What's new for 2025?
Among the especially huge number of recent tax changes, I would like to highlight the expanding range of tax-advantaged and tax-exempt benefits for employees.
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How prepared is the market to respond to these changes?
Although these were positive changes, employers haven’t responded quickly. As the range of cafeteria has narrowed in recent years, so the trend reversal has surprised everyone. Now, it’s worth to revise the benefits in kind to reward valuable staff in a cost-effective way. Larger companies should consider introducing MRPs (employee share plans) to provide additional income with favorable tax treatment for key employees and managers. Since the labor market still tight, employers feel pressure on HR and wages.
Does Hungary follow a fairly tried and tested approach, or is it an outlier (pioneer or laggard) in any regards?
In many ways, Hungary is a pioneer on the field of digitalization, which transforms the accounting profession. Nowadays accounting is no longer considered sexy at all, it is increasingly ageing and there is a shortage of staff. Thankfully, the repetitive part of the job can easily be replaced by automation, which will reduce the workload and free up time for more valuable tasks. So, we might see AI as a liberating force. But if AI is taking over the tasks that juniors have been trained, how will they gain experience to become real consultants? At LeitnerLeitner, we develop personalized training for our staff, involving beginners in automatable tasks to give them practice and test the machine solutions with them later.
What changes would you like to see made that haven't been to date?
I would like to make our profession attractive to today's students so that I can continue to work with intelligent, enthusiastic and creative people in the future.
Dr Nóra Rácz, partner and executive director of LeitnerLeitner
Nóra is a committed generalist with a strong problem solving and advisory approach. Client-focused attitude is extremely important for her, she not only listens to her clients but also follows their mindset to find the best solutions for them. She also puts this skill to good use not only in her mother tongue but also in German and English.
Her special fields include national and international law, the promotion of investments, the taxation of permanent establishments, advising SMEs and representing clients during tax audits. She is also specialised in real estate and other structuring issues, family estate planning and finally insurance tax.
Besides her executive duties, she even today has professional responsibilities. On top of her tax advisory clients, she is responsible for the accounting and payroll business lines, as well as the global mobility area, launched recently, which provides personal income tax and social security advice in an international context. Her duties include managing and developing these fields of expertise and business lines, working out their long-term strategies and implementing them together with their managers.
She maintains that "the only constant is change itself"; therefore, her main aim is to strengthen this ability in her colleagues, for the success of an organisation depends on its ability to adopt faster than its competitors.
Besides her work she considers social responsibility to be important. In this context, she is an active member of the advisory board of the German-Hungarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DUIHK), while from 2024 also a presidency member. She also actively participates in the board of the International Fiscal Association of Hungary (IFA). She regularly represents the firm as a speaker at the Austrian Chamber of Commerce and other professional events.
She spends her spare time with her husband and young son, enjoys watching
cartoons, playing board games, skiing and gardening.
