Social Contribution Tax (Szocho) for Sole Proprietors

The tax base: the withdrawal or the flat-rate income

As a sole proprietor, the base for social contribution tax (szocho) depends on which tax regime you use:

• Under vállalkozói szja, it's the withdrawal (kivét).
• Under flat-rate taxation (átalányadó), it's the flat-rate income, i.e. the taxable portion of revenue after the statutory cost ratio.

The tax rate is 13%. This article covers income from your business activity: no szocho at all is due on rental income taxed under the self-employment rules.

The business dividend base is subject to szocho too

If you're under vállalkozói szja, the business dividend base (vállalkozói osztalékalap), the profit you actually withdraw from the business beyond your regular withdrawal, is also subject to szocho, at the same 13% rate as any other dividend income for a private individual. Flat-rate taxpayers have no separate business dividend base, so this rule only applies under vállalkozói szja.

The minimum tax base rule below does not apply to the dividend base. Instead, it falls under the annual cap described at the end of this article: szocho is due on your withdrawal, your dividend base, and your other consolidated-tax-base or capital gains income combined, until that total reaches 24 times the minimum wage for the year.

The minimum tax base: at least the minimum wage

If your actual withdrawal or flat-rate income is below the minimum wage, or you take no withdrawal at all in a given month, the law still requires szocho to be paid on at least the monthly minimum wage, provided your proprietor status counts as main occupation. If your registered activity requires at least secondary education or a vocational qualification, the higher guaranteed wage minimum applies instead of the minimum wage.

In 2026 that's HUF 322,800 a month, or HUF 373,200 a month for activities requiring a qualification.

When are you exempt from the minimum tax base rule?

You don't owe szocho on the minimum tax base for days when you

• receive sick pay, accident sick pay, CSED, örökbefogadói díj, or GYED,
• receive gyermekgondozást segítő ellátás, gyermeknevelési támogatás, gyermekek otthongondozási díja, or ápolási díj, unless you personally continue the business activity during that time,
• serve as a reservist on military duty, or
• are incarcerated.

If these circumstances cover the whole month, no minimum-base szocho is due for that month at all; if they cover only part of it, one-thirtieth of the minimum wage applies to the affected days.

You're also fully exempt from the minimum tax base rule if you're a secondary-occupation sole proprietor: if you also hold a job of at least 36 hours a week (or your combined jobs reach 36 hours a week), or if you're a full-time student. In that case, szocho is due only on your actual withdrawal or flat-rate income, with no minimum floor.

Retired sole proprietors

A retired sole proprietor pursuing a supplementary activity owes no social contribution tax at all on their business income. There's one exception: an own-right pensioner claiming the Tbj.'s mothers' allowance still owes szocho on the part of their flat-rate income that exceeds four times the year's average wage, which is HUF 34,356,720 in 2026.

Insured abroad

If you're insured in another EU member state, in the European Economic Area, or in a country that has a social security agreement with Hungary, and you can prove it with a certificate from the competent foreign authority (typically an A1 certificate), you owe no szocho in Hungary on your business income.

How this connects to KATA, átalányadó, and vállalkozói szja

If you're a KATA taxpayer, you don't pay szocho separately: the flat monthly tax settles it together with your own SZJA and social security contribution. Under átalányadó or vállalkozói szja, szocho is always calculated and paid separately under the rules above, alongside social security contribution but not merged with it.

The annual cap

Szocho liability applies only until your consolidated-tax-base income, income withdrawn from the business, dividends, the business dividend base, and capital gains income together reach, in the given year, 24 times the minimum wage, HUF 7,747,200 in 2026. Above that, no further szocho is due on these income types for the rest of the year.

Filing and payment

A sole proprietor declares and pays szocho together with social security contribution, broken down by month, in return no. 2658, by the 12th of the month following the quarter.

This article is for general information only, does not constitute tax advice. Source: the Social Contribution Tax Act, 2018. évi LII. törvény, and the Social Security Benefits Act, 2019. évi CXXII. törvény (net.jogtar.hu), and NAV information booklets no. 3, "Egyéni vállalkozók szja- és járulékkötelezettsége" (2026. 02. 20.) and no. 49, "A szociális hozzájárulási adó" (2026. 01. 16.).

Last updated: July 31, 2026.