Branch Office in Austria (Zweigniederlassung)

No. UGB § 12 Abs. 1 puts the foreign company itself on the register once it has an Austrian branch, and FBG § 2 keeps the main book for thirteen classes of entity, none of which is a Zweigniederlassung. The branch is the reason for the entry, not its subject, so the contracting party in Austria is always the foreign company.

It depends on the parent's personal statute, meaning the law it was formed under. Where that law is not the law of an EU member state or an EEA contracting state, GmbHG § 107 Abs. 2 requires at least one person with habitual residence in Austria, authorised to represent the company permanently in and out of court for the whole business of the branch. Where it is EU or EEA law, the company may appoint one. AktG § 254 Abs. 2 says the same for a foreign AG.

Gerichtsgebührengesetz Tarifpost 10 Z I has two branch lines. Z 12 covers a branch of a company within Annex I of the Company Law Directive and a branch of an entity seated outside the EU: EUR 130 to apply and EUR 780 to register, so EUR 910. Z 13 covers a branch of any other entity seated in an EU member state: EUR 47 and EUR 475, so EUR 522. Both are the amounts in force from 1 August 2026 under BGBl. II Nr. 227/2026. A paper filing adds EUR 24.

Not at the register, necessarily. A branch entered under Tarifpost 10 Z I Z 12 costs EUR 910 against EUR 522 for a GmbH, and one entered under Z 13 costs the same EUR 522. It is cheaper to hold: KStG § 24 Abs. 4 charges the minimum corporate income tax only to unlimited taxpayers, so a branch pays none, while a GmbH pays EUR 125 a quarter and EUR 500 a year under Z 1 of that paragraph. What the branch gives up is the liability shield.

No provision requires any. A branch has no legal personality and no capital of its own, so there is nothing to subscribe, nothing to pay in and no bank confirmation to file. That is the difference from a GmbH, whose EUR 10,000 of share capital comes from GmbHG § 6 Abs. 1. The parent is liable for what the branch does, which is the price of the exemption.

Yes, on the Austrian part. KStG § 1 Abs. 3 Z 1 makes a corporation with neither its management nor its seat in Austria a limited taxpayer, and § 21 Abs. 1 Z 1 limits that to the income listed in EStG § 98. BAO § 29 Abs. 2 lit. b names a Zweigniederlassung as a permanent establishment. The rate is 23 percent from the 2024 assessment year under KStG § 22 Abs. 1. How much profit belongs to the Austrian establishment is a question for a licensed Steuerberater.

The Austrian business service portal states that companies whose registered office is abroad but which have premises in Austria must in principle register in Austria for VAT and apply for a tax number, and that the tax office assigns a VAT identification number. Advance returns are monthly or quarterly, an annual return follows, and both go through FinanzOnline. Separately, BAO § 120 Abs. 2 with § 121 requires the tax office to be notified within one month of the activity starting.

Not its own. UGB § 280a puts the parent's accounting documents on the Austrian register file instead, in German or a language customary in international finance, and only where they are not already retrievable through the EU register interconnection system under Article 22 of Directive (EU) 2017/1132 in one of those languages. The mechanics and the nine-month deadline come from UGB §

1. The paragraph's own annotation limits it to public and private limited companies.

WiEReG § 1 Abs. 2 is drawn on companies and other legal persons with their seat in Austria, and lists nineteen heads, all of them Austrian forms. A Zweigniederlassung is not among them and the foreign company's seat is not in Austria. The one head that reaches a foreign entity is Z 19, for companies, foundations and comparable legal persons seated neither in Austria nor in another member state, and only where they undertake to acquire Austrian land. The parent's duties under its own home register are a separate question.

Where it carries on a commercial activity, yes. The Austrian business service portal states that the branch needs a licence from the trade authority at its Austrian location, that the registration can be made through GISA or with an ID Austria, that a managing director under trade law meeting the Austrian requirements must in principle be appointed, and that the trade may be carried on from the day the registration was made once every requirement is met. A business that already holds an Austrian trade licence is in the different position GewO 1994 § 46 covers.

Only if it meets the statutory test, and the test is about the person, not the paperwork. NeuFöG § 2 Z 1 requires a business to be newly opened through the creation of a business structure that did not previously exist, and Z 2 requires the person controlling it within two years of formation not to have been active in a controlling capacity in a comparable way before. Tarifpost 10 Anmerkungen Z 8 adds the procedure: the official form must reach the court within 14 days of the application, which must claim the exemption expressly. We check the test before the filing rather than after it.

No Austrian statute sets a period for a Firmenbuch registration, so this page gives none. What the statute does say is that the application fee is due whatever the outcome: Tarifpost 10 Anmerkungen Z 4 provides that the duty to pay it is unaffected by the result of the proceedings, and applies even where the filing led to no entry at all. A rejected filing is paid for twice, which is the argument for assembling the enclosures once.