Our cafeteria article covered system design – this sequel unpacks the tax side alone, because that is where the construction stands or falls.
The principle
Cafeteria is not a tax category but a framework: each element is taxed under its own rules. Group health insurance remains a specific defined benefit (33.04%) if and only if it preserves its genuine group character with an undivided premium inside the cafeteria frame – that is, if the part of the premium attributable to one insured person cannot be determined even by apportionment.
What preserves the favourable taxation
- The insurance appears in the cafeteria policy as a base entitlement: due to every eligible person, at group level.
- Tiers are tied to objective criteria (role, grade), not individual choice.
- Individual choice applies to the OTHER elements: colleagues allocate their remaining budget; the insurance is a given.
What tips it into salary taxation
- The insurance appears as an elective inside the individual budget („SZÉP card or insurance") → joining becomes an individual decision = collective-umbrella suspicion.
- Employees „buy" themselves a higher tier from their own budget → the per-person premium becomes clearly attributable.
- The cafeteria statement shows the insurance’s individual premium to the forint → the „per-person premium cannot be determined" argument weakens.
The practical recipe
Separation: the insurance lives OUTSIDE the cafeteria budget or in its fixed base part, at group level; the elective budget belongs to the other elements. To employees the system still looks like „cafeteria"; tax-wise it is clean. Have that one paragraph of the policy drafted by an expert – cheaper than a reclassification (the stakes here).
Informational content, not tax advice – finalise cafeteria policy changes with your accountant or tax adviser.
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Sources
- Act CXVII of 1995 on Personal Income Tax (Szja tv.) – Section 3 point 89 b) (the part of a group insurance premium attributable to the insured person; sub-point bb): where the premium attributable to the individual cannot be determined even by apportionment), Section 70 (6) b) (specific defined benefit)
- NAV (Hungarian tax authority) – Taxable insurance premium (guidance, 14 May 2020): the premium of a genuine group risk insurance with an undivided premium is a specific defined benefit; a premium that can be determined per insured person is income under the legal relationship
