Austrian Federal Tax Court (BFG): prohibition on deduction of low-taxed intra-group interest and royalty payments contrary to EU law

On 7 March 2025 the BFG Vienna has ruled in two appeals (RV/7103283/2023 and RV/7102685/2022) that the prohibition on deduction of low-taxed intra-group interest and royalty payments (section 12 para. 1 subsec. 10 Austrian Corporate Income Tax Act (KStG)) is a violation of the EU’s freedom of establishment. An ordinary review of the ruling to […]

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Austrian Public CbCR: What You Need to Know

A new era of tax transparency begins in Austria in 2025 with the introduction of public Country-by-Country Reporting (Public CbCR). The Austrian CbCR Publication Act (CBCR-VG), published in the Federal Law Gazette BGBI I 83/2024 on July 17, 2024, implements Directive (EU) 2021/2101, amending the EU Accounting Directive. The EU Implementing Regulation 2024/2952, published on […]

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Austrian Administrative Supreme Court (VwGH) about the certificate of residence for capital gains tax relief

Following up on recent case law from the tax court (BFG), in a different legal matter, the Austrian Administrative Supreme Court (VwGH) now also addressed the requirement to provide a certificate of residence on specific Austrian forms (ZS-QU1 or ZS-QU2) to benefit from a withholding tax relief at source in its decision dated 9 October […]

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Pillar II: New OECD documents and BMF information published in January 2025

Shortly after the start of the new year, we would like to inform you about the following developments in the field of Global Minimum Taxation / Pillar II: OECD: Three new Administrative Guidances and GloBE Information Return documents published On 15 January 2025, the OECD published three Administrative Guidances with further clarifications. The following topics […]

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Pillar II: Regulation with additional clarifications on CbCR Safe Harbors released

The foundation for applying the transitional CbCR Safe Harbor in the context of the Global Minimum Taxation is a qualified country-by-country report (CbCR). A CbCR is deemed qualified only if it is prepared based on a qualified data basis. The regulation issued by the Federal Minister of Finance on December 5, 2024, provides further clarifications […]

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Pillar II: (Potential) reporting obligation by December 31, 2024 upon appointment of Austrian Pillar II Taxpayer

The global minimum tax (Pillar II) entails not only complex calculations but also various compliance obligations. Although the filing of the GloBE Information Return and the Austrian Pillar II advance notification is not due until 2026, one compliance issue may already require action by December 31, 2024. The Pillar II rules are applicable from January […]

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Partial suspension of double tax agreement between Austria and Belarus

For the period June 2024 to December 2026 the application of Article 10 (dividends), Article 11 (interest) as well as Article 13 (gains from the alienation of property) of the double taxation agreement are suspended in both countries, resulting in a double taxation risk for Austria-Belarus transactions. For the period 1 June 2024 to 31 […]

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Public Country-by-Country Reporting & Tax Transparency

The EU introduced the Public Country-by-Country Reporting (CbC Report, or CbCR) Directive in November 2021 by which a vast number of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the member states are obliged to publicly display corporate income tax data. Austria published a first draft of implementing this Directive into Austrian tax law in April 2024. While many […]

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Update on the suspension of the double taxation agreement Russia – Effective date & unilateral elimination of double taxation

By decree dated 8 August 2023, Russia suspended the application of most parts of the double taxation agreement (DTA) Austria-Russia. After Austria successfully and congruently also suspended the agreement at the beginning of December 2023, the Austrian tax authorities published a decree on the effective date of the suspension and the unilateral elimination of the […]

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Draft legislation on “Public CbCR” published

On 4 April 2024, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Justice published the consultation draft on the “Austrian Federal Act on the Publication of Country-by-Country Reports (CbCR) on Income Tax Information”. This legislation transposes Directive (EU) 2021/2101 amending the EU Accounting Directive regarding the publication of income tax information by specific companies and branches into Austrian […]

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