Doing business in Austria - PKF

Apart from that, Austria is an attractive location from a tax perspective
as it provides a competitive corporate income tax rate of 25% with an
effective rate that is competitive due to several tax reliefs even in
comparison to other countries with lower nominal rates. Additional
benefits come from several tax incentives, most notably for R&Dexpenditure,
education expenditure and incentives for groups of
companies and the lack of wealth, inheritance and trade taxes. Not
only international companies but also smaller foreign firms with
subsidiaries can reap enormous advantages from the group taxation
provisions in relocating operations to Austria, especially in establishing
headquarters for the Eastern European region.
Constitution
Austria is a democratic republic established as a federal state. The
parliament consists of two chambers: the National Council, which is
elected directly by the people and the Federal Council, which
represents Austria’s nine federal provinces.
Communications
Internal and external communications as well as transportation
systems are excellent. The telephonic direct dialling system allows
instantaneous international communication from both fixed and mobile
units. Access to the internet is easily available from almost
everywhere in the country both on a cabled and/or wireless basis.
Language and Currency
The main language spoken in Austria is German. The common
currency is the Euro (€) with 1 € = 100 Cent.
2 PKF - Doing business in Austria - Introduction