VAT (UID) and Tax Registration for an Austrian GmbH

A Vienna address alone does not carry a UID request. The tax office issues a UID-Nummer to a business that is trading or credibly about to, and published case law confirms the refusal of a UID where the applicant is not an entrepreneur. The request therefore describes the business the GmbH carries on or is about to start.

No. The Steuernummer and the UID-Nummer are requested from Finanzamt Österreich, and the UID can be requested with the first notice where EU trade is planned. Published case law confirms that a UID is refused where the applicant is not an entrepreneur, so the registration of the company alone does not produce one.

No. This service covers the registration filings: the notice to the tax office, the tax number request and, where it applies, the UID request. Tax advice and tax returns are reserved in Austria to licensed tax advisers under the WTBG 2017, so a licensed Steuerberater handles the company's ongoing tax matters.

Yes. According to the Business Service Portal, the UID can be requested with the first notice to Finanzamt Österreich, the one that reports the start of business activity and the business location and asks for the tax number. The UID is requested where EU trade is planned, and it is refused where the applicant is not an entrepreneur.

Yes. The start of business activity and the business location must be notified to Finanzamt Österreich within one month, according to the Business Service Portal's GmbH formation roadmap. The tax number, and the UID where EU trade is planned, can be requested in that same notice, so one filing covers the registration.

Form Verf 15, the tax-registration questionnaire for an AG or a GmbH; Verf 16 is for other companies and Verf 24 for natural persons. The UID is issued ex officio when the questionnaire is filed and the tax number is assigned. Form U 15 is the separate UID application where the questionnaire route does not apply.

No statutory processing time is published for the tax number or the UID, so we do not quote one. What is fixed is the notifying side: the start of business activity and the business location go to Finanzamt Österreich within one month. A UID request is decided on whether the applicant is an entrepreneur.

A GmbH (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung) is the Austrian limited liability company; the GmbH explained covers the form itself. For tax registration, the company notifies Finanzamt Österreich of its start of business activity and business location, and the tax office issues its tax number and, where it qualifies, its UID.

That depends on the company's own figures, and working it out for a specific company is tax advice, reserved to a licensed Steuerberater. The VAT rates are fixed by § 10 UStG 1994: 20% standard, 13% and 10% reduced, and 4.9% for the goods in Annex 3. The company's other taxes are covered in our tax guide.

A GmbH's tax number (Steuernummer) is issued by Finanzamt Österreich on the request made with the notice of the start of business activity. The VAT identification number (UID-Nummer) is issued by the same office on request, where EU trade is planned, and only to an applicant who is an entrepreneur.

The standard rate is 20% (§ 10 Abs. 1 UStG 1994). Reduced rates are 10% for the goods in Annex 1, restaurant supplies of those goods, residential letting, hotel accommodation and camping (Abs. 2), and 13% for the categories in Abs. 3. A 4.9% rate applies only to the goods listed in Annex 3 (Abs. 1a).

Only the supply and import of the goods listed in Annex 3 (Anlage 3) of the UStG 1994. Under § 10 Abs. 1a it takes precedence over the 10% and 13% rates for those goods, and it reaches nothing else. Whether a particular product falls within Annex 3 is a question for a licensed Steuerberater.