Expat Community > Hungary

USA2somewhere
Joined 2015
Posts: 2

Some questions

9 years ago

Hello All,

So here is my situation. I am an American married to a Hungarian women and we have a little girl who is 9 months old. I have been to Hungary a number of times and do have a good time when I go and can in the future imagine living there. I am a flexible person, I have lived all over the USA and England so adaptation is not new for me. I personally have some concerns with moving to Hungary related to politics and culture but I am potentially willing to overlook this based on low cost of living and the fact that my wife has many family and friends there that can help us in raising our family. If I do move to Hungary I do not plan of getting a job on the economy and would rely on pension and investment income to sustain my family. The goal would be spending rate of $3-$5k a month at whatever the current exchange rate is.

I am considering buying an apartment in Budapest and I would like to rent it out. Long term plan would be to either use it as a residence for my wife and myself or an income property to help diversify my portfolio (income property first). I do think that now is a good time to buy (by "Now" I mean sometime this year) due to the favorable exchange rates and my belief that long term (5-10 years) exchange rates will normalize, the euro will survive and Hungary will move to the Euro. I am considering spending $100,000 for the property (cash) and would be satisfied if I could make 7%+ ROI (annual return of $585 a month after all taxes, maintenance, fee, repairs, etc).

This leads me to my questions. What local taxes must be paid on rental income? Are there issues with properties being joint owned by an American and Hungarian? If I wanted to bring my own items to Hungary because I am moving there would there be an import tax on those items? What is the cost for an American to get private health care in Hungary? Would my pensions and American investments be taxed if I live in Hungary? Thank you for your time.

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