Civil Code. The new Civil Code provisions, which should have come into effect on 1 May 2010 and 1 January 2011, will not enter into force. In its decision of 26 April 2010, the Hungarian Constitutional Court ruled that the Act on the entry into force of the new Civil Code was unconstitutional.
According to the Constitutional Court’s opinion, the sixty-day deadline by which the authorities and all interested parties should have examined the new provisions of the first stage that were to take effect on 1 May 2010  was “excessively tight”.  Furthermore the Court stated that because of the entry into force of the new provisions in two stages, the relevant authorities would have had to make numerous legislative changes twice within a short period of time. This would have run contrary to the principle of legal certainty.
However, the Constitutional Court did not examine the actual content of the new provisions which regulate fundamental areas of life. The new Civil Code, which was earlier adopted by Parliament, was meant to introduce several new legal institutions into Hungarian civil law and to amend several existing regulations.
Donations. The Hungarian Parliament has approved  an amendment to the VAT Act to abolish VAT liability on donations. According to the new rule, which has entered into force on June 17, donations (products or services)  provided to non-profit organizations, major non-profit organizations in the public interest and churches will be exempt from VAT. Pursuant to this amendment, such donations will be considered as neither the provision of a service nor sale or purchase of a product. The law specifies some further conditions regarding grants, bequeaths and donations.
The most relevant aspect is that there should be a genuine public-interest purpose behind any donation, provable using documentary evidence and/or other evidence; there should be no financial benefit on the part of the donor (although a reference to the name or activity of the donor will not be considered a financial benefit); an acknowledging certificate must be issued by the recipient for all donations received.