Austria Company Formation

An Austrian company is legally exempt from dividends tax received from a foreign subsidiary. Austria levies no withholding tax on dividends paid to the foreign parent.

As a member of the European Union (EU), Austria is governed by the provisions of the EU's Parent-Subsidiary directive. Thus, an Austrian holding company which holds at least 25% of the shares of an EU subsidiary can receive dividends from the subsidiary free of withholding tax.

An Austrian company can access a large network of double taxation treaties Austria has signed with major trading nations around the world.

Austria company formation is reputable. Austria is positively ranked as the 16th least corrupt country in the 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International, a global measure of corruption amongst public officials and politicians. Furthermore, Austria is positively ranked as the world's 22nd freest economy in the Heritage Organisation’s 2010 Index of Economic Freedom, a measure of freedom enjoyed in business, trade, monetary, financial, investment and labour markets. Additionally, Austria is ranked 17th in the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010.

It is easy to open global corporate bank accounts to support Austria company formation. Healy Consultants works with internationally recognised banks such as HSBC, Standard Chartered and Citibank to provide corporate bank account services.

In its 2009 World Competitiveness Yearbook, the Switzerland-based IMD positively ranks Austria as the world’s 14th most competitive economy. The ranking takes into account factors including economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure.

Vienna ranks 6th in the Monocle Quality of Life Index. The index bases its ranking on factors like quality of housing, urban scale as well as amount of crime and the quality of education and healthcare.

In the 2009 Worldwide Quality of Living Survey Mercer, Vienna is positively ranked as the world’s most livable city.

A GmbH pays corporate profits tax of 25% on all income. In addition financial statements must be submitted to the Austrian Chamber of Commerce. Healy Consultants will assist our clients efficiently and effectively to complete this annual statutory obligation.

A register containing shareholders and directors details is available for public viewing, following Austria company formation.

Forbes Tax Misery Index 2009 rated Austria as having the 6th highest tax misery in the world. The index takes into account corporate income, employer social security, personal income, employee social security, wealth tax and VAT/sales. Forbes suggests the index can be used as a proxy to evaluate whether a country’s policy attracts or repels capital and talent.

Austria company formation is a relatively time consuming process. According to the World Bank's Doing Business 2010 Survey, Austria is the world's 28th easiest place to do business. The survey measures factors including business start up procedures, time, cost and minimum capital required to start a business.