Hello , start a business in Budpest

Hello!

You definitely need someone who speaks (and writes) hungarian, different permits and tax payment application and registration of the company requires someone who speak the language. I strongly recommend to contact a business lawyer at first!

What type of business is company in? I always get suprised if anyone speaks english, except the tourist places.

I have a lot of connections in Hungary and I am in the process of starting my own business in Budapest so dont hesitate to contact med if you have any questions I might be able to answer from a non hungarian view!

/Frida

charissweetie wrote:

Hello everyone , I am new here and asking for some help , thanks in advance for any help offered .

My company consider to set an office or form a company in Hungary , but no one understand local language  , is English common there？ Can we use English for daily life and business ? I have lot of questions in my head , but I may just start it with this though .Thanks

No, you need to speak Hungarian if you want to do commercial sales in Hungary. You might get away with speaking German here and there. But if you want to work here, learn Hungarian. There's a big Chinese community in Budapest. I think you could find people speaking say, Mandarin, and Hungarian, who would bridge the gap.

I noticed that many speak english in Hungary, even in government offices. I never learnt hungarian but english just works out. If you want to run business, there are many procedures and paperwork involved, like office seat, office rental, company articles, and about 500,000 Ft capital to run a Kft, similar like LLC. If you need any help with company incorporation, please see helpers.hu and they might be able to help you out.

FridaH wrote:

Hello!

You definitely need someone who speaks (and writes) hungarian, different permits and tax payment application and registration of the company requires someone who speak the language. I strongly recommend to contact a business lawyer at first!

What type of business is company in? I always get suprised if anyone speaks english, except the tourist places.

I have a lot of connections in Hungary and I am in the process of starting my own business in Budapest so dont hesitate to contact med if you have any questions I might be able to answer from a non hungarian view!

/Frida

Hi Frida , thanks so much for your offer , we are a machinery manufacturer in China , as business grows . it's time to consider a demo center and service center in Europe . We like the location of Hungary , but not sure If the general environment friendly to foreign companies or not.  Do you have any suggestion ?  Thanks

fluffy2560 wrote:

charissweetie wrote:

Hello everyone , I am new here and asking for some help , thanks in advance for any help offered .

My company consider to set an office or form a company in Hungary , but no one understand local language  , is English common there？ Can we use English for daily life and business ? I have lot of questions in my head , but I may just start it with this though .Thanks

No, you need to speak Hungarian if you want to do commercial sales in Hungary. You might get away with speaking German here and there. But if you want to work here, learn Hungarian. There's a big Chinese community in Budapest. I think you could find people speaking say, Mandarin, and Hungarian, who would bridge the gap.

Hi , thanks very much , yes , I also knew there is a big community in Budapest ( saw it on TV:)), we will have local co-worker with us , but we still have to take care the core business . Thanks for the tips .

gosubmit wrote:

I noticed that many speak english in Hungary, even in government offices. I never learnt hungarian but english just works out. If you want to run business, there are many procedures and paperwork involved, like office seat, office rental, company articles, and about 500,000 Ft capital to run a Kft, similar like LLC. If you need any help with company incorporation, please see helpers.hu and they might be able to help you out.

Hi , if the official document from gov have English option will be great, thanks for the information and website . I appreciate it.

charissweetie wrote:

Hi Frida , thanks so much for your offer , we are a machinery manufacturer in China , as business grows . it's time to consider a demo center and service center in Europe . We like the location of Hungary , but not sure If the general environment friendly to foreign companies or not.  Do you have any suggestion ?  Thanks

The environment is not as good as some as there are very high taxes. However, the workforce is very experienced and highly trained. It's not a bad place for call centres as you can easily find say, German speaking staff and salaries are lower than say, The Netherlands. If your market is the entire Western EU, then it wouldn't be such a bad place to be although it's not that central. Transport links are good from Budapest generally.

If you want to check who is the most competitive, check the World Bank "doing business" survey. WB Rankings

Dont forget that 27% is very high in Hungary and is the highest in Europe. You have to add this VAT and pay with invoices. Hungary laws are very strict and you have to maintain invoices and contracts for every transaction. Corporate taxes are about 10%, though for small companies.

charissweetie wrote:

Hi Frida , thanks so much for your offer , we are a machinery manufacturer in China , as business grows . it's time to consider a demo center and service center in Europe . We like the location of Hungary , but not sure If the general environment friendly to foreign companies or not.  Do you have any suggestion ?  Thanks

You are right about the location. That's why many Asian companies, especially Chinese and Vietnamese are here with the same purpose: from Hungary explore to other EU countries.

If you can hire a good team: lawyer, accountant, interpreter, you can do business here without any problem. Not to mention, Chinese community in Hungary is very strong, and they offer all kind of services in terms of assisting Chinese companies doing business in Hungary.

If you have more questions, do not hesitate to ask me or others here.
Good luck.

I think the answer to the original question depends on how small or big you want to go:
- Just one person as cheap as possible: nope, you'll be lost in bureaucracy.
- Small presence but some expenses are OK: you can get all the bureaucracy done by service companies.
- Local staff: they can get everything done for you, you'll have no trouble finding English-speakers to hire.