Impostos a Àustria

Company Tax

25%

Tax Rate For Foreign Companies

A corporation with a legal seat or place of effective management in Austria is taxed on its worldwide income.
A non-Austrian corporate tax resident which does not have a legal seat nor place of effective management in Austria is subject to limited taxation on certain sources of income in Austria.

Capital Gains Taxation

In general, capital gains are taxed as ordinary corporate income at 25%. A participation exemption is provided for gains derived from the sale of shares in a non-resident corporation in which the resident parent company holds more than 10% for one year or longer. Companies can choose to opt out of the exemption, resulting in capital gains becoming taxable and capital losses becoming tax deductible.

Main Allowable Deductions and Tax Credits

Deductible expenses include start-up expenses; interest payments that meet the general arm's-length requirements and those resulting from the debt-financed acquisition of shares (exept if the acquisition is from related parties or directly or indirectly controlling shareholders); valuation allowances for bad debts that are not calculated on a lump-sum basis; donations to charitable institutions, non-profit organizations performing research and educational activities and certain educational institutions (capped at 10% of the current year's profit), business lunches (limited to 50% of actual expenses) and advertising expenses; payments to a member of the supervisory board (up to 50%, for salaries not exceeding EUR 500,000 per person/year); payroll taxes; royalties, interest, and service fees paid to foreign affiliates, provided they are at arm's length. R&D expenses are also deductible, with a premium of 14% for R&D activities carried out in Austria.
Taxes are not deductible (with some exceptions, like payroll taxes), same as for fines and penalties.

For depreciation and amortisation, only the straight-line method is accepted, with the cost evenly spread over the useful life of an asset (with some exceptions like buildings and automobiles).
Tax losses can be carried forward without any time limit (within a limit of 75% of the taxable income for any given year, with some exceptions). Whereas the carryback of tax losses is generally not permitted, following the COVID-19 crisis operating losses incurred in 2020 can be offset against profits from 2018 and 2019 (capped at EUR 5 million).

Other Corporate Taxes

Stamp duties of 0.8% to 2% apply to certain legal transactions such as leases and hire contracts. A real property tax is levied at a rate of 3.5% (2% for transfers of agricultural and forestry land between close family members), with the fair market value being the minimum (plus a 1.1% registration fee with the land register). Certain transactions regarding the transfer of shares of companies and shares of partnerships owning Austrian real estate are taxed at a rate of 0.5%.
Both Austrian banks and foreign banks with an Austrian branch are subject to a banking tax at a rate of 0.024% (assessment bases between EUR 300 million and EUR 20 billion) to 0.029% (beyond EUR 20 billion) of the tax base.

A digital services tax ("Digitalsteuer") applies at a rate of 5% to multinational companies with a worldwide revenue of at least EUR 750 million and a yearly domestic revenue of at least EUR 25 million from providing online advertising services.

Social security contributions paid by the employer amount to a total of 21.23% (maximum assessment basis of EUR 5,550/month), so divided:
- Sickness: 3.78%
- Unemployment: 3%
- Pension: 12.55%
- Accident: 1.20%
- Miscellaneous: 0.70%

Furthermore, the employer is liable to the Family Burdens Equalisation Levy at the rate of 3.9%, the municipal tax on payroll at the rate of 3% of monthly gross salaries and wages, and a public transportation levy equal to EUR 2 per week/employee in the city of Vienna. A contribution to the Chamber of Commerce is levied at a rate between 0.34% and 0.42% of monthly gross salaries paid, according to the province. Local authorities also levy other taxes, for example, on rubbish collection and on entertainment.

Taxpayers who can demonstrate that their liquidity has been adversely affected by government measures in response to the COVID-19 epidemic can apply to have tax payments deferred or to pay in instalments.

Other Domestic Resources

Federal Ministry of Finance

Consult Doing Business Website, to obtain a summary of the taxes and mandatory contributions.

Tax Rate

Allowable Deductions and Tax Credits

Expenses incurred towards creating, protecting or preserving employment income are generally deductible, including expenses for professional books, maintaining two households and membership dues to professional organisations. A standard deduction of EUR 132 is granted for employees' work-related expenses. Automatic tax credits are provided based on the number of income-earning individuals and children in a household. Business losses or rental losses can be offset with other categories of income. Other deductions include church tax (capped at EUR 400), donations (limited to 10% of the current year’s taxable income) and tax consulting fees.

A tax relief is provided for taxpayers who incur extraordinary expenses (e.g. funeral costs, medical expenses for special treatments not reimbursed by health insurance), with limits depending on the income and family status (with a retention rate ranging from 6% to 12%).

From 2019 onwards, a family bonus tax credit applies as follows: EUR 1,500 per child for children up to the age of 18 years living in Austria; EUR 500 for children between 19 and 24 (in some cases until 25). Several personal and family allowances are available: in general, the former take the form of tax credits and the latter are paid to the taxpayer in cash.

Special Expatriate Tax Regime

In case of non-residents, an extra EUR 9,000 are added to the tax computation base when the income tax is computed.