). That can help bankruptcy laws in Hungary support lending and identify where the potential for improvement is borrowing today, data over time can help show where greatest. Table 6.1 The ease of getting credit in Hungary over time By Doing Business report year Indicator DB2005 DB2006 DB2007 DB2008 DB2009 DB2010 DB2011 DB2012 DB2013 DB2014 Rank .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 52 55 Strength of legal rights 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 index (0-10) Depth of credit 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 information index (0-6) Public registry coverage 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 (% of adults) Private bureau 3.3 4.0 5.9 6.9 10.0 10.3 11.4 16.1 15.8 73.2 coverage (% of adults) Note: n.a. = not applicable (the economy was not included in Doing Business for that year). DB2013 rankings shown are not last year’s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB2013 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the sample this year. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 53 GETTING CREDIT One way to put an economy’s score on the getting shows the number of economies with this score in credit indicators into context is to see where the 2013 as well as the regional average score. Figure 6.3 economy stands in the distribution of scores across shows the same thing for the depth of credit economies. Figure 6.2 highlights the score on the information index. strength of legal rights index for Hungary in 2013 and Figure 6.2 How strong are legal rights for borrowers Figure 6.3 How much credit information is shared— and lenders? and how widely? Number of economies with each score on strength of legal Number of economies with each score on depth of credit rights index (0–10), 2013 information index (0–6), 2013 Note: Higher scores indicate that collateral and bankruptcy Note: Higher scores indicate the availability of more credit laws are better designed to facilitate access to credit. information, from either a credit registry or a credit bureau, Source: Doing Business database. to facilitate lending decisions. Regional averages for the depth of credit information index exclude economies with no credit registry or credit bureau. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 54 GETTING CREDIT When economies strengthen the legal rights of lenders credit information, they can increase entrepreneurs’ and borrowers under collateral and bankruptcy laws, access to credit. What credit reforms has Doing and increase the scope, coverage and accessibility of Business recorded in Hungary (table 6.2)? Table 6.2 How has Hungary made getting credit easier—or not? By Doing Business report year DB year Reform DB2009 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2010 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2011 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Hungary reduced the amount of credit information available from private credit bureaus by shortening the period for DB2012 retaining data on defaults and late payments (if repaid) from 5 years to 1 year. Hungary improved access to credit information by passing its DB2013 first credit bureau law mandating the creation of a database with positive credit information on individuals. DB2014 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Note: For information on reforms in earlier years (back to DB2005), see the Doing Business reports for these years, available at http://www.doingbusiness.org. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 55 GETTING CREDIT What are the details? The getting credit indicators reported here for The data on the legal rights of borrowers and lenders Hungary are based on detailed information collected are gathered through a survey of financial lawyers and in that economy. The data on credit information verified through analysis of laws and regulations as sharing are collected through a survey of a credit well as public sources of information on collateral and registry and/or credit bureau (if one exists). To bankruptcy laws. For the strength of legal rights index, construct the depth of credit information index, a a score of 1 is assigned for each of 8 aspects related to score of 1 is assigned for each of 6 features of the legal rights in collateral law and 2 aspects in credit registry or credit bureau (see summary of bankruptcy law. scoring below). Summary of scoring for the getting credit indicators in Hungary Europe & Central OECD high income Indicator Hungary Asia average average Strength of legal rights index (0-10) 7 7 7 Depth of credit information index (0-6) 4 5 5 Public registry coverage (% of adults) 0.0 33.9 42.9 Private bureau coverage (% of adults) 73.2 48.2 73.9 Note: In cases where an economy’s regional classification is “OECD high income,” regional averages above are only displayed once. Regional averages for the depth of credit information index exclude economies with no credit registry or credit bureau. Regional averages for the credit registry coverage exclude economies with no credit registry. Regional averages for the credit bureau coverage exclude economies with no credit bureau. Strength of legal rights index (0–10) Index score: 7 Can any business use movable assets as collateral while keeping possession of the assets; and Yes any financial institution accept such assets as collateral ? Does the law allow businesses to grant a non possessory security right in a single category of No movable assets, without requiring a specific description of collateral? Does the law allow businesses to grant a non possessory security right in substantially all of Yes its assets, without requiring a specific description of collateral? May a security right extend to future or after-acquired assets, and may it extend automatically No to the products, proceeds or replacements of the original assets ? Is a general description of debts and obligations permitted in collateral agreements; can all types of debts and obligations be secured between parties; and can the collateral agreement Yes include a maximum amount for which the assets are encumbered? Is a collateral registry in operation, that is unified geographically and by asset type, with an Yes electronic database indexed by debtor's names? Doing Business 2014 Hungary 56 Strength of legal rights index (0–10) Index score: 7 Are secured creditors paid first (i.e. before tax claims and employee claims) when a debtor Yes defaults outside an insolvency procedure? Are secured creditors paid first (i.e. before tax claims and employee claims) when a business is Yes liquidated? Are secured creditors either not subject to an automatic stay on enforcement when a debtor enters a court-supervised reorganization procedure, or does the law provide secured No creditors with grounds for relief from an automatic stay or/and sets a time limit to it? Does the law allow parties to agree in a collateral agreement that the lender may enforce its Yes security right out of court, at the time a security interest is created? Depth of credit information index (0–6) Credit bureau Credit registry Index score: 4 Are data on both firms and individuals distributed? Yes No 1 Are both positive and negative data distributed? Yes No 1 Does the registry distribute credit information from retailers, trade creditors or utility companies as well as No No 0 financial institutions? Are more than 2 years of historical credit information No No 0 distributed? Is data on all loans below 1% of income per capita Yes No 1 distributed? Is it guaranteed by law that borrowers can inspect Yes No 1 their data in the largest credit registry? Note: An economy receives a score of 1 if there is a "yes" to either private bureau or public registry. Credit bureau Credit registry Coverage (% of adults) (% of adults) Number of firms 145,000 0 Number of individuals 4,830,000 0 Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 57 PROTECTING INVESTORS Protecting investors matters for the ability of WHAT THE PROTECTING INVESTORS companies to raise the capital they need to grow, INDICATORS MEASURE innovate, diversify and compete. If the laws do not protect minority shareholders, investors may be reluctant to provide funding to companies through Extent of disclosure index (0–10) the purchase of shares unless they become the Approval process for related-party controlling shareholders. Effective regulations define transactions related-party transactions precisely, promote clear Disclosure requirements in case of related- and efficient disclosure requirements, require party transactions shareholder participation in major decisions of the company and set detailed standards of accountability Extent of director liability index (0–10) for company insiders. Ability of minority shareholders to file a direct or derivative lawsuit What do the indicators cover? Ability of minority shareholders to hold Doing Business measures the strength of minority interested parties and members of the shareholder protections against directors’ use of approving body liable for prejudicial related- corporate assets for personal gain—or self-dealing. party transactions The indicators distinguish 3 dimensions of investor protections: transparency of related-party Available legal remedies (damages, repayment of profits, fines, imprisonment and rescission transactions (extent of disclosure index), liability for of the transaction) self-dealing (extent of director liability index) and minority shareholders’ access to evidence before and Ease of shareholder suits index (0–10) during trial (ease of shareholder suits index). The Access to internal corporate documents ranking on the strength of investor protection index is (directly or through a government inspector) the simple average of the percentile rankings on these 3 indices. To make the data comparable across Documents and information available during trial economies, a case study uses several assumptions about the business and the transaction. Strength of investor protection index (0–10) The business (Buyer): Simple average of the extent of disclosure, extent of director liability and ease of  Is a publicly traded corporation listed on the shareholder suits indices economy’s most important stock exchange (or at least a large private company with multiple shareholders). the company purchase used trucks from another company he owns.  Has a board of directors and a chief executive officer (CEO) who may legally act on behalf of  The price is higher than the going price for used Buyer where permitted, even if this is not trucks, but the transaction goes forward. specifically required by law.  All required approvals are obtained, and all The transaction involves the following details: required disclosures made, though the transaction is prejudicial to Buyer.  Mr. James, a director and the majority shareholder of the company, proposes that  Shareholders sue the interested parties and the members of the board of directors. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 58 PROTECTING INVESTORS Where does the economy stand today? How strong are investor protections against self- index (figure 7.1). While the indicator does not dealing in Hungary? The economy has a score of 4.3 measure all aspects related to the protection of on the strength of investor protection index, with a minority investors, a higher ranking does indicate that higher score indicating stronger protections (see the an economy’s regulations offer stronger investor summary of scoring at the end of this chapter for protections against self-dealing in the areas measured. details). Globally, Hungary stands at 128 in the ranking of 189 economies on the strength of investor protection Figure 7.1 How Hungary and comparator economies rank on the strength of investor protection index Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 59 PROTECTING INVESTORS What are the changes over time? While the most recent Doing Business data reflect how ranking on the strength of investor protection index well regulations in Hungary protect minority investors over time shows whether the economy is slipping today, data over time show whether the protections behind other economies in investor protections—or have been strengthened (table 7.1). And the global surpassing them. Table 7.1 The strength of investor protections in Hungary over time By Doing Business report year Indicator DB2006 DB2007 DB2008 DB2009 DB2010 DB2011 DB2012 DB2013 DB2014 Rank .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 127 128 Extent of disclosure 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 index (0-10) Extent of director 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 liability index (0-10) Ease of shareholder 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 suits index (0-10) Strength of investor protection index (0- 4.3 4.3 4.3 4.3 4.3 4.3 4.3 4.3 4.3 10) Note: n.a. = not applicable (the economy was not included in Doing Business for that year). DB2013 rankings shown are not last year’s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB2013 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the sample this year. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 60 PROTECTING INVESTORS One way to put an economy’s scores on the protecting shows the number of economies with this score in investors indicators into context is to see where the 2013 as well as the regional average score. Figure 7.3 economy stands in the distribution of scores across applies to the extent of director liability index, and economies. Figure 7.2 highlights the score on the figure 7.4 to the ease of shareholder suits index. extent of disclosure index for Hungary in 2013 and Figure 7.2 How strong are disclosure requirements? Figure 7.3 How strong is the liability regime for directors? Number of economies with each score on the extent of Number of economies with each score on the extent of director liability index (0–10), 2013 disclosure index (0–10), 2013 Note: Higher scores indicate greater liability of directors. Note: Higher scores indicate greater disclosure. Source: Doing Business database. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 61 PROTECTING INVESTORS Figure 7.4 How easy is accessing internal corporate documents? Number of economies with each score on the ease of shareholder suits index (0–10), 2013 Note: Higher scores indicate greater minority shareholder access to evidence before and during trial. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 62 PROTECTING INVESTORS The scores recorded over time for Hungary on the changes over time in the regional average score on strength of investor protection index may also be this index. revealing (figure 7.5). Equally interesting may be the Figure 7.5 Have investor protections become stronger over time? Strength of investor protection index (0–10) Note: The higher the score, the stronger the protections. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 63 PROTECTING INVESTORS Economies with the strongest protections of minority reasonable time. As a result, reforms to strengthen investors from self-dealing require detailed disclosure investor protections may move ahead on different and define clear duties for directors. They also have fronts—such as through new or amended company well-functioning courts and up-to-date procedural laws, securities regulations or civil procedure rules. rules that give minority shareholders the means to What investor protection reforms has Doing Business prove their case and obtain a judgment within a recorded in Hungary (table 7.2)? Table 7.2 How has Hungary strengthened investor protections—or not? By Doing Business report year DB year Reform DB2009 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2010 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2011 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2012 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2013 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2014 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Note: For information on reforms in earlier years (back to DB2006), see the Doing Business reports for these years, available at http://www.doingbusiness.org. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 64 PROTECTING INVESTORS What are the details? The protecting investors indicators reported here for ease of shareholder suits indices, scores are assigned Hungary are based on detailed information collected to each based on a range of conditions relating to through a survey of corporate and securities lawyers disclosure, director liability and shareholder suits in a about securities regulations, company laws and court standard case study transaction (see the data notes at rules of evidence and procedure. To construct the the end of this chapter). The summary below shows extent of disclosure, extent of director liability and the details underlying the scores for Hungary. Summary of scoring for the protecting investors indicators in Hungary Europe & Central OECD high income Indicator Hungary Asia average average Extent of disclosure index (0-10) 2 6 7 Extent of director liability index (0-10) 4 5 5 Ease of shareholder suits index (0-10) 7 6 7 Strength of investor protection index (0-10) 4.3 5.7 6.2 Note: In cases where an economy’s regional classification is “OECD high income,” regional averages above are only displayed once. Score Score description Extent of disclosure index (0-10) 2 What corporate body provides legally sufficient 0 CEO approval for the transaction? Whether disclosure of the conflict of interest by Mr. 0 No disclosure obligation James to the board of directors is required? Whether immediate disclosure of the transaction to 1 Disclosure on the transaction only the public and/or shareholders is required? Whether disclosure of the transaction in published 1 Disclosure on the transaction only periodic filings (annual reports) is required? Whether an external body must review the terms of 0 No the transaction before it takes place? Extent of director liability index (0-10) 4 Whether shareholders can sue directly or derivatively for the damage that the Buyer-Seller transaction 1 Yes causes to the company? Whether shareholders can hold Mr. James liable for Liable for negligence or influencing the damage that the Buyer-Seller transaction causes 1 the approval of the transaction to the company? Whether shareholders can hold members of the approving body liable for the damage that the Buyer- 1 Liable for negligence Seller transaction causes to the company? Doing Business 2014 Hungary 65 Score Score description Whether a court can void the transaction upon a Not possible or only in case of Seller's 0 successful claim by a shareholder plaintiff? fraud or bad faith Whether Mr. James pays damages for the harm caused to the company upon a successful claim by 1 Yes the shareholder plaintiff? Whether Mr. James repays profits made from the transaction upon a successful claim by the 0 No shareholder plaintiff? Whether fines and imprisonment can be applied 0 No against Mr. James? Ease of shareholder suits index (0-10) 7 Whether shareholders owning 10% or less of Buyer's shares can inspect transaction documents before 1 Yes filing suit? Whether shareholders owning 10% or less of Buyer's shares can request an inspector to investigate the 1 Yes transaction? Whether the plaintiff can obtain any documents from Any information that may lead to the 4 the defendant and witnesses during trial? discovery of relevant information Whether the plaintiff can request categories of documents from the defendant without identifying 1 Yes specific ones? Whether the plaintiff can directly question the 0 No defendant and witnesses during trial? Whether the level of proof required for civil suits is 0 No lower than that of criminal cases? Strength of investor protection index (0-10) 4.3 Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 66 PAYING TAXES Taxes are essential. They fund the public amenities, WHAT THE PAYING TAXES INDICATORS infrastructure and services that are crucial for a MEASURE properly functioning economy. But the level of tax rates needs to be carefully chosen—and needless Tax payments for a manufacturing company complexity in tax rules avoided. According to in 2012 (number per year adjusted for Doing Business data, in economies where it is more electronic and joint filing and payment) difficult and costly to pay taxes, larger shares of economic activity end up in the informal sector — Total number of taxes and contributions paid, where businesses pay no taxes at all. including consumption taxes (value added tax, sales tax or goods and service tax) What do the indicators cover? Method and frequency of filing and payment Using a case scenario, Doing Business measures Time required to comply with 3 major taxes the taxes and mandatory contributions that a (hours per year) medium-size company must pay in a given year as well as the administrative burden of paying taxes Collecting information and computing the tax and contributions. This case scenario uses a set of payable financial statements and assumptions about Completing tax return forms, filing with transactions made over the year. Information is proper agencies also compiled on the frequency of filing and Arranging payment or withholding payments as well as time taken to comply with tax laws. The ranking on the ease of paying taxes is Preparing separate tax accounting books, if the simple average of the percentile rankings on required its component indicators: number of annual Total tax rate (% of profit before all taxes) payments, time and total tax rate, with a threshold 1 Profit or corporate income tax being applied to the total tax rate. To make the data comparable across economies, several Social contributions and labor taxes paid by assumptions about the business and the taxes and the employer contributions are used. Property and property transfer taxes  TaxpayerCo is a medium-size business that Dividend, capital gains and financial started operations on January 1, 2011. transactions taxes  The business starts from the same financial Waste collection, vehicle, road and other taxes position in each economy. All the taxes  Taxes and mandatory contributions include and mandatory contributions paid during corporate income tax, turnover tax and all the second year of operation are recorded. labor taxes and contributions paid by the  Taxes and mandatory contributions are company. measured at all levels of government.  A range of standard deductions and exemptions are also recorded. 1 The threshold is defined as the highest total tax rate among the top 15% of economies in the ranking on the total tax rate. It is calculated and adjusted on a yearly basis. The threshold is not based on any economic theory of an “optimal tax rate” that minimizes disto rtions or maximizes efficiency in the tax system of an economy overall. Instead, it is mainly empirical in nature, set at the lower end of the distribution of tax rates levied on medium-size enterprises in the manufacturing sector as observed through the paying taxes indicators. This reduces the bias in the indicators toward economies that do not need to levy significant taxes on companies like the Doing Business standardized case study company because they raise public revenue in other ways—for example, through taxes on foreign companies, through taxes on sectors other than manufacturing or from natural resources (all of which are outside the scope of the methodology). This year’s threshold is 25.5%. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 67 PAYING TAXES Where does the economy stand today? What is the administrative burden of complying with Globally, Hungary stands at 124 in the ranking of 189 taxes in Hungary—and how much do firms pay in economies on the ease of paying taxes (figure 8.1). The taxes? On average, firms make 12 tax payments a year, rankings for comparator economies and the regional spend 277 hours a year filing, preparing and paying average ranking provide other useful information for taxes and pay total taxes amounting to 49.7% of profit assessing the tax compliance burden for businesses in (see the summary at the end of this chapter for Hungary. details). Figure 8.1 How Hungary and comparator economies rank on the ease of paying taxes Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 68 PAYING TAXES What are the changes over time? The benchmarks provided by the economies that over show what is possible in easing the administrative time have had the best performance regionally or burden of tax compliance. And changes in regional globally on the number of payments or the time averages can show where Hungary is keeping up—and required to prepare and file taxes (figure 8.2) help where it is falling behind. Figure 8.2 Has paying taxes become easier over time? Payments (number per year) Time (hours per year) Doing Business 2014 Hungary 69 PAYING TAXES Total tax rate (% of profit) Note: DB2013 rankings shown are not last year’s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB2013 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the sample this year. DB2013 rankings reflect changes to the methodology. For all economies with a total tax rate below the threshold of 25.5% applied in DB2014, the total tax rate is set at 25.5% for the purpose of calculating the ranking on the ease of paying taxes. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 70 PAYING TAXES Economies around the world have made paying taxes concrete results. Some economies simplifying tax faster and easier for businesses—such as by payment and reducing rates have seen tax revenue consolidating filings, reducing the frequency of rise. What tax reforms has Doing Business recorded in payments or offering electronic filing and payment. Hungary (table 8.1)? Many have lowered tax rates. Changes have brought Table 8.1 How has Hungary made paying taxes easier—or not? By Doing Business report year DB year Reform DB2009 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2010 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2011 Hungary simplified taxes and tax bases. Hungary made paying taxes costlier for firms by introducing a DB2012 sector-specific surtax Hungary made paying taxes easier for companies by abolishing DB2013 the community tax. At the same time, Hungary increased health insurance contributions paid by the employer. DB2014 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Note: For information on reforms in earlier years (back to DB2006), see the Doing Business reports for these years, available at http://www.doingbusiness.org. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 71 PAYING TAXES What are the details? The indicators reported here for Hungary are based LOCATION OF STANDARDIZED COMPANY on a standard set of taxes and contributions that would be paid by the case study company used by Doing Business in collecting the data (see the City: Budapest section in this chapter on what the indicators cover). Tax practitioners are asked to review standard financial statements as well as a standard list of transactions that the company completed The taxes and contributions paid are listed in the during the year. Respondents are asked how much summary below, along with the associated number of in taxes and mandatory contributions the business payments, time and tax rate. must pay and what the process is for doing so. Summary of tax rates and administrative burden in Hungary Europe & Central OECD high income Indicator Hungary Asia average average Payments (number per year) 12 26 12 Time (hours per year) 277 246 175 Profit tax (%) 11.6 9.0 16.1 Labor tax and contributions (%) 34.6 22.6 23.1 Other taxes (%) 3.5 7.0 2.0 Total tax rate (% profit) 49.7 38.7 41.3 Note: In cases where an economy’s regional classification is “OECD high income,” regional averages above are only displayed once. Total tax Notes on Tax or mandatory Payments Notes on Time Statutory Tax base rate (% of total tax contribution (number) payments (hours) tax rate profit) rate gross Social tax 1 online filing 146 27% 30.5 salaries net Local business tax 1 online filing 0 2% 5.9 revenue taxable Corporate income tax 1 online filing 35 10-19% 5.8 profit Doing Business 2014 Hungary 72 Total tax Notes on Tax or mandatory Payments Notes on Time Statutory Tax base rate (% of total tax contribution (number) payments (hours) tax rate profit) rate HUF 5% of the Rehabilitation contribution 1 online filing 0 2.4 964,500 employees gross Training contribution 0 paid jointly 0 1.5% 1.7 salaries the tax rate is 0 on the net sales not exceeding HUF 500 million; 0.1% on the net sales between HUF 500 million and Special tax 1 online filing 0 net sales 1.4 HUF 30 billion; 0.4% on net sales range from HUF 30 billion to HUF 100 billion; and 2.5% on net sales over HUF 100 billion HUF 1,100 building Property tax 1 online filing 0 per square 0.9 area meter sales plus R&D Tax 1 online filing 0 0.3% interest 0.9 income HUF 200 Land tax 1 online filing 0 per square land area 0.2 meter vehicle Vehicle tax 1 online filing 0 HUF 12 weight + 0.2 half load Doing Business 2014 Hungary 73 Total tax Notes on Tax or mandatory Payments Notes on Time Statutory Tax base rate (% of total tax contribution (number) payments (hours) tax rate profit) rate included small Fuel tax 1 0 into the 0 amount fuel price value not Value added tax (VAT) 1 online filing 96 27% 0 added included itemized depending weight of small Environmental tax 1 0 on the 0 packaging amount packaging material Totals 12 277 49.7 Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 74 TRADING ACROSS BORDERS In today’s globalized world, making trade between WHAT THE TRADING ACROSS BORDERS economies easier is increasingly important for INDICATORS MEASURE business. Excessive document requirements, burdensome customs procedures, inefficient port operations and inadequate infrastructure all lead to Documents required to export and import extra costs and delays for exporters and importers, (number) stifling trade potential. Research shows that Bank documents exporters in developing countries gain more from Customs clearance documents a 10% drop in their trading costs than from a similar reduction in the tariffs applied to their Port and terminal handling documents products in global markets. Transport documents What do the indicators cover? Time required to export and import (days) Doing Business measures the time and cost Obtaining, filling out and submitting all the (excluding tariffs and the time and cost for sea documents transport) associated with exporting and importing Inland transport and handling a standard shipment of goods by sea transport, and the number of documents necessary to Customs clearance and inspections complete the transaction. The indicators cover Port and terminal handling procedural requirements such as documentation Does not include sea transport time requirements and procedures at customs and other regulatory agencies as well as at the port. They also Cost required to export and import (US$ per cover trade logistics, including the time and cost of container) inland transport to the largest business city. The All documentation ranking on the ease of trading across borders is the simple average of the percentile rankings on its Inland transport and handling component indicators: documents, time and cost Customs clearance and inspections to export and import. Port and terminal handling To make the data comparable across economies, Official costs only, no bribes Doing Business uses several assumptions about the business and the traded goods. The business: military items.  Is of medium size and employs 60 people.  Do not require refrigeration or any other special environment.  Is located in the periurban area of the economy’s largest business city.  Do not require any special phytosanitary or environmental safety standards other than  Is a private, limited liability company, accepted international standards. domestically owned, formally registered and operating under commercial laws and  Are one of the economy’s leading export or regulations of the economy. import products. The traded goods:  Are transported in a dry-cargo, 20-foot full container load.  Are not hazardous nor do they include Doing Business 2014 Hungary 75 TRADING ACROSS BORDERS Where does the economy stand today? What does it take to export or import in Hungary? Globally, Hungary stands at 70 in the ranking of 189 According to data collected by Doing Business, economies on the ease of trading across borders exporting a standard container of goods requires 6 (figure 9.1). The rankings for comparator economies documents, takes 17 days and costs $885. Importing and the regional average ranking provide other useful the same container of goods requires 6 documents, information for assessing how easy it is for a business takes 19 days and costs $845 (see the summary of in Hungary to export and import goods. procedures and documents at the end of this chapter for details). Figure 9.1 How Hungary and comparator economies rank on the ease of trading across borders Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 76 TRADING ACROSS BORDERS What are the changes over time? The benchmarks provided by the economies that over possible in making it easier to trade across borders. time have had the best performance regionally or And changes in regional averages can show where globally on the documents, time or cost required to Hungary is keeping up—and where it is falling behind. export or import (figure 9.2) help show what is Figure 9.2 Has trading across borders become easier over time? Documents to export (number) Time to export (days) Doing Business 2014 Hungary 77 TRADING ACROSS BORDERS Cost to export (US$ per container) Documents to import (number) Doing Business 2014 Hungary 78 TRADING ACROSS BORDERS Time to import (days) Cost to import (US$ per container) Note: DB2013 rankings shown are not last year’s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB201 3 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the sample this year. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 79 TRADING ACROSS BORDERS In economies around the world, trading across borders systems. These changes help improve the trading as measured by Doing Business has become faster and environment and boost firms’ international easier over the years. Governments have introduced competitiveness. What trade reforms has Doing tools to facilitate trade—including single windows, Business recorded in Hungary (table 9.1)? risk-based inspections and electronic data interchange Table 9.1 How has Hungary made trading across borders easier—or not? By Doing Business report year DB year Reform DB2009 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2010 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2011 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2012 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Hungary reduced the time to export and import by allowing DB2013 electronic submission of customs declarations and other documents. DB2014 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Note: For information on reforms in earlier years (back to DB2006), see the Doing Business reports for these years, available at http://www.doingbusiness.org. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 80 TRADING ACROSS BORDERS What are the details? The indicators reported here for Hungary are based LOCATION OF STANDARDIZED COMPANY on a set of specific procedural requirements for trading a standard shipment of goods by ocean transport (see the section in this chapter on what City: Budapest the indicators cover). Information on the procedures as well as the required documents and the time and cost to complete each procedure is The procedural requirements, and the associated time collected from local freight forwarders, shipping and cost, for exporting and importing a standard lines, customs brokers, port officials and banks. shipment of goods are listed in the summary below, along with the required documents. Summary of procedures and documents for trading across borders in Hungary Europe & Central OECD high income Indicator Hungary Asia average average Documents to export (number) 6 7 4 Time to export (days) 17 25 11 Cost to export (US$ per container) 885 2,109 1,070 Documents to import (number) 6 8 4 Time to import (days) 19 26 10 Cost to import (US$ per container) 845 2,339 1,090 Note: In cases where an economy’s regional classification is “OECD high income,” regional averages above are only displayed once. Procedures to export Time (days) Cost (US$) Documents preparation 6 175 Customs clearance and technical control 2 70 Ports and terminal handling 3 200 Inland transportation and handling 6 440 Totals 17 885 Procedures to import Time (days) Cost (US$) Documents preparation 9 115 Doing Business 2014 Hungary 81 Procedures to import Time (days) Cost (US$) Customs clearance and technical control 1 70 Ports and terminal handling 3 200 Inland transportation and handling 6 460 Totals 19 845 Documents to export Documents to import Bill of lading Bill of lading Certificate of Origin Commercial invoice Commercial invoice Customs import declaration Customs export declaration Customs transit document (T1)/ Railway bill (CIM) Packing list Packing list Terminal handling receipts Terminal handling receipts Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 82 ENFORCING CONTRACTS Effective commercial dispute resolution has many WHAT THE ENFORCING CONTRACTS benefits. Courts are essential for entrepreneurs INDICATORS MEASURE because they interpret the rules of the market and protect economic rights. Efficient and transparent Procedures to enforce a contract through courts encourage new business relationships the courts (number) because businesses know they can rely on the courts if a new customer fails to pay. Speedy trials Steps to file and serve the case are essential for small enterprises, which may lack Steps for trial and judgment the resources to stay in business while awaiting the outcome of a long court dispute. Steps to enforce the judgment Time required to complete procedures What do the indicators cover? (calendar days) Doing Business measures the efficiency of the Time to file and serve the case judicial system in resolving a commercial dispute before local courts. Following the step-by-step Time for trial and obtaining judgment evolution of a standardized case study, it collects Time to enforce the judgment data relating to the time, cost and procedural complexity of resolving a commercial lawsuit. The Cost required to complete procedures (% of ranking on the ease of enforcing contracts is the claim) simple average of the percentile rankings on its Average attorney fees component indicators: procedures, time and cost. Court costs The dispute in the case study involves the breach Enforcement costs of a sales contract between 2 domestic businesses. The case study assumes that the court hears an expert on the quality of the goods in dispute. This distinguishes the case from simple debt enforcement. To make the data comparable across economies, Doing Business uses several assumptions about the case:  The seller and buyer are located in the economy’s largest business city.  The dispute on the quality of the goods requires an expert opinion.  The buyer orders custom-made goods, then fails to pay.  The judge decides in favor of the seller; there is no appeal.  The seller sues the buyer before a competent court.  The seller enforces the judgment through a public sale of the buyer’s movable assets.  The value of the claim is 200% of income per capita.  The seller requests a pretrial attachment to secure the claim. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 83 ENFORCING CONTRACTS Where does the economy stand today? How efficient is the process of resolving a commercial Globally, Hungary stands at 15 in the ranking of 189 dispute through the courts in Hungary? According to economies on the ease of enforcing contracts (figure data collected by Doing Business, contract enforcement 10.1). The rankings for comparator economies and the takes 395 days, costs 15.0% of the value of the claim regional average ranking provide other useful and requires 35 procedures (see the summary at the benchmarks for assessing the efficiency of contract end of this chapter for details). enforcement in Hungary. Figure 10.1 How Hungary and comparator economies rank on the ease of enforcing contracts Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 84 ENFORCING CONTRACTS What are the changes over time? The benchmarks provided by the economies that over help show what is possible in improving the efficiency time have had the best performance regionally or of contract enforcement. And changes in regional globally on the number of steps, time or cost required averages can show where Hungary is keeping up—and to enforce a contract through the courts (figure 10.2) where it is falling behind. Figure 10.2 Has enforcing contracts become easier over time? Time (days) Cost (% of claim) Doing Business 2014 Hungary 85 ENFORCING CONTRACTS Procedures (number) Note: DB2013 rankings shown are not last year’s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB2013 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the sample this year. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 86 ENFORCING CONTRACTS Economies in all regions have improved contract often work on reducing backlogs by introducing enforcement in recent years. A judiciary can be periodic reviews to clear inactive cases from the docket improved in different ways. Higher-income economies and by making procedures faster. What reforms tend to look for ways to enhance efficiency by making it easier (or more difficult) to enforce contracts introducing new technology. Lower-income economies has Doing Business recorded in Hungary (table 10.1)? Table 10.1 How has Hungary made enforcing contracts easier—or not? By Doing Business report year DB year Reform DB2009 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2010 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2011 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2012 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2013 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2014 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Note: For information on reforms in earlier years (back to DB2005), see the Doing Business reports for these years, available at http://www.doingbusiness.org. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 87 ENFORCING CONTRACTS What are the details? The indicators reported here for Hungary are COURT NAME based on a set of specific procedural steps required to resolve a standardized commercial dispute through the courts (see the section in this City: Budapest chapter on what the indicators cover). These procedures, and the time and cost of completing Claim Value LCU: 5295334 them, are identified through study of the codes of civil procedure and other court regulations, as well Pest or Buda Central as through surveys completed by local litigation Court Name: District Court lawyers (and, in a quarter of the economies covered by Doing Business, by judges as well). The procedures for resolving a commercial lawsuit, and the associated time and cost, are listed in the summary below. Summary of procedures for enforcing a contract in Hungary—and the time and cost Europe & Central OECD high income Indicator Hungary Asia average average Time (days) 395 441 529 Filing and service 60 Trial and judgment 245 Enforcement of judgment 90 Cost (% of claim) 15.0 25.3 21.0 Attorney cost (% of claim) 5.0 Court cost (% of claim) 8.0 Enforcement Cost (% of claim) 2.0 Procedures (number) 35 37 31 Number of procedures (without bonus points) 36 Specialized commercial courts -1 Total number of procedures (including bonus 35 points) Note: In cases where an economy’s regional classification is “OECD high income,” regional averages above are only displayed once. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 88 ENFORCING CONTRACTS No. Procedure Filing and service: Plaintiff requests payment: Plaintiff or his lawyer asks Defendant orally or in writing to comply with the 1 contract. Mandatory conciliation or mediation: Plaintiff invites Defendant to settle the dispute. Because conciliation 2 or mediation fails, Plaintiff is required to submit a written document to the judge proving that conciliation or mediation- prior to initiating the lawsuit- has failed. 3 Plaintiff’s hiring of lawyer: Plaintiff hires a lawyer to represent him before the court. Plaintiff’s filing of summons and complaint: Plaintiff files his summons and co mplaint with the court, orally * or in writing. * Plaintiff’s payment of court fees: Plaintiff pays court duties, stamp duties, or any other type of court fee. Registration of court case: The court administration registers the lawsuit or court case. This includes 4 assigning a reference number to the lawsuit or court case. Assignment of court case to a judge: The court case is assigned to a specific judge through a random * procedure, automated system, ruling of an administrative judge, court officer, etc. Court scrutiny of summons and complaint: A judge examines Plaintiff's summons and complaint for 5 formal requirements. Judge admits summons and complaint: After verifying the formal requirements, the judge decides to * admit Plaintiff’s summons and complaint. Mailing of summons and complaint: Court or process server, including (private) bailiff, mails summons * and complaint to Defendant. Trial and judgment: Plaintiff’s answer to preliminary exemptions: Plaintiff responds to the preliminary exempt ions raised by * Defendant. Judge’s resolution on preliminary exemptions: Judge decides on preliminary exemptions separately from 6 the merits of the case. Defendant’s filing of defense or answer to Plaintiff’s claim: Defendant files a written pleading w hich includes his defense or answer on the merits of the case. Defendant's written answer may or may not 7 include witness statements, expert statements, the documents Defendant relies on as evidence and the legal authori Filing of pleadings: Plaintiff and Defendant file written pleadings and submissions with the court and 8 transmit copies of the written pleadings or submissions to one another. The pleadings may or may not include witness statements or expert (witness) statements. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 89 No. Procedure Court appointment of independent expert: Judge appoints, either at the parties' request or at his own * initiative, an independent expert to decide whether the quality of the goods Plaintiff delivered to Defendant is adequate. (see assumption 6-b of this case) Notification of court-appointment of independent expert: The court notifies both parties that the court is 9 appointing an independent expert. (see assumption 6-b of this case) Delivery of expert report by court-appointed expert: The independent expert appointed by the court * delivers his or her expert report to the court. (see assumption 6-b of this case) * Setting of date(s) for oral hearing or trial: The judge sets the date(s) for the oral hearing or trial. * List of (expert) witnesses: The parties file a list of (expert) witnesses with the court. (see assumption 6-a) Summoning of (expert) witnesses: The court summons (expert) witnesses to appear in court for the oral 10 hearing or trial. (see assumption 6-a) Oral hearing (prevalent in civil law): The parties argue the merits of the case at an oral hearing before the 11 judge. Witnesses and a court-appointed independent expert may be heard and questioned at the oral hearing. Adjournments: Court proceedings are delayed because one or both parties request and obtain an 12 adjournment during the oral hearing or trial, resulting in an additional or later trial or hearing date. 13 Closing of the evidence period: The court makes the formal decision to close the evidence period. Final arguments: The parties present their final factual and legal arguments to the court either by oral * presentation or by a written submission. 14 Notification of judgment in court: The parties are notified of the judgment at a court hearing. 15 Writing of judgment: The judge produces a written copy of the judgment. Court notification of availability of the written judgment: The court notifies the parties that the written 16 judgment is available at the courthouse. 17 Plaintiff's receipt of a copy of written judgment: Plaintiff receives a copy of the written judgment. Notification of Defendant of judgment: Plaintiff or court formally notifies the Defendant of the judgment. 18 The appeal period starts to run the day the Defendant is formally notified of the judgment. Appeal period: By law, Defendant has the opportunity to appeal the judgment during a period specified in 19 the law. Defendant decides not to appeal. Judgment becomes final the day the appeal period ends. Reimbursement by Defendant of Plaintiff's court fees: The judgment obliges Defendant to reimburse 20 Plaintiff for the court fees Plaintiff has advanced, because Defendant has lost the case. Enforcement of judgment: Plaintiff’s hiring of lawyer: Plaintiff hires a lawyer to enforce the judgment or continues to be represente d * by a lawyer during the enforcement of judgment phase. Plaintiff’s request for enforcement order: Plaintiff applies to the court to obtain the enforcement order * ('seal' on judgment). Doing Business 2014 Hungary 90 No. Procedure Plaintiff’s advancement of enforcement fees: Plaintiff pays the fees related to the enforcement of the 21 judgment. Attachment of enforcement order to judgment: The judge attaches the enforcement order (‘seal’) to the 22 judgment. Delivery of enforcement order: The court's enforcement order is delivered to a court enforcement officer * or a (private) bailiff. Request to Defendant to comply voluntarily with judgment: Plaintiff, a court enforcement officer or a 23 (private) bailiff requests Defendant to voluntarily comply with the judgment, giving Defendant a last chance to comply voluntarily with the judgment. Identification of Defendant's assets for attachment by court official or Defendant: Judge, a court 24 enforcement officer, a (private) bailiff or the Defendant himself identifies Defendant's movable assets for attachment. Contestation of selection of assets identified for attachment: The party, Plaintiff or Defendant, who was 25 not involved in the designation of the assets to be attached, contests the selection of assets for attachment. Plaintiff’s identification of Defendant's assets for attachment: Plaintiff identifies Defendant's assets for 26 attachment. Notification of intent to attach: A court enforcement officer or (private) bailiff notifies other creditors of 27 the intent to attach Defendant's goods. Attachment: Defendant’s movable goods are attached (physically or by registering, marking or separating 28 assets). Report on execution of attachment: A court enforcement officer or private process server delivers a report 29 on the attachment of Defendant's movable goods to the judge. Valuation or appraisal of attached movable goods: The court or court appointed valuation expert 30 evaluates the attached goods. Enforcement disputes before court: The enforcement of the judgment is delayed because Defendant 31 opposes aspects of the enforcement process before the judge. Call for public auction: The judge calls a public auction by, for example, advertising or publication in the 32 newspapers. 33 Sale through public auction: The Defendant’s movable property is sold at public auction. Distribution of proceeds: The proceeds of the public auction are distributed to various creditors (including 34 Plaintiff), according to the rules of priority. Reimbursement of Plaintiff’s enforcement fees: Defendant reimburses Plaintiff's enforcement fees which 35 Plaintiff had advanced previously. 36 Payment: Court orders that the proceeds of the public auction or the direct sale be delivered to Plaintiff. * Not counted in the total number of procedures. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 91 RESOLVING INSOLVENCY A robust bankruptcy system functions as a filter, WHAT THE RESOLVING INSOLVENCY ensuring the survival of economically efficient companies and reallocating the resources of INDICATORS MEASURE inefficient ones. Fast and cheap insolvency proceedings result in the speedy return of Time required to recover debt (years) businesses to normal operation and increase Measured in calendar years returns to creditors. By improving the expectations of creditors and debtors about the outcome of Appeals and requests for extension are insolvency proceedings, well-functioning included insolvency systems can facilitate access to finance, Cost required to recover debt (% of debtor’s save more viable businesses and thereby improve estate) growth and sustainability in the economy overall. Measured as percentage of estate value What do the indicators cover? Court fees Doing Business studies the time, cost and outcome Fees of insolvency administrators of insolvency proceedings involving domestic entities. It does not measure insolvency Lawyers’ fees proceedings of individuals and financial Assessors’ and auctioneers’ fees institutions. The data are derived from survey Other related fees responses by local insolvency practitioners and verified through a study of laws and regulations as Outcome well as public information on bankruptcy systems. Whether business continues operating as a The ranking on the ease of resolving insolvency is going concern or business assets are sold based on the recovery rate, which is recorded as piecemeal cents on the dollar recouped by creditors through Recovery rate for creditors (cents on the reorganization, liquidation or debt enforcement dollar) (foreclosure) proceedings. The recovery rate is a Measures the cents on the dollar recovered function of time, cost and other factors, such as by creditors lending rate and the likelihood of the company continuing to operate. Present value of debt recovered To make the data comparable across economies, Official costs of the insolvency proceedings Doing Business uses several assumptions about the are deducted business and the case. It assumes that the Depreciation of furniture is taken into company: account  Is a domestically owned, limited liability Outcome for the business (survival or not) company operating a hotel. affects the maximum value that can be recovered  Operates in the economy’s largest business city.  Has 201 employees, 1 main secured  Has a higher value as a going concern—and creditor and 50 unsecured creditors. the efficient outcome is either reorganization or sale as a going concern, not piecemeal liquidation. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 92 RESOLVING INSOLVENCY Where does the economy stand today? Speed, low costs and continuation of viable businesses piecemeal sale. The average recovery rate is 38.3 cents characterize the top-performing economies. How on the dollar. efficient are insolvency proceedings in Hungary? Globally, Hungary stands at 70 in the ranking of 189 According to data collected by Doing Business, economies on the ease of resolving insolvency (figure resolving insolvency takes 2.0 years on average and 11.1). The rankings for comparator economies and the costs 15% of the debtor’s estate, with the most likely regional average ranking provide other useful outcome being that the company will be sold as benchmarks for assessing the efficiency of insolvency proceedings in Hungary. Figure 11.1 How Hungary and comparator economies rank on the ease of resolving insolvency Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 93 RESOLVING INSOLVENCY What are the changes over time? The benchmarks provided by the economies that over possible in improving the efficiency of insolvency time have had the best performance regionally or proceedings. And changes in regional averages can globally on the time or cost of insolvency proceedings show where Hungary is keeping up—and where it is or on the recovery rate (figure 11.2) help show what is falling behind. Figure 11.2 Has resolving insolvency become easier over time? Time (years) Cost (% of estate) Doing Business 2014 Hungary 94 RESOLVING INSOLVENCY Recovery rate (cents on the dollar) Note: DB2013 rankings shown are not last year’s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB2013 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the sample this year. “No practice” indicates that in each of the previous 5 years the economy had no cases involving a judicial reorganization, judicial liquidation or debt enforcement procedure (foreclosure). This means that creditors are unlikely to recover their money through a formal legal process (in or out of court). The recovery rate for “no practice” economies is 0. Regional averages on time and cost exclude economies with a “no practice” mark. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 95 RESOLVING INSOLVENCY A well-balanced bankruptcy system distinguishes change. Many recent reforms of bankruptcy laws have companies that are financially distressed but been aimed at helping more of the viable businesses economically viable from inefficient companies that survive. What insolvency reforms has Doing Business should be liquidated. But in some insolvency systems recorded in Hungary (table 11.1)? even viable businesses are liquidated. This is starting to Table 11.1 How has Hungary made resolving insolvency easier—or not? By Doing Business report year DB year Reform DB2009 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2010 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Amendments to Hungary’s bankruptcy law encourage DB2011 insolvent companies to consider reaching agreements with creditors out of court so as to avoid bankruptcy. DB2012 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2013 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2014 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Note: For information on reforms in earlier years (back to DB2005), see the Doing Business reports for these years, available at http://www.doingbusiness.org. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 96 EMPLOYING WORKERS Doing Business measures flexibility in the regulation of employing workers methodology proposed by the employment, specifically as it affects the hiring and consultative group are available on the Doing Business redundancy of workers and the rigidity of working website (http://www.doingbusiness.org). The data on hours. Over the period from 2007 to 2011 employing workers are based on a detailed survey of improvements were made to align the methodology employment regulations that is completed by local for the employing workers indicators with the letter lawyers and public officials. Employment laws and and spirit of the International Labour Organization regulations as well as secondary sources are reviewed (ILO) conventions. Only 4 of the 188 ILO conventions to ensure accuracy. cover areas measured by Doing Business: employee To make the data comparable across economies, termination, weekend work, holiday with pay and night several assumptions about the worker and the work. The Doing Business methodology is fully business are used. consistent with these 4 conventions. The ILO conventions covering areas related to the Employing The worker: Workers indicators do not include the ILO core labor  Earns a salary plus benefits equal to the standards—8 conventions covering the right to economy’s average wage during the entire collective bargaining, the elimination of forced labor, period of his employment. the abolition of child labor and equitable treatment in  Has a pay period that is the most common for workers in the economy. employment practices.  Is a lawful citizen who belongs to the same race and religion as the majority of the Between 2009 and 2011 the World Bank Group worked economy’s population. with a consultative group—including labor lawyers,  Resides in the economy’s largest business city. employer and employee representatives, and experts  Is not a member of a labor union, unless from the ILO, OECD, civil society and the private membership is mandatory. sector—to review the employing workers methodology and explore future areas of research. A i The business:  Is a limited liability company. full report with the conclusions of the consultative  Operates in the economy’s largest business group is available at city. http://www.doingbusiness.org/methodology/employin  Is 100% domestically owned. g-workers.  Operates in the manufacturing sector.  Has 60 employees. This year Doing Business continued research collecting  Is subject to collective bargaining agreements additional data on regulations covering the in economies where such agreements cover probationary period for new employees. more than half the manufacturing sector and apply even to firms not party to them. Doing Business 2014 presents the data on the  Abides by every law and regulation but does not grant workers more benefits than employing workers indicators in an annex. The report mandated by law, regulation or (if applicable) does not present rankings of economies on the collective bargaining agreement. employing workers indicators nor include the topic in the aggregate ranking on the ease of doing business. Detailed data collected on labor regulations and the Doing Business 2014 Hungary 97 EMPLOYING WORKERS What do some of the data show? One of the employing workers indicators is the worker in his or her first job. Doing Business data show difficulty of hiring index. This measure assesses, among the trend in the minimum wage applied by Hungary other things, the minimum wage for a 19-year-old (figure 12.1). Figure 12.1 Has the minimum wage for a 19-year-old worker or an apprentice increased over time? Minimum wage (US$ per month) Note: A horizontal line along the x-axis of the figure indicates that the economy has no minimum wage. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 98 EMPLOYING WORKERS Employment laws are needed to protect workers from past 5 years did so in ways that increased labor market arbitrary or unfair treatment and to ensure efficient flexibility. What changes did Hungary adopt that contracting between employers and workers. Many affected the Doing Business indicators on employing economies that changed their labor regulations in the workers (table 12.1)? Table 12.1 What changes did Hungary make in employing workers in 2013? DB year Reform DB2009 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2010 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2011 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2012 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2013 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Hungary reduced the premium for night work and weekly DB2014 holiday work and increased the minimum wage. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 99 EMPLOYING WORKERS What are the details? The data on employing workers reported here for lawyers and public officials. Employment laws and Hungary are based on a detailed survey of regulations as well as secondary sources are reviewed employment regulations that is completed by local to ensure accuracy. Rigidity of employment index The rigidity of employment index measures 3 areas of labor regulation: difficulty of hiring, rigidity of hours and difficulty of redundancy. Difficulty of hiring index The difficulty of hiring index measures whether fixed- worker. (The average value added per worker is the term contracts are prohibited for permanent tasks; the ratio of an economy’s gross national income per capita maximum cumulative duration of fixed-term contracts; to the working-age population as a percentage of the and the ratio of the minimum wage for a trainee or total population.) first-time employee to the average value added per Difficulty of hiring index Data Fixed-term contracts prohibited for permanent tasks? No 60 months with a derogation if the contract is subject to official approval, in which case the term is that which was Maximum length of a single fixed-term contract (months) officially approved, which may exceed 5 years, § 192 of the Act I of 2012 on the Labor Code Maximum length of fixed-term contracts, including renewals (months) 60 Minimum wage for a 19-year old worker or an apprentice (US$/month) 456.6 Ratio of minimum wage to value added per worker 0.30 Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 100 EMPLOYING WORKERS Rigidity of hours index The rigidity of hours index has 5 components: whether respond to a seasonal increase in production; and there are restrictions on night work; whether there are whether the average paid annual leave for a worker restrictions on weekly holiday work; whether the with 1 year of tenure, a worker with 5 years and a workweek can consist of 5.5 days or is more than 6 worker with 10 years is more than 26 working days or days; whether the workweek can extend to 50 hours or fewer than 15 working days. more (including overtime) for 2 months a year to Rigidity of hours index Data 8 hours (Section 92 (1) of the Act I of Standard workday in manufacturing (hours) the 2012 Labor Code) 50-hour workweek allowed for 2 months a year in case of a seasonal No increase in production? Maximum working days per week 5.0 Premium for night work (% of hourly pay) in case of continuous 30% operations Premium for work on weekly rest day (% of hourly pay) in case of 50% continuous operations Major restrictions on night work in case of continuous operations? No Major restrictions on weekly holiday in case of continuous operations? No Paid annual leave for a worker with 1 year of tenure (in working days) 20.0 Paid annual leave for a worker with 5 years of tenure (in working days) 21.0 Paid annual leave for a worker with 10 years of tenure (in working days) 23.0 Paid annual leave (average for workers with 1, 5 and 10 years of tenure, in 21.3 working days) Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 101 EMPLOYING WORKERS Difficulty of redundancy index The difficulty of redundancy index has 8 components: worker; whether the employer needs approval from a whether redundancy is disallowed as a basis for third party to terminate a group of 9 redundant terminating workers; whether the employer needs to workers; whether the law requires the employer to notify a third party (such as a government agency) to reassign or retrain a worker before making the worker terminate 1 redundant worker; whether the employer redundant; whether priority rules apply for needs to notify a third party to terminate a group of 9 redundancies; and whether priority rules apply for redundant workers; whether the employer needs reemployment. approval from a third party to terminate 1 redundant Difficulty of redundancy index Data Dismissal due to redundancy allowed by law? Yes Third-party notification if 1 worker is dismissed? No Third-party approval if 1 worker is dismissed? No Third-party notification if 9 workers are dismissed? No Third-party approval if 9 workers are dismissed? No Retraining or reassignment obligation before redundancy? No Priority rules for redundancies? No Priority rules for reemployment? No Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 102 EMPLOYING WORKERS Redundancy cost The redundancy cost indicator measures the cost of notice requirements and severance payments advance notice requirements, severance payments and applicable to a worker with 1 year of tenure, a worker penalties due when terminating a redundant worker, with 5 years and a worker with 10 years is used to expressed in weeks of salary. The average value of assign the score. Redundancy cost indicator Data Notice period for redundancy dismissal (for a worker with 1 year of tenure, in salary 4.3 weeks) Notice period for redundancy dismissal (for a worker with 5 years of tenure, in 6.4 salary weeks) Notice period for redundancy dismissal (for a worker with 10 years of tenure, in 7.9 salary weeks) Notice period for redundancy dismissal (average for workers with 1, 5 and 10 years 6.2 of tenure, in salary weeks) Severance pay for redundancy dismissal (for a worker with 1 year of tenure, in 0.0 salary weeks) Severance pay for redundancy dismissal (for a worker with 5 years of tenure, in 8.7 salary weeks) Severance pay for redundancy dismissal (for a worker with 10 years of tenure, in 13.0 salary weeks) Severance pay for redundancy dismissal (average for workers with 1, 5 and 10 years 7.2 of tenure, in salary weeks) Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 103 DATA NOTES The indicators presented and analyzed in Doing rounds of verification, leading to revisions or Business measure business regulation and the expansions of the information collected. protection of property rights—and their effect on businesses, especially small and medium-size domestic firms. First, the indicators document the complexity of ECONOMY CHARACTERISTICS regulation, such as the number of procedures to start a business or to register and transfer commercial property. Second, they gauge the time and cost to Gross national income per capita achieve a regulatory goal or comply with regulation, such as the time and cost to enforce a contract, go Doing Business 2014 reports 2012 income per capita through bankruptcy or trade across borders. Third, as published in the World Bank’s World Development they measure the extent of legal protections of Indicators 2013. Income is calculated using the Atlas property, for example, the protections of investors method (current U.S. dollars). For cost indicators against looting by company directors or the range of expressed as a percentage of income per capita, assets that can be used as collateral according to 2012 gross national income (GNI) in U.S. dollars is secured transactions laws. Fourth, a set of indicators used as the denominator. GNI data were not documents the tax burden on businesses. Finally, a set available from the World Bank for Afghanistan, The of data covers different aspects of employment Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Brunei Darussalam, regulation. The 11 sets of indicators measured in Djibouti, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Doing Business were added over time, and the sample Myanmar, New Zealand, Oman, San Marino, the of economies expanded. Syrian Arab Republic, West Bank and Gaza, and the Republic of Yemen. In these cases GDP or GNP per The data for all sets of indicators in Doing Business 2 capita data and growth rates from other sources, 2014 are for June 2013. such as the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook database and the Economist Intelligence Unit, were used. Methodology Region and income group The Doing Business data are collected in a standardized way. To start, the Doing Business team, Doing Business uses the World Bank regional and with academic advisers, designs a questionnaire. The income group classifications, available at questionnaire uses a simple business case to ensure http://data.worldbank.org/about/country- classifications. The World Bank does not assign comparability across economies and over time—with regional classifications to high-income economies. assumptions about the legal form of the business, its For the purpose of the Doing Business report, high- size, its location and the nature of its operations. income OECD economies are assigned the “regional” Questionnaires are administered to more than 10,200 classification OECD high income. Figures and tables local experts, including lawyers, business consultants, presenting regional averages include economies accountants, freight forwarders, government officials from all income groups (low, lower middle, upper and other professionals routinely administering or middle and high income). advising on legal and regulatory requirements (table Population 21.2). These experts have several rounds of interaction with the Doing Business team, involving conference Doing Business 2014 reports midyear 2012 calls, written correspondence and visits by the team. population statistics as published in World For Doing Business 2014 team members visited 33 Development Indicators 2013. economies to verify data and recruit respondents. The data from questionnaires are subjected to numerous The Doing Business methodology offers several advantages. It is transparent, using factual information about what laws and regulations say and allowing 2 The data for paying taxes refer to January – December 2012. multiple interactions with local respondents to clarify Doing Business 2014 Hungary 104 potential misinterpretations of questions. Having entrepreneurs reported in the World Bank Enterprise representative samples of respondents is not an issue; Surveys or other perception surveys. Doing Business is not a statistical survey, and the texts This year Doing Business completed subnational of the relevant laws and regulations are collected and studies in Colombia, Italy and the city of Hargeisa answers checked for accuracy. The methodology is (Somaliland) and is currently updating indicators in inexpensive and easily replicable, so data can be Egypt, Mexico and Nigeria. Doing Business also collected in a large sample of economies. Because published regional studies for the g7+ and the East standard assumptions are used in the data collection, African Community. The g7+ group is a country- comparisons and benchmarks are valid across owned and country-led global mechanism established economies. Finally, the data not only highlight the in April 2010 to monitor, report and draw attention to extent of specific regulatory obstacles to business but the unique challenges faced by fragile states. The also identify their source and point to what might be member countries included in the report are reformed. Information on the methodology for each Afghanistan, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Doing Business topic can be found on the Doing Chad, the Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Business website at Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, http://www.doingbusiness.org/methodology. Liberia, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, the Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Timor-Leste and Togo. Limits to what is measured The subnational studies point to differences in business regulation and its implementation —as well as The Doing Business methodology has 5 limitations that in the pace of regulatory reform—across cities in the should be considered when interpreting the data. First, same economy. For several economies subnational the collected data refer to businesses in the economy’s studies are now periodically updated to measure largest business city (which in some economies differs change over time or to expand geographic coverage from the capital) and may not be representative of to additional cities. This year that is the case for all the regulation in other parts of the economy. To address subnational studies published. this limitation, subnational Doing Business indicators were created (box 21.1). Second, the data often focus on a specific business form—generally a limited liability company (or its legal equivalent) of a specified Changes in what is measured size—and may not be representative of the regulation The methodology for 2 indicator sets—trading across on other businesses, for example, sole proprietorships. borders and paying taxes—was updated this year. For Third, transactions described in a standardized case trading across borders, documents that are required scenario refer to a specific set of issues and may not purely for purposes of preferential treatment are no represent the full set of issues a business encounters. longer included in the list of documents (for example, Fourth, the measures of time involve an element of a certificate of origin if the use is only to qualify for a judgment by the expert respondents. When sources preferential tariff rate under trade agreements). For indicate different estimates, the time indicators paying taxes, the value of fuel taxes is no longer reported in Doing Business represent the median included in the total tax rate because of the difficulty values of several responses given under the of computing these taxes in a consistent way across all assumptions of the standardized case. economies covered. The fuel tax amounts are in most cases very small, and measuring these amounts is Finally, the methodology assumes that a business has often complicated because they depend on fuel full information on what is required and does not consumption. Fuel taxes continue to be counted in the waste time when completing procedures. In practice, number of payments. completing a procedure may take longer if the business lacks information or is unable to follow up In a change involving several indicator sets, the rule promptly. Alternatively, the business may choose to establishing that each procedure must take at least 1 disregard some burdensome procedures. For both day was removed for procedures that can be fully reasons the time delays reported in Doing Business completed online in just a few hours. This change 2014 would differ from the recollection of affects the time indicator for starting a business, Doing Business 2014 Hungary 105 dealing with construction permits and registering with one another, while the distance to frontier property. For procedures that can be fully completed measure benchmarks economies to the frontier in 3 online, the duration is now set at half a day rather than regulatory practice, measuring the absolute distance to a full day. the best performance on each indicator. Both measures can be used for comparisons over time. The threshold for the total tax rate introduced in 2011 When compared across years, the distance to frontier for the purpose of calculating the ranking on the ease measure shows how much the regulatory environment of paying taxes was updated. All economies with a for local entrepreneurs in each economy has changed total tax rate below the threshold (which is calculated over time in absolute terms, while the ease of doing and adjusted on a yearly basis) receive the same business ranking can show only relative change. ranking on the total tax rate indicator. The threshold is not based on any economic theory of an “optimal tax Ease of doing business rate” that minimizes distortions or maximizes efficiency The ease of doing business index ranks economies in the tax system of an economy overall. Instead, it is from 1 to 189. For each economy the ranking is mainly empirical in nature, set at the lower end of the calculated as the simple average of the percentile distribution of tax rates levied on medium-size rankings on each of the 10 topics included in the index enterprises in the manufacturing sector as observed in Doing Business 2014: starting a business, dealing through the paying taxes indicators. This reduces the with construction permits, getting electricity, bias in the indicators toward economies that do not registering property, getting credit, protecting need to levy significant taxes on companies like the investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, Doing Business standardized case study company enforcing contracts, and resolving insolvency. The because they raise public revenue in other ways—for employing workers indicators are not included in this example, through taxes on foreign companies, through year’s aggregate ease of doing business ranking. taxes on sectors other than manufacturing or from natural resources (all of which are outside the scope of Construction of the ease of doing business index the methodology). This year the threshold is 25,5%. Here is one example of how the ease of doing business index is constructed. In Denmark it takes 4 procedures, 5.5 days and 0.2% of annual income per capita in fees Data challenges and revisions to open a business. The minimum capital requirement Most laws and regulations underlying the Doing is 24% of annual income per capita. On these 4 Business data are available on the Doing Business indicators Denmark ranks in the 12th, 11th, 1st and website at http://www.doingbusiness.org. All the 79th percentiles. So on average Denmark ranks in the sample questionnaires and the details underlying the 25th percentile on the ease of starting a business. It indicators are also published on the website. Questions ranks in the 21st percentile on getting credit, 19th on the methodology and challenges to data can be percentile on paying taxes, 27th percentile on submitted through the website’s “Ask a Question” enforcing contracts, 5th percentile on resolving function at http://www.doingbusiness.org. insolvency and so on. Higher rankings indicate simpler regulation and stronger protection of property rights. Ease of doing business and distance to The simple average of Denmark’s percentile rankings frontier on all topics is 17th. When all economies are ordered Doing Business 2014 presents results for 2 aggregate by their average percentile rankings, Denmark stands measures: the aggregate ranking on the ease of doing at 5 in the aggregate ranking on the ease of doing business and the distance to frontier measure. The business. ease of doing business ranking compares economies More complex aggregation methods—such as 3 For getting electricity the rule that each procedure must take a principal components and unobserved components— minimum of 1 day still applies because in practice there are no yield a ranking nearly identical to the simple average cases in which procedures can be fully completed online in less than a day. For example, even though in some cases it is possible to apply for an electricity connection online, additional requirements mean that the process cannot be completed in less than 1 day. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 106 4 used by Doing Business. Thus, Doing Business uses 58 on enforcing contracts, 116 on dealing with the simplest method: weighting all topics equally and, construction permits and 145 on getting electricity. within each topic, giving equal weight to each of the Variation in performance across the indicator sets is topic components. not at all unusual. It reflects differences in the degree If an economy has no laws or regulations covering a of priority that government authorities give to specific area—for example, insolvency—it receives a particular areas of business regulation reform and the “no practice” mark. Similarly, an economy receives a ability of different government agencies to deliver “no practice” or “not possible” mark if regulation exists tangible results in their area of responsibility. but is never used in practice or if a competing Distance to frontier measure regulation prohibits such practice. Either way, a “no practice” mark puts the economy at the bottom of the A drawback of the ease of doing business ranking is ranking on the relevant indicator. that it can measure the regulatory performance of economies only relative to the performance of others. The ease of doing business index is limited in scope. It It does not provide information on how the absolute does not account for an economy’s proximity to large quality of the regulatory environment is improving markets, the quality of its infrastructure services (other over time. Nor does it provide information on how than services related to trading across borders and large the gaps are between economies at a single getting electricity), the strength of its financial system, point in time. the security of property from theft and looting, macroeconomic conditions or the strength of The distance to frontier measure is designed to underlying institutions. address both shortcomings, complementing the ease of doing business ranking. This measure illustrates the Variability of economies’ rankings across topics distance of an economy to the “frontier,” and the Each indicator set measures a different aspect of the change in the measure over time shows the extent to business regulatory environment. The rankings of an which the economy has closed this gap. The frontier is economy can vary, sometimes significantly, across a score derived from the most efficient practice or indicator sets. The average correlation coefficient highest score achieved on each of the component between the 10 indicator sets included in the indicators in 10 Doing Business indicator sets aggregate ranking is 0.38, and the coefficients (excluding the employing workers indicators) by any between any 2 sets of indicators range from 0.18 economy. In starting a business, for example, Canada (between getting electricity and getting credit) to 0.58 and New Zealand have achieved the highest (between trading across borders and resolving performance on the number of procedures required (1) insolvency and between trading across borders and and on the time (0.5 days), Denmark and Slovenia on getting electricity). These correlations suggest that the cost (0% of income per capita) and Chile, Zambia economies rarely score universally well or universally and 99 other economies on the paid-in minimum badly on the indicators. capital requirement (0% of income per capita) (table 22.2). Consider the example of Canada. It stands at 19 in the aggregate ranking on the ease of doing business. Its Calculating the distance to frontier for each economy ranking is 2 on starting a business, 4 on protecting involves 2 main steps. First, individual indicator scores investors, and 8 on paying taxes. But its ranking is only are normalized to a common unit: except for the total tax rate, each of the 31 component indicators y is rescaled to (max − y)/(max − min), with the minimum 4 See Simeon Djankov, Darshini Manraj, Caralee McLiesh and Rita Ramalho, “Doing Business Indicators: Why Aggregate, and How to value (min) representing the frontier—the highest Do It” (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005). Principal components performance on that indicator across all economies and unobserved components methods yield a ranking nearly since 2003 or the first year the indicator was collected. 5 identical to that from the simple average method because both these methods assign roughly equal weights to the topics, since the For the total tax rate, consistent with the calculation of pairwise correlations among indicators do not differ much. An alternative to the simple average method is to give different weights to the topics, depending on which are considered of more or less 5 Even though scores for the distance to frontier are calculated from importance in the context of a specific economy. 2005, data from as early as 2003 are used to define the frontier Doing Business 2014 Hungary 107 the rankings, the frontier is defined as the total tax rate Economies that improved the most across 3 or at the 15th percentile of the overall distribution of more Doing Business topics in 2012/13 total tax rates for all years. Second, for each economy Doing Business 2014 uses a simple method to calculate the scores obtained for individual indicators are which economies improved the most in the ease of aggregated through simple averaging into one doing business. First, it selects the economies that in distance to frontier score, first for each topic and then 2012/13 implemented regulatory reforms making it across all topics. An economy’s distance to frontier is easier to do business in 3 or more of the 10 topics indicated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents included in this year’s ease of doing business ranking. 6 the lowest performance and 100 the frontier. Twenty-nine economies meet this criterion: Azerbaijan, The maximum (max) and minimum (min) observed Belarus, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Djibouti, values are computed for all economies included in the Gabon, Guatemala, Guinea, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, the Doing Business sample since 2003 and for all years former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Malaysia, (from 2003 to 2013). To mitigate the effects of extreme Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, outliers in the distributions of the rescaled data (very Panama, the Philippines, the Republic of Congo, few economies need 694 days to complete the Romania, the Russian Federation, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, procedures to start a business, but many need 9 days), Ukraine, Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates. th the maximum (max) is defined as the 95 percentile of Second, Doing Business sorts these economies on the the pooled data for all economies and all years for increase in their distance to frontier measure from the each indicator. The exceptions are the getting credit, previous year using comparable data. protecting investors and resolving insolvency Selecting the economies that implemented regulatory indicators, whose construction precludes outliers. In reforms in at least 3 topics and improved the most in addition, the cost to export and cost to import for each the distance to frontier measure is intended to year are divided by the GDP deflator, so as to take the highlight economies with ongoing, broadbased reform general price level into account when benchmarking programs. The criterion for identifying the top these absolute-cost indicators across economies with improvers was changed from last year. The different inflation trends. The base year for the deflator improvement in ease of doing business ranking is no is 2013 for all economies. longer used. The improvement in the distance to The difference between an economy’s distance to frontier measure is used instead because under this frontier score in any previous year and its score in measure economies are sorted according to their abs- 2013 illustrates the extent to which the economy has olute improvement instead of relative improvement. closed the gap to the frontier over time. And in any given year the score measures how far an economy is from the highest performance at that time. Take Colombia, which has a score of 70.5 on the distance to frontier measure for 2014. This score indicates that the economy is 29.5 percentage points away from the frontier constructed from the best performances across all economies and all years. Colombia was further from the frontier in 2009, with a score of 66.2. The difference between the scores shows an improvement over time. The distance to frontier measure can also be used for comparisons across economies in the same year, complementing the ease of doing business ranking. For example, Colombia stands at 63 this year in the ease of doing business ranking, while Peru, which is 6 Doing Business reforms making it more difficult to do business are 29.3 percentage points from the frontier, stands at 42. subtracted from the total number of those making it easier to do business. Doing Business 2014 Hungary 109 RESOURCES ON THE DOING BUSINESS WEBSITE Current features Doing Business reforms News on the Doing Business project Short summaries of DB2014 business regulation http://www.doingbusiness.org reforms, lists of reforms since DB2008 and a ranking simulation tool Rankings http://www.doingbusiness.org/reforms/ How economies rank—from 1 to 189 http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings/ Historical data Customized data sets since DB2004 Data http://www.doingbusiness.org/custom-query/ All the data for 189 economies—topic rankings, indicator values, lists of regulatory procedures and Law library details underlying indicators Online collection of business laws and regulations http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/ relating to business and gender issues http://www.doingbusiness.org/law-library/ Reports http://wbl.worldbank.org/ Access to Doing Business reports as well as subnational and regional reports, reform case Contributors studies and customized economy and regional More than 10,200 specialists in 189 economies profiles who participate in Doing Business http://www.doingbusiness.org/reports/ http://www.doingbusiness.org/contributors/doing- business/ Methodology The methodologies and research papers Entrepreneurship data underlying Doing Business Data on business density for 139 economies http://www.doingbusiness.org/methodology/ http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploretopics/e ntrepreneurship Research Abstracts of papers on Doing Business topics and Doing Business iPhone App related policy issues Doing Business at a Glance App presents the full http://www.doingbusiness.org/research/ report, rankings and highlights http://www.doingbusiness.org/specialfeatures/ iphone Doing Business 2014 Hungary 110