Szoboszlai to stay at Liverpool until 2031: how much wealth tax would he pay under a future regulation – and what about Hungary’s other football stars?

Second installment in our series on the foreign earnings and wealth of Hungarian star footballers.

On 17 July 2026, Dominik Szoboszlai signed a five-year extension with Liverpool, taking his contract through 2031 – a historic moment for Hungarian football, as the 25-year-old midfielder has thereby become one of the club’s key, long-term leading figures. According to Capology’s estimate, under his previous contract, which ran until the summer of 2028, he earned GBP 6.2 million a year (approx. HUF 2.9 billion); as early as February and April, the trade press had already reported that the club would extend his deal with almost double that amount, a salary of GBP 13 million a year – at today’s exchange rate (HUF 422.78/GBP) roughly HUF 5.5 billion – which the 17 July announcement confirmed as to the substance of the contract, although the club has not officially disclosed the exact figure. Given an income of this size and the wealth that could be accumulated from it, it is worth examining what a future domestic wealth tax would mean – not only for Szoboszlai, but also for the narrower circle of Hungary’s highest-earning athletes.

Szoboszlai has been playing for Liverpool since the summer of 2023, and has since scored 28 goals and provided 26 assists in 147 competitive matches; last year he celebrated a league title with the club, and in the 2024/25 season he also won the club’s Player of the Year award. The 65-cap international midfielder’s new five-year contract is not simply a pay rise: it signals that Liverpool is counting on him in a leading role over the long term. This is a standout moment in the history of Hungarian football as well, since few of our compatriots have managed to embed themselves so durably and with such weight into the backbone of a top English club.

The club – similarly to the Milos Kerkez contract discussed in our earlier article – does not officially disclose salaries. Based on the previously estimated annual salary of GBP 6.2 million, Szoboszlai was earning around HUF 8.2 million a day, which within Liverpool’s squad was only the twelfth-highest salary. If the estimate of GBP 13 million a year regarding the new contract is accurate, that would represent an increase of nearly double compared to his previous income, and at today’s exchange rate would correspond to roughly HUF 5.5 billion in gross annual income – naturally before deduction of the 45% top tax rate in effect in the United Kingdom, as presented in our earlier article.

This figure alone indicates the trajectory a Hungarian athlete’s wealth can follow when playing in an international top league. That is precisely why it is worth examining what would happen if a wealth tax were also introduced domestically. One of the cornerstones of the Tisza Party’s election programme was taxing private wealth exceeding HUF 1 billion; following its victory, Government Decree 1147/2026 (V. 14.) has already ordered the preparation of the relevant legislation. According to the currently known plans, the bill is to be submitted in October 2026, with a vote possibly taking place in November, and the rules could enter into force at the earliest on 1 January 2027. Under the plans, the tax rate would be 1% per year, applying only to the portion of wealth exceeding HUF 1 billion, with the tax base including domestic and foreign real estate, business interests, securities, and certain luxury items (yachts, private aircraft, works of art, sports cars).

From here, the question becomes a legal one: who would this tax even apply to? It is worth knowing that, under the Personal Income Tax Act, a Hungarian citizen – provided they do not simultaneously hold the citizenship of another state – qualifies as domestically resident, regardless of how many years they have lived and worked abroad or with what intensity. This means that an athlete such as Szoboszlai, who holds only Hungarian citizenship, would remain a Hungarian resident under domestic rules even if he spent his entire adult life in England.

In practice, this has no real significance for income taxation: the double taxation treaty concluded between Hungary and the United Kingdom in 2011 applies specifically to income and capital gains taxes, and the treaty’s residency “tie-breaker” rules would clearly designate England as the state of residence, since that is where the athlete has his habitual abode, his workplace, and the centre of his vital interests. His personal income tax on his salary must therefore – correctly – be paid solely in the United Kingdom.

The wealth tax, however, is an entirely different matter. The text of the Hungarian–British treaty does not extend to wealth or capital tax, only to income and capital gains. So if the final text of the domestic wealth tax regulation were to base the tax liability on the full, worldwide wealth of domestically resident individuals – as the personal income tax system does with income – then, in theory, no international treaty would protect athletes who hold only Hungarian citizenship but live and work abroad on a long-term basis from having the portion of their entire wealth – including their foreign real estate, savings, and investments – exceeding HUF 1 billion taxed in Hungary.

What would this mean in practice? A simplified, illustrative calculation can convey the order of magnitude – it should be stressed that this is based not on Szoboszlai’s actual wealth, but solely on his new, estimated Liverpool salary. Assuming that around 54% of gross income remains as net income (based on the UK tax burden presented in our earlier article), and that he sets aside half of this each year and invests it in a government-bond-type asset yielding 7% annually, then from this single income source alone the following picture emerges:
● End of Year 1: accumulated wealth of approx. HUF 1.59 billion, of which the portion exceeding HUF 1 billion would theoretically require paying approx. HUF 5.9 million in wealth tax.
● End of Year 2: accumulated wealth would grow to approx. HUF 3.29 billion, with the wealth tax by then at approx. HUF 22.9 million.
● End of Year 3: wealth would reach approx. HUF 5.11 billion, at which point the theoretical wealth tax would amount to approx. HUF 41.1 million.

It is important to stress that this model projects only the income arising from the new contract, and does not account for the athlete’s other, already existing wealth (previous savings, real estate, sponsorship income), which in reality could produce a significantly higher base and, consequently, a higher wealth tax liability.

Szoboszlai is of course not alone: in recent months several Hungarian media outlets (including Index and Blikk) have published rankings of Hungary’s highest-earning athletes based on internationally recorded football salary data released by Capology and North America’s MLS. The table below, built on these publicly reported estimated gross annual salaries – using the same simplified assumptions (54% net ratio, 50% savings rate, 7% return) – shows roughly when and to what extent each player would be affected by a future 1% wealth tax levied on total wealth.

The table clearly shows that a future wealth tax – at least based solely on savings derived from salary – would by no means affect Hungary’s highest-earning athletes equally. For the handful of players at the top of the list, the model suggests the HUF 1 billion threshold would be crossed as early as the first or second year, whereas the larger part of the field – looking only at wealth built from salary – might not reach it even over an entire career. In reality the picture is more nuanced: sponsorship contracts, advertising income, real estate investments and other family assets could all increase – potentially significantly – an individual’s wealth tax base. The figures above are therefore illustrations only, not descriptions of the listed athletes’ actual wealth position.

All of this remains speculation for now, since the wealth tax bill has not even been submitted yet, and the final text could easily include explicit exemptions or special rules for Hungarian citizens who live and pay tax abroad on a long-term basis – similar to how the current personal income tax system already provides separate, preferential treatment for domestic footballers through the EKHO (simplified public burden contribution) scheme. It is also an open question whether, for the purposes of the wealth tax, the legislator would even base residency on citizenship, or would instead introduce a stricter, more factual concept of residency – for example based on domicile or duration of stay – specifically for this new type of tax.

What is certain is this: the more international a Hungarian citizen’s career and wealth become, the more worthwhile it is to think through the structure and record-keeping of that wealth in good time, before the final rules are known – so that the family can face what the legislator ultimately adopts prepared, rather than in a rush.

Disclaimer: this article is a translation of our original article written in Hungarian, which you can find here.