How can I check a Hungarian company for free?
A large share of Hungarian company data is public. What matters is which source answers which question — and which question none of them answers.
Does the company exist, and where is its seat
NAV's public register of VAT-taxable persons answers this: given a tax number, it tells you whether a taxable person belongs to it, under what name and at what seat. It is free, with no registration required.
If you only know the name, you can search by name too. The tax number's check digit filters out typos first: if it does not match, the number was miscopied somewhere.
Does it have public debts
The KOMA database publishes monthly which taxpayers are free of public debts. If your partner appears on it, that is a verifiable, dated statement.
If it does not appear, nothing follows: inclusion must be requested, and many companies never request it. This is the most common misunderstanding in Hungarian company data.
What is its financial position
Companies keeping double-entry books publish annual filings, which are public. They reveal revenue, profit, equity and the average statistical headcount.
There are two limits. One is time: a filing covers a closed business year, typically with months of delay. The other is absence: if a company has published no filing, it does not follow that its revenue is zero — the data is missing, not zero.
Who is behind it
The ownership structure and the officers come from the company registry. A company extract can be requested through the e-cégjegyzék service; the full certified extract costs money, but the basic data is freely available in several places.
What has no free answer: the beneficial ownership (UBO) register is not public, a bank account's owner cannot be looked up from the account number, and pending lawsuits are not published per company either.
What to check together
A single data point is rarely enough. A useful quick check: is the tax number valid, is the company in NAV's registry, does the seat match what your partner told you, and has it published a filing.
If the seat is at a registered-office provider, that is not a problem by itself — but worth knowing, because appearing in person at that address may not be possible.
Frequently asked questions
Can a Hungarian company be checked for free?
Partly. The tax number, the seat, freedom from public debts and the published filings are public and free. The certified company extract and beneficial ownership data are not.
How do I know whether a company exists?
From NAV's public register of VAT-taxable persons, by tax number or name. The check digit filters out mistyped numbers first.
Can I see who owns a company?
The members listed in the company registry, yes. The beneficial ownership (UBO) register, however, is not public.
What does it mean if a company has no published filing?
That the data is missing — not that it is zero. A freshly founded company has no closed year yet, and publication can also lag.
Can I find out who owns a bank account number?
No. From the account number only the account-holding bank can be identified, via the first three digits — the routing code. The owner is not public.