The Ministry of Finance has released the draft Tax Amendment Act 2024 for public feedback. This proposed legislation seeks to modify Austrian tax laws to comply with EU standards while offering assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises and enhancing administrative efficiency and legal clarity.
Key highlights draft tax amendment Act 2024 include:
- Cross-Border VAT Relief: Businesses with annual EU turnover below EUR 100,000 can qualify for a VAT exemption.
- VAT threshold increase: The threshold for the simplified VAT scheme for small businesses is set to EUR 42,000.
- Cross-Border relief: Businesses operating in other EU countries can also qualify for the VAT exemption, as long as their Austrian turnover stays below the EUR 42,000 threshold, and their total EU turnover doesn’t exceed EUR 100,000.
- Simplified invoicing: Businesses gain more opportunities to use simplified invoices.
- Supporting startups: A new feature allows for the transformation of virtual company shares into start-up equity. Founders can convert virtual shares into employee stock options without tax implications until the end of 2025.
- Tax breaks for charities: Food donations made to charities will become VAT-exempt, encouraging businesses to support good causes while reducing their tax obligations.
- Employee tax simplification: More employees can benefit from application-free tax assessments.
- Global Minimum tax adaptation: The law also updates the minimum tax rules (MinBestRefG) to reflect recent international guidelines on the global minimum tax
The period for public feedback concludes on 17 May, 2024.
