Revenue shortfall bonus III

The revenue shortfall bonus (“RSB”) is familiar subsidy that has been extended for a second time. The Ordinance on the Revenue Shortfall Bonus III was published in the Austrian Federal Law Gazette on 2 December 2021. In the following entry, we provide information on the most important points (last updated 7 February 2022):

General requirements

Companies which have their legal seat or permanent establishment (PE) in Austria, and which carry out operational activities in Austria, which lead to (business) income in accordance with Sections 22, or 23 Austrian Income Tax Act (EStG).

The applicant company must not have been judged (in a legally binding manner) to have committed abuse within the meaning of Sec. 22 Austrian Federal Fiscal Code (BAO) in the last 3 assessed years, which led to a modification of the tax assessment base of min. EUR 100,000 in the relevant assessment period.

In the last five assessed years, the company must not have been affected by a ban on deductions of a total amount of more than EUR 100,000 under Sec. 12 para 1 subpara 10 Austrian Corporate Income Tax Act (KStG) or under Sec. 10a KStG (CFC rules, method change).

The company must not have a legal seat or branch in a country named in the EU List of Non-cooperative Jurisdictions for Tax Purposes, and must not have generated predominantly passive income within the meaning of Sec. 10a para 2 KStG at the legal seat or branch in this country in the first fiscal year that began after 31 December 2018.

Furthermore, neither the applicant nor any of its executive office holders (in the course of their official duties) may have received a legally binding fine for a financial crime or corresponding corporate criminal fines due to intent in the 5 years before application. This excludes administrative penalties or corporate fines which did not exceed EUR 10,000.

If companies are currently involved in insolvency proceedings, they are excluded from application due to the lack of operational activities, except in the event that reorganisation proceedings have been opened.

Assessment period and calculation

The RSB III can be applied for if the company has a revenue shortfall of min. 30% (November or December 2021) or 40% (January, February, or March 2022) in the calendar month used as an assessment period.

The calendar month must be used as the assessment period for the RSB III. The earliest possible assessment period is November 2021, and the latest possible assessment period is March 2022.

The amount is determined based on the revenue shortfall in the assessment period and the relevant percentage rate (10% or 40%) for the industry in which the company primarily operated in the assessment period. The RSB III is capped at EUR 80,000 per calendar month. The minimum amount for the bonus is EUR 100.

Furthermore, the total of the RSB III and the short-time working subsidies corresponding to the assessment period must not exceed the comparison revenues. The short-time working subsidies corresponding to the assessment period are determined on the basis of the amounts invoiced to the Public Employment Service Austria (AMS) in accordance with the Federal Guidelines on the Short-Time Working Subsidy (KUA-COVID-19).

The comparison period for the calculation of the amount of the revenues is the calendar month in the periods November, December and March 2019 as well as January and February 2020 which corresponds to the calendar month of the assessment period. The comparison revenues will be determined by the tax authorities using a variety of methods, e.g. based on the revenues declared in the monthly VAT returns for the comparison period (Code 000).

The revenues in the assessment period must be disclosed by the applicant to the tax authorities. The relevant amounts (Code 000) must be determined in accordance with the provisions of the Austrian VAT Act (UStG). When determining the revenues or the sales revenues, the following must be excluded:

• • • revenues and sales revenues from the sale of plots of land, if the sale (in accordance with the criteria of the UStG) constitutes an incidental transaction
    • revenues and sales revenues generated without an operational activity, and
    • revenues and sales revenues that have already been recognised in applications for the RSB, RSB II, or RSB III.

If the prerequisites for application are fulfilled, the RSB II can be granted until the maximum amount under the law on state aid of EUR 2.3m, minus any other subsidies received, is reached (other subsidies include in particular lockdown revenue compensation, lockdown revenue compensation II, the fixed costs subsidy 800,000, 100% guarantees, as well as payments by Austrian federal states, municipalities, or regional economic and tourism funds). The RSB cannot be granted if the maximum amount under the law on state aid is less than the minimum amount.

The RSB III does not reduce the maximum amount under the law on state aid of EUR 1.8m in the case of the fixed costs subsidy and the RSB II.

Companies which on 31 December 2019 constituted “undertakings in difficulty” in accordance with the EU’s General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) can apply for revenue shortfall bonus under the EU’s De-minimis Regulation, up to a maximum amount of EUR 200,000. There are further exceptions for undertakings in difficulty, if these are small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within the SME definition of Annex 1 of the GBER.

Application process

It is possible to apply from the 10th day of the calendar month following the assessment period until the 9th day of the fourth calendar month following the assessment period. For example, if November is the assessment period, then it is possible to apply until 9 March 2022.

COFAG will decide whether the RSB III will be granted.  Applications can only be made via FinanzOnline.

When applying for the revenue shortfall bonus, the company may be represented by a tax advisor, auditor, or accountant.

Further information on the revenue shortfall bonus III can be found on the following site: https://www.fixkostenzuschuss.at/ausfallsbonus3/

Authors: Daniela Stastny, Alexandra Velic