Eszter Kálmán

Senior Counsel and Head of Tax

Picture of Eszter Kalman

Eszter Kálmán

Senior Counsel and Head of Tax

T +36 1 483 4842
F +36 1 483 4801
CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP Magyarországi Fióktelepe
YBL Palace
Károlyi utca 12
1053 Budapest
Hungary
Languages Hungarian, English, French

Eszter Kálmán is Senior Counsel and Head of the Tax Practice at CMS Budapest, with 20 years’ experience in tax law.

Eszter has extensive experience in VAT issues and tax driven corporate restructurings. She has been advising major domestic and international clients on various tax issues including mergers and acquisitions, tax structuring projects, VAT disputes, transfer pricing, state subsidy issues as well as day-to-day compliance issues. She represents clients in several tax litigation cases, especially in the field of VAT.

She is an active member of the European VAT Club, an association of independent VAT specialists. In addition to being a member of the Budapest Bar, Eszter is also a registered tax advisor.

Eszter is recommended by Chambers and Legal 500 in the Tax category.

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Relevant experience

  • AXA Bank on the VAT structuring of the sale of its Hungarian banking operations to OTP Bank.
  • Apollo Tyres on the construction of a greenfield manufacturing plant in Hungary, including legal, tax and state subsidy advice regarding the acquisition of the selected property, cash incentives, and incorporation of a subsidiary as well as its ongoing operation. Successfully negotiated a high-value incentive agreement for the client with the Hungarian Investment and Trade Agency within an extremely short timeframe.
  • Wizzair on tax implications of leasing various aircrafts.
  • Credigen Bank (subsidiary of Credit Agricole) on the sale of its performing loan portfolio. Tax involvement was mainly focused on the VAT aspects of the portfolio transfer, since the VAT treatment of portfolio transfers is quite controversial on the basis of EU case law as well as Hungarian legislation.
  • A major international telecommunication company with respect to VAT dispute of EUR 48 m.
  • Mota-Engil on the tax structuring of the sale of a major portfolio of development properties.
  • DHL Supply Chain in a VAT litigation and won the case before Hungary’s supreme court, called the Curia.
  • British American Tobacco on two separate VAT disputes against the Hungarian Tax Authority. As a result of our intervention the Tax Authority accepted BAT’s position and dropped both cases still in the administrative proceedings phase, and litigation was avoided.
  • Bricostore Holding S.A.S on the restructuring of its Hungarian operations.
  • A major real estate investor on complex tax issues regarding a Hungarian property development. The deal was unique on the Hungarian market due to the involvement of Islamic finance and thus the need to comply with the principles of Sharia law. 
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Education

  • 2018 - Postgraduate degree in Economics, University of Corvinus, Budapest, Hungary
  • 1999 - Doctor of Law, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest
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Memberships

  • Member, Budapest Bar Associations
  • Member, The European VAT Club
  • Member, IFA
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Publications

  • EKÁER’s grace period has been extended (article in Hungarian) – Napi Gazdaság
  • The “Tóth”-case (summary and comments)-Highlights & Insights on European Taxation
  • The “Klub OOD” case (summary and comments)-Highlights & Insights on European Taxation
  • The “Mecsek Gabona” case (summary and comments)-Highlights & Insights on European Taxation
  • The “Pannon-Gép” case (summary and comments)-Highlights & Insights on European Taxation
  • The “Commission vs France and Luxembourg cases re e-books” (summary and comments)-Highlights & Insights on European Taxation
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Expertise

Tax

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22/04/2018
CMS Guide to tax re­gimes in Cent­ral and East­ern Europe
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Guide Tax
26/11/2018
Hun­gary makes changes to cor­por­ate tax­a­tion for 2019
The latest re­forms to Hun­gari­an tax law have brought sig­ni­fic­ant changes mostly to the cor­por­ate in­come tax sys­tem. Some changes may of­fer new op­por­tun­it­ies while oth­ers re­quire co­ordin­ated ac­tion. Hun­gari­an com­pan­ies and branches of for­eign en­tit­ies may,.
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Law-Now Banking & Finance
03/07/2017
Over­view of Tax Re­forms in CEE 2015 - 2017
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Publication Tax
12/10/2018
New Rules on Di­git­al Archiv­ing
As of 1 Ju­ly 2018, De­cree No. 1/2018. (VI. 29. ) ITM of the Min­istry of In­nov­a­tion of Tech­no­logy on the Di­git­al Archiv­ing Rules is re­pla­cing the former De­cree No. 114/2007. (XII. 29. ) GKM of the Min­istry of Eco­nom­ic and Com­merce.
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Law-Now Banking & Finance
02/03/2018
New tax and lit­ig­a­tion codes re­quire new strategy in tax dis­putes
Changes to pro­ced­ur­al rules that came in­to ef­fect on 1 Janu­ary 2018 have made the tax­pay­er’s life more dif­fi­cult when de­fend­ing his po­s­i­tion in tax dis­putes. The new law does not al­low tax­pay­ers to refer to any new facts or evid­ence in their ap­peal, if they.
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Law-Now Commercial
10/10/2017
Hun­gary: EKAER sys­tem may in­fringe EU VAT rules 
The European Com­mis­sion has ini­ti­ated an in­fringe­ment pro­ced­ure by send­ing a let­ter of form­al no­tice to Hun­gary with re­spect to its Elec­tron­ic Trade and Trans­port Con­trol Sys­tem (EKAER). Un­der the EKAER, com­pan­ies are ob­liged to provide de­tailed in­form­a­tion.
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Law-Now Commercial
24/06/2016
Hun­gary makes sig­ni­fic­ant cut backs to be­ne­fi­cial IP tax re­gime
In or­der to com­ply with the re­quire­ments set out in Ac­tion 5 of the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shift­ing (BEPS) pro­ject, Hun­gary has re­vamped its pref­er­en­tial tax re­gime re­lated to in­come de­rived from IP, mak­ing the re­gime much more strin­gent.
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Law-Now Commercial
21/06/2016
New tax be­ne­fits for his­tor­ic­al monu­ments and pro­tec­ted build­ings...
From 2017, new cor­por­ate in­come tax be­ne­fits will be avail­able to in­centiv­ise the res­tor­a­tion of his­tor­ic­al build­ings. The fol­low­ing be­ne­fits will be avail­able for com­pan­ies un­der­tak­ing main­ten­ance or renov­a­tion of his­tor­ic­al monu­ments and oth­er build­ings placed.
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Law-Now Tax