At Vat Return

Austrian VAT return: the UVA (U 30) and the annual return (U 1), 2026

This skill turns a business's bank statement and invoices into the Austrian VAT advance return (Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung, UVA, form U 30) and the annual VAT return (Umsatzsteuererklärung, U 1) for tax year 2026. The law is the Umsatzsteuergesetz 1994 (UStG) and its Binnenmarkt annex, both read on RIS in the version of 26 October 2026, with the Bundesabgabenordnung (BAO) for deadlines and surcharges. The VAT year is the calendar year.

Who this applies to

• In: sole traders, partnerships and companies that make supplies in Austria (§ 1 Abs 1 Z 1 and 2 UStG), whether they are on normal taxation or deciding whether the small business exemption applies.
• The tax debtor is the supplier (§ 19 Abs 1 UStG), except where the tax passes to the customer (reverse charge, see the base section).
• Small businesses with turnover up to EUR 55,000 are exempt unless they opt out (§ 6 Abs 1 Z 27 UStG). They charge no VAT and deduct none.
• Out of scope, refer: the one-stop shop (OSS), VAT groups (Organschaft), the margin scheme, travel services (§ 23 UStG), flat-rate farming (§ 22 UStG), partial exemption apportionment, property sales and opted lettings, fiscal representation, Jungholz and Mittelberg.

Rates, bands and thresholds

The rates in § 10 apply in a strict order: 4.9% first, then 10%, then 13%. The 4.9% rate applies only where the goods fall wholly under a combined-nomenclature heading listed in Anlage 3. It never applies to services, so restaurant sales and catering stay at 10% (BMF food rate page). For any item not named here, take the rate from § 10 and its annexes, not from memory.

Transition for the 4.9% rate: a down payment received before 1 July 2026 for Anlage 3 food delivered on or after 1 July 2026 is taxed at the rate in force when it is received, and corrected to 4.9% once the delivery is made. The supplier may instead show and tax the down payment at 4.9% on the invoice straight away; then no invoice correction is needed when the rate changes (BMF food rate FAQ, question 2).

The taxable base

The small business exemption (§ 6 Abs 1 Z 27 and Abs 3 UStG)

• A business whose seat is in Austria or another member state is exempt if its turnover did not exceed EUR 55,000 in the previous calendar year and has not yet exceeded it in the current year.
• The limit is gross: the law says not to compute it on a notional taxable base. Leave out ancillary sales (Hilfsgeschäfte) including the sale of the whole business, and the exempt sales listed in § 6 Abs 1 Z 27 (Z 8 lit d and j, Z 9 lit b and d, Z 10 to 15, Z 17 to 26, Z 28).
• Over the limit: the exemption ends from that moment. Over by no more than 10%: it still applies to 31 December.
• Exempt businesses deduct no input VAT. VAT shown on an invoice anyway is owed (§ 11 Abs 12, KZ 056) until the invoice is corrected.
• Waiver: a written declaration to the tax office until the assessment is final. It runs from the start of a calendar year and binds for at least five calendar years. A domestic business revokes it only from the start of a year, by the end of January of that year.
• EU SME scheme (Art. 6a Binnenmarkt): an Austrian small business can be exempt in another member state only after an advance notification through the BMF portal, while its EU-wide turnover stays at or below EUR 100,000 in the previous and current year. It then reports turnover per member state each quarter, within one month of the quarter's end. There is no tolerance on the EUR 100,000.

Worked tolerance check (2026): sales January to October EUR 54,500, a November order of EUR 4,000 takes the year to EUR 58,500. The ceiling is 55,000 x 1.1 = EUR 60,500, so 2026 stays exempt, and the business is taxable from 1 January 2027 because 2026 exceeded EUR 55,000. A further sale taking 2026 above EUR 60,500 is taxable from that sale onward.

Timing basis (§ 17 and § 19 Abs 2 UStG)

• Accrual basis (Soll): tax arises at the end of the month of supply. A later invoice defers it by at most one month. No deferral where the tax passes to the customer on a service.
• Cash basis (Ist): tax arises at the end of the month of payment, including down payments. It applies to freelance professions and non-accounting traders, and to other businesses (for example landlords) whose total turnover was not above EUR 110,000 in one of the two prior years.
• Foreign currency is converted at the BMF average rate for the period, the latest ECB rate, or the daily rate backed by a bank advice (§ 20 Abs 6).

Reverse charge (§ 19 UStG)

• Services and work supplies from a business with no Austrian establishment to a business customer: the customer owes the tax (§ 19 Abs 1 second sentence). Excluded: federal road tolls, the event services in § 3a Abs 11a, and letting of land. The supplier is liable too.
• Construction (§ 19 Abs 1a): the customer owes the tax if it was itself commissioned to do the building work, or usually supplies construction services. Labour hire for construction counts.
• Other cases (§ 19 Abs 1b to 1e): security ownership, retained title and forced sales of land (KZ 044); scrap, metals, gold, gas and electricity under the § 19 Abs 1d regulation (KZ 032); mobile phones, chips, tablets and laptops from EUR 5,000 invoiced under § 19 Abs 1e (KZ 057). Refer if the facts are not on the statement.
• Goods from an EU business: an intra-EU acquisition, taxed by the buyer (Art. 1 Binnenmarkt), with input VAT in KZ 065.
• Invoices for supplies where the customer owes the tax show the customer's UID and a note that the tax passes to the customer (§ 11 Abs 1a).

Input VAT (§ 12 UStG)

• Deductible on a proper invoice for a supply to the business, used at least 10% for business. Cash-basis businesses under EUR 2,000,000 deduct only once they have paid.
• Down payments: input VAT on a payment made before the supply is deductible once the invoice is held and the payment has been made (§ 12 Abs 1 Z 1 lit b).
• Cars, estate cars and motorcycles: no input VAT on purchase, lease or running costs, even at full business use (§ 12 Abs 2 Z 2 lit b). Exceptions: driving school cars, demonstration cars, cars held for resale, cars used at least 80% for commercial passenger transport or rental, vans on the BMF list, and zero-emission cars (§ 12 Abs 2 Z 2a), within the EUR 40,000 reasonableness limit.
• Business meals: default block. If the client proves the meal serves advertising and the business purpose far outweighs everything else, half is deductible for income tax (§ 20 Abs 1 Z 3 EStG). The cost is then not mainly non-deductible, so § 12 Abs 2 Z 2 lit a does not block the input VAT, and it is deducted in full.
• Travel services bought in for resale to travellers: no input VAT.
• Change of use of a capital asset is corrected under § 12 Abs 10 and 11 in KZ 063. For land the period is the 19 years after the year of first use, one twentieth a year.
• Unknown VAT status or business share: no deduction until the client answers.

Exempt supplies

• Exempt with credit: exports (§ 7, KZ 011), intra-EU supplies of goods to a business with a valid UID (Art. 6 Abs 1 Binnenmarkt, KZ 017, and the ZM). An intra-EU supply stays exempt only if the ZM is filed correctly, or the failure is justified to the tax office.
• Exempt without credit: medical, insurance, finance, land sales (KZ 019 for land, KZ 020 for others). Business premises letting is exempt unless the landlord opts to tax (§ 6 Abs 2). If material alongside taxable sales, refer (partial exemption).
• Not taxable in Austria: a general-rule B2B service to an EU business is taxed where the customer is (§ 3a Abs 6). It goes in neither KZ 000 nor KZ 021, but in the ZM.

Kennzahl map of the 2026 U 30

From the BMF 2026 U 30 form, read on 26 October 2026, which carries the new 4.9% boxes.

How the boxes work:

• Rate boxes take the base; the form computes the tax. KZ 057, 048, 044 and 032 take the tax itself; its input VAT goes in KZ 066, 082, 087 and 089, so the net is zero with full deduction.
• Price changes (discounts, bad debts) go into the current period, not the old one (§ 16). If a box would turn negative, enter zero and put the amount in KZ 067 or KZ 090.
• KZ 021 holds sales already in KZ 000 where the customer owes the tax, such as construction subcontracts.

Bank-statement patterns

Conservative defaults when the client cannot answer: unknown counterparty country, treat as domestic; unknown whether an EU customer is a business, charge Austrian VAT; unknown rate on a sale, 20%. A foreign hotel bill is excluded: foreign VAT is reclaimed through the EU refund procedure (§ 21 Abs 9), not the UVA.

Deadlines and filing

• UVA and payment: by the 15th of the second month after the period (§ 21 Abs 1). Quarterly: 15 May, 15 August, 15 November, 15 February. A due date on a Saturday, Sunday, public holiday, Good Friday or 24 December moves to the next working day (BMF deadlines page).
• Period: monthly if prior-year turnover exceeded EUR 100,000, otherwise quarterly. A quarterly filer can choose monthly for the whole year by filing the January UVA on time (§ 21 Abs 2).
• No UVA filing if prior-year turnover did not exceed EUR 55,000 and the payment is made in full on time, or there is none. The business still prepares a statement of the bases on the official form and keeps it with its records, unless the period shows neither a payment nor a refund (§ 21 Abs 1 and the UVA regulation). A refund is claimed only by filing.
• Filing route: electronically through FinanzOnline. Paper only where the filer has no internet access, or, for a self-filed annual return, where prior-year turnover did not exceed EUR 55,000 (§ 2 FinanzOnline-Erklärungsverordnung). Keep a copy of every UVA.
• Correcting a UVA: a corrected UVA filed by the due date counts as the UVA itself (§ 21 Abs 1). Later, correct in the annual return or with a self-disclosure.
• ZM: by the end of the month after each calendar month, or after each quarter for quarterly UVA filers (Art. 21 Abs 3 Binnenmarkt). It covers intra-EU supplies of goods, transfers under call-off stock, and general-rule B2B services where the customer owes the tax. A wrong ZM must be corrected within one month of discovery.
• Annual U 1: 30 April of the next year on paper, 30 June through FinanzOnline (USP filing page). A business represented by a tax adviser files later under the quota system (§ 134a BAO). A small business with turnover up to EUR 55,000 and no tax to pay files no annual return (§ 21 Abs 6). An additional amount from the assessment does not get a new due date (§ 21 Abs 5).
• 2025 annual U 1, being filed now: due 30 June 2026 online.

Penalties and interest

• Late payment (§ 217 BAO): 2% of the unpaid amount. A surcharge below EUR 50 is not set (§ 217 Abs 10). A further 1% if still unpaid three months after it became enforceable, and another 1% three months later. No first surcharge if the delay is at most five days and everything was paid on time in the previous six months.
• Late filing (§ 135 BAO): up to 10% of the self-computed tax, if the delay is not excusable. Not set below EUR 50.
• VAT interest (§ 205c BAO): 2% a year above the base rate (2.03% from 16 September 2026, so 4.03%), on refunds from the 91st day after the UVA arrives, and on additional tax from the 91st day after the UVA due date (from 1 October of the next year where the additional tax comes from the annual return). Not set below EUR 50.
• Late ZM: surcharge up to 1% of the reportable amounts, at most EUR 2,200 (Art. 21 Abs 10 Binnenmarkt).
• Self-disclosure (§ 29 FinStrG): protects only if made before investigations start, with the bases fully disclosed and the tax paid within a month. Made after an audit is announced, it also needs an extra charge of 5% of the additional tax, 15% above EUR 33,000, 20% above EUR 100,000 and 30% above EUR 250,000 (§ 29 Abs 6).
• Shortfall surcharge (§ 30a FinStrG): in an audit, the tax office can impose 10% of the additional tax (15% above EUR 50,000) instead of a criminal case, if the additional tax is at most EUR 33,000 a year and EUR 100,000 in total. The taxpayer agrees within 14 days, waives an appeal and pays within one month.

Cross-border points

• Place of supply first, then the rate. A B2B service is taxed where the customer is (§ 3a Abs 6). Special rules (land, events, passenger transport) are not in the ZM; check where they are taxed.
• Foreign suppliers without an Austrian establishment: the Austrian business customer reverse-charges (KZ 057 and 066).
• Non-resident businesses with taxable Austrian sales register with the Finanzamt Österreich and may appoint a fiscal representative (§ 27 Abs 7); refer. Those who only owe reverse-charge tax with full deduction are assessed only on request (§ 21 Abs 6).
• Refunds: an EU business without Austrian sales reclaims Austrian VAT through the EU refund procedure; an Austrian business reclaims foreign VAT electronically (§ 21 Abs 9 and 10).
• B2C distance sales and e-services to other member states above the EU-wide threshold go through OSS: refer.
• EU SME scheme: see the base section; the EUR 100,000 EU-wide limit has no tolerance.

Worked examples

Example 1: IT consultant, monthly UVA for September 2026

An IT consultancy in Vienna on normal taxation, monthly filer (2025 turnover EUR 400,000). September 2026: Austrian sales EUR 30,000 net at 20%; consulting for a German business EUR 12,000 (taxed in Germany, ZM only); a US software subscription of EUR 1,000 (reverse charge); domestic input VAT of EUR 2,400 on proper invoices.

• KZ 022: base 30,000, tax 6,000.
• KZ 057: 1,000 x 20% = 200; the same 200 in KZ 066.
• KZ 060: 2,400.
• KZ 095: 6,000 + 200 - 200 - 2,400 = 3,600, due 15 November 2026. 15 November is a Sunday, so it moves to Monday 16 November.
• ZM for September: 12,000 to the German UID. Due 31 October 2026, a Saturday, and 1 November is a Sunday and a holiday, so it moves to Monday 2 November 2026 (§ 108 Abs 3 BAO).

oaCopy code
name: Vienna IT consultancy, September 2026 UVA with reverse charge and ZM
inputs:
  domestic_sales: 30000
  eu_b2b_service: 12000
  us_software: 1000
  input_vat_domestic: 2400
steps:
  - output_vat: domestic_sales * 20 / 100
  - kz057: us_software * 20 / 100
  - kz066: kz057
  - kz095: output_vat + kz057 - kz066 - input_vat_domestic
  - zm_amount: eu_b2b_service
expected:
  output_vat: 6000
  kz057: 200
  kz066: 200
  kz095: 3600
  zm_amount: 12000

Example 2: grocer, Q3 2026 with the new 4.9% rate, paid late

A grocer in Graz, quarterly filer. Q3 2026 (July to September), the first quarter of the new rate: Anlage 3 basic foods EUR 60,000 net at 4.9%; other food EUR 30,000 at 10%; household goods EUR 15,000 at 20%; input VAT EUR 4,500. The payment due 16 November 2026 (15 November is a Sunday) is made on 10 December 2026, more than five days late, so the first 2% surcharge applies.

• KZ 124: 60,000 x 4.9% = 2,940. KZ 029: 30,000 x 10% = 3,000. KZ 022: 15,000 x 20% = 3,000.
• Output VAT 8,940, less input VAT 4,500: KZ 095 is 4,440.
• Surcharge: 4,440 x 2% = 88.80. It is at least EUR 50, so it is set (§ 217 Abs 10 BAO).

oaCopy code
name: Graz grocer, Q3 2026 UVA at 4.9%, 10% and 20%, paid late
inputs:
  food_anlage3: 60000
  food_other: 30000
  standard_goods: 15000
  input_vat: 4500
steps:
  - vat_49: food_anlage3 * 49 / 1000
  - vat_10: food_other * 10 / 100
  - vat_20: standard_goods * 20 / 100
  - output_vat: vat_49 + vat_10 + vat_20
  - kz095: output_vat - input_vat
  - surcharge: round(kz095 * 2 / 100, 2)
expected:
  vat_49: 2940
  vat_10: 3000
  vat_20: 3000
  output_vat: 8940
  kz095: 4440
  surcharge: 88.80

Ask the client first

• Are you on normal taxation or the small business exemption? If you waived it, from which year? What was your turnover in 2025 and so far in 2026?
• Monthly or quarterly UVA, and are you on the cash or accrual basis?
• For each foreign supplier: which legal entity invoiced you, and does the invoice show Austrian VAT? For each EU customer: do you hold its valid UID?
• Any Anlage 3 basic foods sold since 1 July 2026, or restaurant and catering sales?
• For each vehicle: ordinary car, zero-emission car or a van on the BMF list?
• Any construction bought or sold, exempt sales, property, or an earlier UVA that was wrong or late?

Sources

Not yet confirmed: the BMF van list (Kleinbus and Kleinlastkraftwagen regulation) and any upper cap above EUR 40,000 for zero-emission cars, which are BMF guidance not read today; the EUR 40 gift threshold for own use, which is in the VAT guidelines, not the statute; the 2026 U 30a filling instructions (the BMF form server did not return the file); three rules from the old version that the statute does not state: that input VAT on start-up costs before the first sale is deductible (UStR guidance, not read today), that a new business with no prior year files monthly from the start if it expects turnover above EUR 100,000 (§ 21 Abs 2 tests only the prior year), and that a domestic reverse-charge invoice is due by the 15th of the month after the supply (the statute sets that deadline only for intra-EU supplies of goods, Art. 11 Abs 1 Binnenmarkt).

This skill is general information, not tax advice. Have a Steuerberater check a return before it is filed.

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General reference only. This document does not constitute tax, legal, or financial advice. Verify figures against the cited primary sources or with a licensed professional before relying on them.

Today's figures and who stands behind this skill

This file is an AI skill (tax rules your AI follows) from OpenAccountants, copied on 2026-10-27. Rates, thresholds and deadlines change. For the current version of this skill, its official sources and the named accountant (if any) who stands behind it, call get_skill with slug at-vat-return on the OpenAccountants connector (https://www.openaccountants.com/connect), or read https://www.openaccountants.com/skills/at-vat-return. If neither is available, confirm every figure against the official source pages cited above before relying on it.