Corporate Income Tax in Austria

According to the Federal Government, the corporate income tax rate is to be reduced in two steps 2022-23 from 25 to 23 percent and then 21 percent within the framework of the tax reform. This would reduce the tax on corporate profits below the current average of 21.9 percent in the EU-28. However, all EU countries have significantly reduced their corporate income tax rates since 1995. A WIFO study, for example, shows that corporate tax rates in the 13 new EU member states have fallen by an average of 13.3 percentage points – from 31.4 to 18.1 percent. On average in the "old" EU-15 countries, corporate tax rates fell from 38 to 25.3 percent. Further reductions in corporate tax competition are to be expected. Even the common consolidated corporate tax base proposed by the EU Commission would not eliminate tax competition between the individual countries, according to Loretz.

Corporate income tax revenues have risen sharply in recent years, partly as a result of the economic situation, and amounted to 9.136 billion € in the previous year. Each percentage point of a reduction therefore initially generates around 370 million € less revenue. Together with the increase in the deductibility of low-value assets, this also results in the planned 1.5 billion € tax relief for companies as part of the tax reform.