A "Home Office" May Constitute A Permanent Establishment

The Ministry of Finance has published an EAS ruling dealing with the question of whether the home office of an employee resident in Austria may constitute a permanent establishment for its German employer.

In the case at hand, a German company providing advisory services on clinical risk management entered into an employment agreement with an employee resident in Austria. The main tasks of the employee included conducting advisory projects on patient security and clinical risk management in hospitals and health institutions in Italy, Austria, Germany and Switzerland, the setting up and maintaining of quality and clinical risk management systems as well as giving trainings, seminars and lectures. In order to prepare these tasks the employee was given the possibility of using a home office at his main place of abode in Austria.