Last update: August 14, 2023
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Quick overview
| Standard Rate | Reduced Rate | Other Rates |
| 20% | 10% | 13%, 19% |
The local name for VAT in Austria is Umsatzsteuer
Apart from the temporary 5% rate explained below, we see that VAT rate reduction from 20 to 10% on feminine care products was effected per 1 January 2021. For more information about (recent) rate change developments in Austria, please click here.
Standard rate: 20%
This is in place since 1 January 1984. Before that, the standard rate was 18%. This rate applies for all transactions that take place in Austria, unless an exception applies (such as a reduced rate, the zero rate or an exemption, or a reason to treat the transaction as outside scope of VAT).
The standard VAT rate is 19% for the regions of Jungholz and Mittelberg.
Zero rate (0%)
Examples of goods and services taxable at 0% (with the right to deduct VAT)
- Exports of goods and related services to non-EU countries
- Intra-Community supplies of goods and related services to taxable persons established in the EU
- Turnovers supporting ocean shipping and aviation
- Cross-border transportation of goods under certain conditions
- International passenger transport by rail (with effect from 1 January 2023)
Exempt supplies of goods and services (without the right to deduct VAT)
- Supplies by businesses with annual turnover not exceeding EUR35,000
- Certain postal services provided by universal postal services suppliers
- Most finance services
- Insurance
- Sales and rental of immovable property for commercial uses with some exceptions (The landlord may opt for taxation of the rent, with the restriction that the tenant must provide services that are eligible for the input tax deduction. This restriction is only applicable on tenancies beginning on or after 1 September 2012. If the landlord constructed the building prior to 1 September 2012 or if construction by a providing entrepreneur started prior to 1 September 2012, the restriction is not applicable.)
- Medical services
Reduced rate 1: 10%
- Most foodstuffs
- Books (including e-books as of 1 January 2020)
- Hotel accommodation
- Restaurant meals
- Domestic passenger transport (except flights)
- Residential apartment rental
- Supplies made by private hospitals and charitable organizations
- Pharmaceuticals
- Repairs of bikes, shoes, clothes and leather goods
- Feminine monthly hygiene products
Due to Covid-19, various reduced rated transactions have been brought under a temporary 5% rate:
This applies to restaurants, the cultural sector and publications as originally communicated, but also to accommodation services (hotels), campsites and e-books. This arrangement has recently been extended to 31 December 2021
Reduced rate 2: 13%
- Entrance fees for sporting events
- Entrance fees for cultural events
- Domestic flights
- Animal feed
- Seeds
- Supplies made by artists
- Certain wine sales made by the producer
Special rate: 19%
A special rate of 19% applies in Jungholz and Mittelberg. The Jungholz and Mittelberg exclave valley are applying the German rate. Jungholz is a village in the district of Reutte in the Austrian state of Tyrol that is accessible only via Germany. The lack of a road connection to anywhere else in Austria led to Jungholz being included in the German customs area until Austria joined the EU in 1995. The same applies to Mittelberg. The town of Mittelberg lies in the Kleinwalsertal, a valley that is accessible by road only from Germany.
For a description of how the VAT rates are structured in the European Union, please see here. The European Commission has also made an EU VAT rate database available where you can find the applicable VAT rate by entering the CN/CPA code of the goods respectively services (you can find more information here).
A global VAT/GST rate overview can be found here (note this is a work in progress).
