Company formation in Austria and Austrian company benefits

Austria is a sophisticated and prosperous economic center that serves as a trade bridge between Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Austria welcomes foreign investors and instead of fighting offshore countries, Austria enters into tax treaties with them. In addition, tax-minimising structures are being developed for all types of companies, which allow an effective tax rate of only 3-5%. These are just a few of the numerous advantages of founding a company in Austria.

Corporate structure in Austria
Choosing the right business structure can have crucial consequences, so it is extremely important to review all available options before making this decision. Below are the four most popular types of companies that can be incorporated in Austria:

The joint-stock company is designed for large companies and its minimum share capital is EUR 70,000. The capital is broken down into shares and can be offered to the public. A shareholder is required to form a joint-stock company, and their liability is limited by their contribution to the capital.
The limited liability company GmbH is the most popular type of company in Austria. The minimum share capital is EUR 35,000, of which EUR 17,500 or more must be deposited at the time of registration and each shareholder must contribute at least EUR 7,000 to the company's seed capital. Stocks of these types of companies cannot be publicly traded.
General partnerships are formed by two or more legal or natural persons with the same economic purpose. It is important to note that all persons involved in the formation of a general partnership bear full liability for the debts of the partnership and have equal rights in managing the partnership. There is no minimum capital requirement for general partnerships.
A limited liability company can be formed when at least one partner has full liability for the company's debts and can make essential business decisions and at least one partner has liabilities limited by the capital contributed and no decision-making power.

Procedure for founding a company in Austria
The most important measure for all new companies is confirmation from the Chamber of Commerce that the company is indeed a new company. Then a document called Articles of Incorporation is drafted by a lawyer in front of a notary public and a seed capital is deposited into a bank account and a Deed of Funds is obtained.

After the above things are done, the company formation procedure can be initiated at the district court. For this process, shareholders must deposit the following documents:

application for registration;
Notarized Statement of Incorporation;
articles of incorporation;
Certificate of confirmation that the seed capital is deposited with the bank;
Sample signatures of the board of directors.
After about seven days, when the business unit is registered with the district court and the information is published in the local newspaper, the company can be registered with the local tax office. There you have to fill out an application and explain the articles of association, the extract from the commercial register at the district court and the sample signatures of the company representatives. In return, the tax office issues a sales tax identification number and a tax identification number.

The final steps include registration in the commercial register, registration with the municipality and finally the registration of the company's employees with the social security authority.

The average duration of founding a company in Austria is 21 days, of which 12 days account for the most waiting time for a tax identification number (the official deadline for obtaining a tax identification number is 1 month).