Austria VAT Information: rates, registration number

This guide is for e-commerce companies that sell online via web stores or at marketplaces.

VAT Standard rate

The standard VAT rate in Austria in 2023 is 20%.

VAT Reduced rate

The rate of 13% and 10% is applied to some products.

Basically, reduced rates are applied to services. Products with a reduced rate include, for example, solid mineral fuel, heating oil, and gas oil. A complete list of preferential goods can be found in section 10 of the «Umsatzsteuergesetz».

See the summary of the EU VAT rates

Thresholds

From the 1st of July 2021, the distance selling thresholds were withdrawn and replaced by a unified threshold of €10,000 for all EU members.

In other words, VAT should be charged at the VAT rate of the customer’s country of residence by companies whose annual taxable cross-border turnover is over €10,000.

Deductible VAT

To check if you have exceeded the threshold, add together the total value of distance sales. You should exclude:

Intra-Community supplies of goods;
Supplies of new means of transport or of goods that are subject to excise duty;
Those supplies for which the margin scheme is applicable.

If you paid invoices before VAT registration you may deduct them after your registration.

Registration procedure

For VAT registration the company will be required to complete and submit a VAT registration form, along with supporting documentation:

Verf 19: questionnaire for the assessment procedure.

In addition: indication of sales channels (e.g. homepage, catalog, etc.)

Note: distance sellers are usually not allocated a VAT number since they only need a tax account number to account for the VAT due.

Verf 26: specimen signature sheet;
Valid VAT number or certificate of registration as a taxable person (entrepreneur) issued by the Tax Office of the Member State the entrepreneur has established his business in (original);
Copy of the company statutes;
Copy of the manager’s passport/ID;
Copy of the certificate of registration.

Tax representative

The appointment of a Fiscal Representative is only mandatory if the supplier has no permanent address, seat or fixed establishment in an EU Member State and if there is no appropriate mutual agreement procedure. The fiscal representative has to be an authorized recipient as well.

Disclosure/Report of Incorrect or Incomplete Tax Declaration

If you have exceeded the Austrian distance selling threshold of €35,000 in previous years, but have not declared these supplies in Austria, you have to subsequently correct this and declare them in Austria. You can either report an incorrect or incomplete tax declaration to the tax authorities or fully disclose these supplies.

VAT payment date

The dates for VAT payment are as follows:

January by 15 February (preliminary VAT return);
2019 by 30 June 2020 online or 30 April 2020 on the paper (annual VAT return).

VAT returns filing

A taxpayer must transmit tax returns to the Graz-Stadt Tax Office by electronic means. Lovat platform supports digital submission.

The period for submitting preliminary VAT returns is generally the calendar month.

If the Annual taxable turnover (net) for the previous calendar year is from €30,000 up to €100,000, the business owner must submit quarterly preliminary returns, but if the Annual taxable turnover (net) for the previous calendar year exceeds €100,000 – monthly preliminary returns.

A tax return must be filed even if no transactions have been performed during the relevant calendar month.

The dates for filing tax returns are as follows:

January – by 15th of February;
February – by 15th of March.

Annual VAT return – by 30th June 2020 online or 30th April 2020.

At the Lovat portal you can see your deadlines.

VAT standard rate

The standard VAT rate in Austria in 2023 is 20%.

Reduced rate

A reduced 10% VAT rate is applicable for electronic books (e-books) and publications.

Thresholds

EU-based companies can use the rules for low annual turnovers. Then the threshold is €10,000.

The €10,000 threshold does not apply to companies from third countries. They are obliged to register from the first sale, so the threshold for them is zero. Such businesses may register for non-Union OSS instead of registration in Austria.

Taxable persons in Austria are allowed not to register as VAT payers if their turnover from the sales of goods and/or services during the last 12 calendar months does not exceed €35,000.

Pieces of evidence

The list of criteria for determining the buyer’s location is the same for the entire European Union:

Customer’s permanent address;
Billing address (bank or electronic payment operator);
Internet Protocol (IP) address;
Telephone number;
The location of the customer’s fixed landline through which the service is supplied to him;
Other commercially relevant information.

And if two of them are in Austria, then the customer can be identified as a Austrian.

E-services list

The legislation establishes that any product that is stored, delivered, and used in electronic format is considered a digital product. These are goods or services that a customer can receive by e-mail by downloading them from the Internet or by logging into a website. In particular, the law names the following as digital services:

Electronic books, images, movies, and videos, whether buying a copy from Shopify or using a service (for example Amazon Prime). In tax materials, these products are referred to as “Audio, visual or audiovisual products”;
Downloadable and streaming music, whether buying an MP3 or using music services;
Cloud-based software and as-a-Service products (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS);
Websites, site hosting services, and Internet service providers;
Online ads and affiliate marketing.

Registration procedure

The registration procedure is similar in all European countries. In addition to the constituent documents, it is necessary to submit a completed application to the tax authority, in which you specify the basic data about the company:

Company’s name, a trading name of the company (If applicable), full postal address, email address and website of the taxable person, name and phone number of the contact person;
National tax number (If applicable);
Country in which the taxable person has his place of business;
International bank account number or IBAN number and BIC;
An electronic declaration that the taxable person is not registered for VAT within the Union;
Date of commencement of using the scheme.

Registration in Austria does not require additional translations of constituent documents.

Tax representative

An entrepreneur who has neither a place of residence, a registered office, nor a permanent representative office in the EU is obliged to appoint a tax representative in Austria.

Keeping records

The records must be kept for 10 years from the end of the year in which the supply was made.

Filling VAT returns and payment date

Sales	Period
€35,000 – €100,000	Quarter
Over €100,000	Month

Companies are required to submit an annual VAT return.

The preliminary VAT return must be submitted no later than on the 15th (payment due date) of the second subsequent calendar month.

For non-EU OSS

The taxable person is required to submit the One Stop Shop VAT return electronically to the Member State of identification by the end of the month following the end of the calendar quarter covered by the return.

Q1: 1 January to 31 March	30 April
Q2: 1 April to 30 June	31 July
Q3: 1 July to 30 September	31 October
Q4: 1 October to 31 December	31 January (of the following year)