ARTICLE · 04 FEBRUARY 2025

Tax Avoidance Comparative Guide

BMA Law and Tax

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Tax Avoidance Comparative Guide for the jurisdiction of Austria, check out our comparative guides section to compare across multiple countries.

AustriaTax

Juergen Brandstaetter

Clara Brandstaetter

1. Legal and enforcement framework

1.1 Which legislative provisions govern tax avoidance in your jurisdiction?

Austria has been a member of the European Union for 30 years now. This means that, in addition to Austrian domestic law, legal acts of the European Union also apply in Austria. Therefore, not only Austrian but also EU law is cited and described in this Q&A. EU law is often the trigger for domestic legislative initiatives.

Under the EU Anti-tax Avoidance Directive (2016/1164) (ATAD I), various tax avoidance practices defined in the directive are inadmissible and illegal.

This directive cited above was amended by the ATAD II Directive (2017/952) regarding hybrid mismatches with third countries.

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