Government Decree No. 39/2010 (II. 26.) on the reimbursement of travel expenses of commuting already specified that that the employer is required to reimburse following travel expenses:
• daily commute to and from the place of residence (or usual residence) and the place of work, and regular or ad hoc intercity travel with a frequency depending on the work schedule,
• traveling home at most once a week – four times a month at most if working hours are different from the general work schedule – between the place of work and place of residence (intercity travel there and back)

In addition, the law already specified that the employer reimburses the rate (86%), as set by the decree, of the pass or ticket of the employee’s full price pass or ticket for commuting to work, pass or ticket purchased with a travel discount as per the government decree on public passenger transport travel discounts, or pass or ticket of a reduced price with a business policy discount if the employee travels to the place of work on the 2nd carriage class of a domestic or cross-border national public railway, on a scheduled national, regional and suburban bus service, on a suburban railway (HÉV), on a scheduled ship or ferry, or if the employee travels by air with the purpose of traveling home (for traveling home, a maximum of HUF 41,760 per month).

As of 12 April 2022 the law also contains additional provisions stating that the employer reimburses the employee for the rate set by law of the price of the following tickets and passes:
• any ticket or pass that can be determined to be suitable for daily commute to and from work,
• a pass with territorial validity smaller than the national pass, which is valid in a specific area, and is also suitable and necessary for daily commute to and from work.

It is important that the term “any” applies to all tickets and passes which can be determined to be suitable for daily commute to and from work, i.e. the employer’s obligation to reimburse still applies to 2nd class tickets and passes.

As a main rule, the reimbursement obligation only provides for the reimbursement of the costs of intercity travel with the purpose of commute to and from work. In this context, with regard to combined fee products, a solution can be adopted where the local and long-distance fee portion is specified on the invoice as separate item lines, or the invoice states as a note how much of the price of the given product is the local and long-distance fee portion, so that employers can clearly determine the amount of the reimbursement obligation.

The mandatory rate of reimbursement is 86 percent of the price of the ticket/pass, a maximum of HUF 41,760 per month for travelling home in 2022. Of course, it is also possible to pay a higher reimbursement than the mandatory amount.

The other option does not change, i.e. instead of reimbursing the cost of public transport, it is possible to provide an expense reimbursement of HUF 9 or HUF 15 per kilometer calculated for the days spent at work, taking into account the round-trip distance measured on public roads.