This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website.

Learn more Got it!
  • Home
  • News
  • Hungary exempts mothers under 30 from income tax

Hungary exempts mothers under 30 from income tax

Image credit: Unsplash

Going forward Hungary will exempt young mothers under the age of 30 from paying any income tax, all in an effort to boost the country’s birthrates without mass migration.

“Hungary extends its family-friendly policies,” tweeted Balázs Orbán, political director of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, as the new move was announced.

“From January, women who become mothers before turning 30 will be exempt from paying personal income tax!”

The new policy is one of several pro-family schemes implemented by the Hungarian state in recent years, as the country attempts to reverse the trend of declining demographics seen in many countries globally.

To this end the eastern European nation has offered zero percent income tax to working adults up until the age of 25, to incentivise young people to enter the workforce and prevent them from emigrating. The country also offers zero percent income tax to mothers who have four or more children, as well as offering financial supports for those buying seven-seater cars.

The offer will apply regardless of whether the mother is married, single or divorced, and is said to have a goal of both boosting birthrates nationally, and providing families with a greater household income.

For years experts have warned that the planet is facing a “jaw-dropping” crash in global fertility, with many countries projected to see their populations halve in the coming decades.

In keeping with this trend, an Irish Department of Health report last year found that Ireland’s population is ageing faster than any other European country.

This would see enormous pressure put on tax rates for workers, healthcare systems and other national services.

Acknowledging this problem, many European countries have opted to boost their demographics through mass immigration. However, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has denounced this approach.

“There are fewer and fewer children born in Europe,” Orbán said in 2019.

“For the West, the answer is immigration. For every missing child there should be one coming in and then the numbers will be fine.”

“But we do not need numbers. We need Hungarian children.”

He continued that in his view “immigration means surrender,” adding: “If we resign ourselves to the fact that we are unable to sustain ourselves even biologically, by doing so we admit that we are not important even for ourselves.”

A study late last year found that global sperm counts had more than halved in the last 40 years, which researchers have described as a “crisis.”

Gript previously asked Fine Gael Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys about what strategies her government was putting in place to deal with this demographic decline. Her answer to that question can be viewed below.


This piece was first published on Gript. 

back to news

Featured