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Avoiding tax traps during the crisis

31/03/2020

Tax traps for expatriates

If an expatriate returns to their home country and works from home there, their home country might gain the right to tax their salary!

What is important is where the centre of the employee's life interests are, e.g. whether their family lives in Austria or abroad.

  • Residence of the employee in Austria
    Austria retains the right of taxation if the salary continues to be paid in Austria and the employee does not stay physically abroad for more than 183 days.
  • Residence of the employee abroad
    If home office work is carried out abroad, the foreign country of residence has the right to tax the salaries paid during this period.

We can offer you practical solutions to this problem!

Tax traps for rental contracts 

Many tenants are currently claiming a rent reduction or deferral from their landlord. This can inadvertently trigger the legal transaction fee for the rental agreements.

The exemption by the 2nd COVID-19 Act of the fees covered by Section 35 (8) of the Austrian Fees Act (GebG) only applies to stamp fees levied on documents and official actions, not to transaction fees.
We will be happy to support you in avoiding this fee trap! 

Restructuring 

The corona crisis has serious economic consequences. Companies will have to rapidly implement restructuring measures, e.g.

  • Outsourcing of risk areas (tax risk avoidance),
  • Reorganisation for the tax-optimised utilisation of losses,
  • Measures to create positive equity capital, and
  • Restructuring in case of bad debts within the group (tax risk avoidance).

We will gladly support you in taking these steps!

Securing liquidity

We have compiled a list of possible measures aimed at securing your liquidity. You can find more information here.

Co-Athors: Alexander Hiermann, Manuel Cimbaro

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