location, relocation, expansion, portal

ABA - Invest in Austria deliver a range of services that are free of charge, including:

• Professional consulting services to companies seeking to set up operations in Austria
• Advice and guidance in selecting your ideal location
• Offering comprehensive information about Austria as a business location
• Proactively approaching potential partners and investors
• Promoting Austria as a hub for international film productions through the "Location Austria" team, who also offer advice on selecting ideal film locations 

ABA - Invest in Austria's Headquarters in Vienna consist of a staff totalling around 25 employees, who coordinate projects from the USA, Europe, Canada, and Asia. Offices also operate in New York and Tokyo, which are responsible for the American and Japanese markets. 

Key statistics:
 

• ABA - Invest in Austria delivered professional consulting services to 256 companies who located their business operations in Austria, accounting for a total investment volume of €426 million in 2008 alone
• These investments created 2442 new jobs 
• Since its establishment in 1982, ABA - Invest in Austria has completed projects attracting total investments of €5.65 billion, generating 39,120 new jobs

Financial Assistance/Grants

There is a wide range of support for foreign investors in Austria, including subsidies for research and development, company start-ups, new technology and for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Business support priorities include:

• Research and development
• Strengthening the competitiveness of small and medium-sized companies
• Improvements in regional bureaucratic structures
• Environmental protection
• Training and staff development

The banks and management consultants in Austria have a network of business contacts and expertise in Central and Eastern Europe, and at the moment UniCredit has the strongest market position in the region through its subsidiary: Bank Austria. There are many attorneys, tax and management consultants, insurance companies and advertising agencies in Austria, including Ernst & Young – an international company serving customers in the Czech Republic, Croatia and Slovakia from its offices in Vienna.

ABA-Invest optimally supports companies who set their sights on Austria by handling formalities and dealing with public authorities. ABA-Invest will also help entrepreneurs complete applications for investment grants or operating licenses and support a business when working in close cooperation with their respective regional investment promotion agency.

Austria’s export promotion system also benefits environmental companies, for example Österreichisches Kontrollbank Aktiengesellschaft (OeKB) and the Austrian Export Fund who have created favourable financing conditions for new businesses.

The country offers a wide range of funding and financial models for innovative projects, start-ups and growth processes. These models include:

• Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH (aws) – providing financial assistance for the setting up or further development of a R&D company as well as the commercial exploitation of research findings.
• Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) – national funding institution for applied industrial research in Austria.
• Austrian Science Fund (FWF) – central funding organisation for basic research, committed to all disciplines.
• European Recovery Program funds (ERP funds) – generally promotes small and medium-sized companies, particularly focuses on supporting R&D projects by making low-interest investment loans available.

Useful Links

Ministry of Finance
→ www.bmf.gv.at
Bureaucracy made easy
→ www.help.gv.at
 

Loans

ABA - Invest in Austria will support companies through loan applications by providing guarantees, subject to eligibility.

Incentives, Tax and Others

Austria’s high level of support is illustrated by generous tax incentives and direct grants from qualifying organisations and projects. The Austrian tax system is extremely attractive to companies and from 2011 it grants a “research premium” of 10% for all R&D expenditures where direct cash reimbursements will be given for investments. This is also alongside an education allowance, apprenticeship allowance, loss carry-forwards and the possibility to transfer hidden reserves.

The minimal taxation at the source for dividends, interest and licensing fees, due to the double taxation treaties, is a great advantage for anyone wanting to invest in Austria. There is a low corporate income tax rate of 25%, with a 9% deduction for investments, and no taxes on assets as well as no trade tax.

Group taxation is very appealing for any multi-national business in Austria. If an Austrian company has a direct or indirect participatory stake in a foreign firm amounting to 50%, plus one share, then the group taxation system may be applied by forming a “tax group”. In this case, the parent company (or “group leader”) is allocated the total taxable profits and losses of all the group members. The losses posted by the group leader can then be used to balance the consolidated taxable profits of the group, including the subsidiaries. Furthermore, the far-reaching network of existing double-taxation treaties ensures minimal taxation at the source for dividends, interest and licensing fees.

Austrian tax laws allow further reduction of the tax burden. This is comparable to Slovakia, the Czech Republic or Hungary, found due to a study of tax rates implemented by KPMG, when taking account of the assessment base. Also in coherence with this, a comparative analysis of corporate taxation carried out by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) concludes that Austrian taxes are approximately at the same level as those charged in the Czech Republic.

Companies are subject to corporate income tax on their entire income and their profits at a standard tax rate of 25% in Austria, yet individuals are subject to personal income tax to a progressive tax rate of 0% up to 50%.

Individuals who have a residence or habitual abode in Austria are subject to personal income tax. There is an unlimited tax liability that is extended to all domestic and foreign sources of income, or individuals are subject to limited tax liability for Austrian source income, this is especially applicable if a foreign individual stays in Austria for six months or more.

Taxes such as trade and net worth tax, common in other countries, do not exist in Austria. Tax and tax base can be reduced by taking the advantage of the several tax deductions and allowances. Under certain circumstances allowances, for example in R&D or education, can be claimed.

Austria is ranked top as one of the world’s most business-friendly nations since the corporate tax rate was reduced to 25%, with taxes lower than in major cities such as London, Madrid, Brussels, Milan and Luxembourg.

Another tax benefit in Austria is that, since the year 2008, there is no inheritance tax or related tax relief for family owned businesses. Also employers can reclaim a tax allowance of 20% for the education and training of their staff.

Austria has a second economic stimulus package that creates tax incentives amounting to €570 million in the form of digressive depreciation for the years 2009 and 2010, meaning that investments can be written off ahead of schedule.

Recruitment Support

ABA-Invest offers long-term consulting services and investor support, including after a project has been completed, with support services for further investments and development steps. The service providers have an extensive East European know-how, along with longstanding, experienced investment consultants so businesses can guarantee they will be guided in the right direction.

ABA can offer new businesses capable employees and will help of any entrepreneur when finding necessary contacts and any other support a business person may require in Austria.

Austria supports environmental engineering companies with financial help and an excellent business environment with regard to innovations, development and environmentally-friendly investments.

Many funding programmes in Austria are designed to support investments as well as R&D in the field of energy and the environment. These include:

• Austrian Climate and Energy Fund – a total of €150 million is available for climate-relevant projects, with projects processed by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FCG). The fund provides support for electro-mobility, efficient vehicle and energy storage technologies and renewable energy sources.
• Klima:aktiv – this initiative promotes the rapid market launch of environmentally-friendly technologies and services.
• Technologies for Sustainable Development – a scheme supporting structural change focusing on eco-efficient business through R&D
• Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws) – support is provided to industrial research projects and experimental development in industries of the future within the context of the ERP Technology Programme.
• Kommunalkredit Public Consulting GmbH (KPC) – aims to manage environmental support schemes of the Austrian Federal Government and develops funding proposals for biomass and biogas projects on behalf of the federal provinces of Lower Austria and Salzburg.
   

Business Accommodation Assistance

ABA-Invest can help any entrepreneur trying to find premises to start their business in Austria.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Austria is partnered with a large number of companies in every sector. Each partnership brings something new to Austria and has helped to develop and improve the country as well as businesses that invest in it.

Austria serves as the interface for research partnerships initiated with South Eastern Europe (SEE-ERA-NET). The country also has good industrial relations that stem from the social partnership system, an initiative established about 50 years ago, wherein problems are settled by negotiation. Agreements are negotiated by representatives of the labour and industry sectors and this is the reason for Austria’s history of the moderate increases of wage.

As research and development is regarded highly in Austria, the country has good links with universities and research institutions. Partners also include the UniCredit Group, Henkel CEE, Mondi, Rehau, Siemens and Tchibo, which do CEE study programmes due to an initiative created by the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration.

ABA-Invest functions as a global network due to its offices in New York and Tokyo, which companies can use as cooperation partners. The institution can also indentify the right contacts in the foreign trade offices of the Austrian Federal Chamber of Commerce.

Other

Other types of support offered by ABA-Invest include efficient public administration, service and customer guidance. One can obtain advice on legalities, security information, tax adjustments and finding information and, in addition, ABA employs communications technologies that enable electronic services to be made available on the internet. Businesses have access to online administration procedures, with accelerated processing and reduced expenses.

Austria is the European champion in eGovernment, with the online platform ‘Digital Austria’ being the national coordinating body offering information and instructions on using eGovernment services. Approximately 80% of firms in Austria take advantage of these services. The country ranks top for all European countries with online availability of public services at 100%.