Is There Inheritance Tax in Austria?

No, and the statute says so in an unusual way: the act that charged them is still in force, with nothing left to charge.

The Erbschafts- und Schenkungssteuergesetz 1955 taxed three things in § 1 Abs. 1. The consolidated text prints the first two as struck out, "Z 1 aufgehoben durch VfGH, BGBl. I Nr. 9/2007" for acquisitions on death and "Z 2 aufgehoben durch VfGH, BGBl. I Nr. 39/2007" for gifts between living persons. Both repeals took effect at the end of 31 July 2008.

That left the third head, Zweckzuwendungen, dispositions tied to a purpose, and the legislature ended that one itself. § 34 Abs. 1 Z 13, inserted by the Schenkungsmeldegesetz 2008, BGBl. I Nr. 85/2008: "Abgaben nach diesem Bundesgesetz werden für Vorgänge gemäß § 1 Abs. 1 Z 3, für die die Steuerschuld nach dem 31. Juli 2008 entsteht, nicht mehr erhoben."

Both repeal notes and that sentence sit on one page, ErbStG 1955 § 1 in the version in force from 1 August 2008, which reproduces the transitional provision as a standing note. The official portal states the result in English: "No inheritance or gift tax is payable under Austrian law."

The reason matters, because it shapes what replaced the tax.

The Court's objection was not to the tax but to how it valued land. In G 54/06, decided 7 March 2007 it held that flat multiples of the assessed value are "an sich ein untaugliches Mittel", so that the charge turned on "welcher Wert dem Grundbesitz vor Jahrzehnten beizulegen war", what the land had been worth decades earlier rather than what the heir received.

Repealing the valuation rule alone would have left land with no allowances at all, for which there is "keine sachliche Rechtfertigung", so the Court repealed the charging provision instead and gave the legislature until 31 July 2008, because "die Bedenken des Gerichtshofes sich nicht gegen eine Besteuerung der Erwerbe von Todes wegen an sich richten, sondern gegen die gegenwärtige Ausgestaltung". The objection was to the design, not the idea.

Three months later, G 23/07 of 15 June 2007 did the same to the gift charge, again recording "keine Bedenken gegen die Schenkungssteuer an sich", and expressly declined to decide whether gifts of land would fall into the real-estate transfer tax instead. They did. The legislature never used the time it was given.

None of these is an inheritance tax, each sits in a different act, and three can apply to the same transfer.

Land passing on a death is caught by GrEStG § 1 Abs. 1 Z 2: "der Erwerb des Eigentums, wenn kein den Anspruch auf Übereignung begründendes Rechtsgeschäft vorausgegangen ist", ownership acquired where no transaction creating a right to it came first. An inheritance is exactly that.

It counts as gratuitous whatever was paid. GrEStG § 7 Abs. 1 Z 1 lit. b deems an acquisition gratuitous where it comes by Erbanfall, by legacy, in satisfaction of a Pflichtteil claim agreed before the estate proceeding ends, or under WEG § 14 Abs. 1 Z 1. Lit. c does the same inside the family circle described below.

The base is neither the price nor the market value. § 4 Abs. 3 Z 1 puts a gratuitous acquisition on the Grundstückswert, which § 6 Abs. 4 computes as three times the pro-rata land value plus the building value, or from a property price index. A lower market value may be proved, and an expert valuation "hat ... die Vermutung der Richtigkeit für sich". That is the provision the 2007 judgment asked for.

The last row surprises people. Acquisitions by the same acquirer in the previous five years are added together for the rate, at their earlier values.

Three exemptions in GrEStG § 3: a taxable value of EUR 1,100 or less (Abs. 1 Z 1 lit. a); a dwelling passing to the spouse or registered partner that was the acquirer's own principal residence at the death, so far as it is 150 m² or smaller (Abs. 1 Z 7a); and a EUR 900,000 allowance on business land, clawed back if it is not kept for five years (Abs. 1 Z 2).

The debt arises later than the death: under § 8 Abs. 4 when the Einantwortung order becomes final, or for a legacy with the court's confirmation under AußStrG § 182 Abs. 3. Selling afterwards is a different tax again: how capital gains are taxed in Austria.

Two of the charges soften for family, and they use different definitions of it. The staged transfer-tax rate and the reduced land-register base both borrow the circle in Gerichtsgebührengesetz § 26a Abs. 1 Z 1. The EUR 50,000 band in the gift notification uses Angehörige in BAO § 25, which reaches further out.

The transfer tax is not the end of it. ABGB § 819 requires the heirs to have the ownership the Einantwortung gives them entered in the public books, and that entry has its own tariff in the Gerichtsgebührengesetz, a court-fee act rather than a tax act.

Applying costs EUR 61 from 1 August 2026, raised from EUR 58 by BGBl. II Nr. 227/2026, with EUR 24 more where the application and documents are not filed electronically (Tarifpost 9 lit. a, Anm. 1 and Anm. 1a). Registering ownership costs 1.1 percent of the value of the right under Tarifpost 9 lit. b Z 1, less EUR 30 if paid by direct debit.

For a transfer inside the § 26a circle the base changes rather than the rate: three times the Einheitswert, capped at 30 percent of the value of the right. Under § 26a Abs. 2 it has to be claimed at the head of the application, citing the provision and proving the relationship. The court does not apply it unprompted.

The act that wound up the old tax also created a duty that outlived it. BAO § 121a came into force on 27 June 2008, five weeks before the tax stopped applying, and it is still there.

What has to be notified, under Abs. 1 Z 1: cash and capital claims, shares in corporations and in partnerships without their own legal personality, silent partnership interests, businesses, and movable tangible and intangible assets. Land is not on that list, because a gift of land goes into the transfer-tax declaration instead. The duty arises only where the recipient, the donor or the settlor was connected to Austria by a domicile, a habitual abode, a seat or a place of management.

Two thresholds, on two different clocks. Between Angehörige the exemption is EUR 50,000, adding up acquisitions from the same person within one year; between anyone else it is EUR 15,000 over five years. Customary presents up to EUR 1,000 and household goods sit outside it. The deadline is three months from the acquisition that first crosses the line, and the duty falls jointly and severally on the recipient, the donor and any lawyer or notary who took part.

Two things make the filing worth doing even when nothing is owed. FinStrG § 49a Abs. 1 makes an intentional failure a Finanzordnungswidrigkeit punishable by up to 10 percent of the market value of everything unnotified, and Abs. 2 shuts the escape route a year after the deadline passes. Under § 121a Abs. 8, where a gift is asserted in later tax proceedings and was never notified, the taxpayer carries the burden of proving it was a gift at all.

One change is already gazetted. From 1 January 2027 the notification goes on the official electronic form in FinanzOnline unless that is unreasonable; nothing else changes. BAO § 121a in the version in force from 1 January 2027.

This is the part the tax pages leave out, and the part with a deadline.

The share passes, and no notarial deed is needed for it to. GmbHG § 76 Abs. 1 is one sentence: "Die Geschäftsanteile sind übertragbar und vererblich." The Notariatsakt Austrian law is known for is attached by Abs. 2 to a transfer "mittels Rechtsgeschäftes unter Lebenden". A devolution on death is not one.

Between the death and the court's order, the estate holds it. ABGB § 546: "Mit dem Tod setzt die Verlassenschaft als juristische Person die Rechtsposition des Verstorbenen fort." The estate continues the deceased's legal position as a legal person of its own. § 797 adds that nobody may take an estate into possession unilaterally: it passes by the Einantwortung, the order AußStrG § 177 requires once the heirs and their shares are established.

Until the register catches up, the company does not know. GmbHG § 78 Abs. 1: "Im Verhältnis zur Gesellschaft gilt nur derjenige als Gesellschafter, der im Firmenbuch als solcher aufscheint." § 26 Abs. 1 puts the filing on the managing directors, without delay once the passing of the share is proved to them, and Abs. 2 makes them liable jointly and severally for a wrong or delayed one.

Two points are specific to a death. Splitting a share among heirs is allowed even where the articles forbid splitting, because § 79 Abs. 1 excepts "den Fall der Vererbung", though the articles may reserve the company's consent. And where the death changes who ultimately controls the company, the beneficial-owner filing under WiEReG § 5 Abs. 1 starts a four-week clock.

The shares bear no transfer tax of their own, the exception being GrEStG § 1 Abs. 3, which reaches a company's Austrian land when enough interests move at once. What the heirs later take out of the company is income in their hands: the income tax guide.

Which law governs the succession turns on residence, not nationality. Under the EU Succession Regulation, which applies in every Member State except Ireland and Denmark, "the last place of habitual residence of the deceased is the decisive factor in determining the competent courts and applicable law", unless the will chooses the law of the deceased's nationality instead: the Federal Chancellery portal's English page on inheritance within the European Union, updated 1 January 2026.

Tax does not follow that rule, and the same page says so: the Regulation "does not govern inheritance tax matters", and liability on inherited immovable property "is in principle determined by the State in which the immovable property concerned is located". Austrian land is an Austrian matter however far away the parties live, and GrEStG § 9 Z 1 puts the tax on the acquirer.

The declaration deadline has a limb written for exactly this case. It falls due by the 15th day of the second month after the month in which the tax debt arose, and the § 9 persons and any notary, lawyer or other representative who acted are liable jointly and severally. Where the acquisition did not come through an Austrian estate proceeding and is proved by a European Certificate of Succession under Regulation (EU) No 650/2012, the clock runs instead from the month the certificate was issued: GrEStG § 10 in the version in force from 1 January 2027, which also makes the declaration electronic from that date. An exempt acquisition is still declared.

We are a company-formation and corporate-services provider. Advice on tax, including how any of this applies to a particular estate, is reserved by WTBG 2017 § 2 Abs. 1 to a licensed Steuerberater, and acting in the probate court is a notary's and a lawyer's work.

So this page states provisions and says nothing about your own position. What we handle is the company half: what a company's file requires when a shareholder or managing director dies, the Firmenbuch filing, the beneficial-owner register, and working alongside the notary handling the estate rather than in place of one.

• ErbStG 1955 §§ 1 and 34; GrEStG 1987 §§ 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10; BAO §§ 25 and 121a; FinStrG § 49a; GGG § 26a and Tarifpost 9; GmbHG §§ 26, 76, 78 and 79; ABGB §§ 546, 797 and 819; AußStrG §§ 177 and 182. Read as Bundeskanzleramt open data on 17 September 2026.
• Verfassungsgerichtshof G 54/06 and G 23/07, both read in full; oesterreich.gv.at, Inheritance within the European Union, English, updated 1 January 2026.

If an Austrian company is part of the estate. The filings do not wait for the probate court: the Firmenbuch entry falls due as soon as the passing of the share is proved to the directors, and the beneficial-owner register runs its own four-week clock.

Company Registration Austria: Holding Company in Austria Where the Austrian company sits under or above another one, the questions about who holds what, and which register has to be told, multiply rather than add.

Tell us which company is involved and what you are being asked to file: ask us about the company side, or start your onboarding if you are ready to engage.