The corporate income tax relief system (TAO) in Hungary

17.7.2017

Question for written answer E-004924-17
to the Commission
Rule 130
Csaba Molnár (S&D)

In 2011 and then again in 2017, the Commission allowed Hungary to grant state aid to the sport sector in the form of tax relief under the law on corporate income tax (TAO). Five sports benefited from such aid in the first phase: football, handball, basketball, water polo and ice hockey. Volleyball was added to these in 2017. In addition to numerous civil society organisations voicing their disquiet at the high risk of corruption and lack of transparency surrounding the aid setup, there are many other concerns. According to information which has recently emerged, in the past six years HUF 450 billion has been poured into spectator sport, 43% of which has gone to football. Since 2011 the five teams in the five sports which received the biggest sums pocketed a total of HUF 53 billion, 23.3 billion of which went to football. Curiously, in the past six years the lion’s share of the money went to the Puskás Academy in Felcsút, the club which was founded by the Hungarian Prime Minister. It was estimated to have benefited to the tune of 13.9 billion in TAO support. In the light of the above I would like to ask the following:

Does the fact that such a large proportion of TAO support ended up with one football team give rise to concerns about compliance with EU rules on state aid?

Is the Commission investigating whether support dispensed under the TAO system complies with these rules?

Is the fact that the football team founded by the Hungarian Prime Minister benefited from a spectacularly large amount of support from the TAO system — billions of HUF — compared with the other clubs in compliance with the full register of EU rules?