EU Member States unanimously adopted the EU directive on global minimum tax (“Pillar II”)

On 15 December 2022, the Council of the EU formally adopted the directive on ensuring a global minimum level of taxation for multinational enterprise groups and large-scale domestic groups in the Union. Hungary was the last EU member state to agree to the EU directive, the required unanimity has been reached. Therefore, EU member states […]

read more

Romania: Obligatory Public Country-by-Country Reporting (CbCR) beginning in 2023

On 21 December 2021, a new EU Directive (“Directive (EU) 2021/2101”) entered into force. Under the Directive, companies are required to publish a so-called “report on income tax information” (“Public CbCR”). Romania was the first EU Member State to implement the directive into national law. Therefore, for financial years beginning on or after 1 January […]

read more

Energy costs subsidy guidelines published

The energy costs subsidy is a subsidy programme of the Austrian Federal Government to support energy-intensive companies in Austria in light of currently high energy prices. After the Austrian Federal Government published the first details of its energy costs subsidy guidelines at the end of September 2022 and obtaining the approval of the European Commission […]

read more

Austrian Tax Court (BFG) on liquidation of a foreign member of a tax group – Use of final losses restricted

For the first time, in its decision of 7 October 2022, RV/7101680/2022, an Austrian Tax Court had the opportunity to look into the relation between section 9 para. 6 subsec. 7 Austrian Corporate Income Tax Act (KStG) (reduction of subsequent taxation in the event of liquidation) and section 10 para. 3 KStG (assertion of partial […]

read more

Tax-exempt inflation bonus for 2022 and 2023

As part of the inflation relief packages, a contribution-exempt and tax-exempt inflation bonus has been introduced for employees subject to wage tax obligations. The inflation bonus does not incur wage tax, social security contributions, severance fund contributions, or non-wage labour costs (employer contribution to the family allowance fund (DB), surcharge to the employer contribution (DZ), […]

read more

DACH study on tax transparency and sustainability reporting

Public awareness of the importance of tax as a contribution to society increases especially in times of crisis. The trend towards greater transparency also means that tax has become an established part of sustainability reporting. With the adoption of the “GRI 207: Tax 2019” standard in December 2019, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defined for […]

read more

New approach to withholding tax relief for personnel leasing

For the Austrian Ministry of Finance (BMF), the ruling of the Austrian Supreme Administrative Court (VwGH) of 23 April 2021 (Ra 2020/13/0089) provided the impetus to conduct a pragmatic overhaul of withholding tax relief in the form of the Ordinance on Withholding Tax Relief for Personnel Leasing. Initial situation As foreign employers are subject to limited […]

read more

Update to the energy costs subsidy for companies

In late September 2022, initial details of the energy costs subsidy were published (see newsletter of 29 September 2022). The relevant guidelines themselves have not yet been published and are currently subject to review by the European Commission (notification procedure). Approval is expected in the coming days. According to the recent press release of the Austrian […]

read more

Austrian Federal Tax Code (BAO) – Increase of Interest Rates

Due to the recent increase of the key ECB interest rate by 0.75%, changes to deferral interest, interest for suspension, claim interest (interest for subsequent payments and credits), appeal interest, as well as VAT interest have occurred. The European Central Bank raised its key interest rate with effect from 2 November 2022. Due to the automatic […]

read more

Members’ Bill: Amendment regarding the ban on deductions for voluntary severance payments

On 13 October 2022, a members’ bill was tabled for the remedy of the ban on deductions for voluntary severance payments. The Austrian Constitutional Court (VfGH) overturned the ban on deductions for voluntary severance payments in March 2022 and set a deadline for legislative amendments to be carried out by 31 December 2022. Further changes concern, among other […]

read more