Sole Proprietorship in Austria (Einzelunternehmen)

Start with the definition, because almost everything else follows from it. UGB § 1 says "Unternehmer ist, wer ein Unternehmen betreibt": an entrepreneur is whoever runs a business. And a business is "jede auf Dauer angelegte Organisation selbständiger wirtschaftlicher Tätigkeit, mag sie auch nicht auf Gewinn gerichtet sein", any durable organisation of independent economic activity, even one not directed at profit. No capital, no deed, no register entry and no profit motive appear in that test.

So a sole trader is not something you create. It is a description of a person who is already doing something. Compare UGB § 2, which makes an AG, a GmbH, a cooperative and their relatives entrepreneurs by legal form: those exist because they were formed, and no natural person is on that list. UGB § 3 adds a third route worth knowing: a person wrongly entered in the register who trades under their registered name counts as an entrepreneur anyway.

UGB § 4 takes two groups out of the rules that follow, the liberal professions and farmers and foresters, while letting both opt in by registering, unless their own professional rules forbid it.

One more sentence prevents a common mistake. UGB § 6 provides that public-law rules which exclude the right to do business, or make it conditional, do not affect the application of the Code. The trade code and the commercial code are two systems. Being an entrepreneur does not give you a trade licence, and not holding one does not stop you being an entrepreneur.

No Austrian provision says a sole trader is personally liable, and that is not an oversight. Liability has to be limited by a rule; it does not have to be created by one. The person is the debtor because the business is not a separate legal subject.

What the law does write, it writes for the company. GmbHG § 61 Abs. 1 gives the GmbH its own rights and duties, and Abs. 2 is the whole of the difference in one line: "Für die Verbindlichkeiten der Gesellschaft haftet ihren Gläubigern nur das Gesellschaftsvermögen", only the company's assets answer to its creditors. Read the Einzelunternehmen against that and the missing provision is the answer.

The Code uses the words once about a sole trader's business, and it is instructive where. UGB § 40 Abs. 1 says an heir who carries the business on is liable for its business-related debts "unbeschränkt", without limit, on top of his liability as heir. The statute writes the default down only at the point where the business changes hands.

Most sole traders never appear in the Firmenbuch, and that is lawful. UGB § 8 Abs. 1 says it in three sentences: a natural person acting as an entrepreneur who falls under the UGB § 189 accounting duty is obliged to be entered, other sole traders are entitled to be, and a voluntary entry is deleted again on application. The register is a right you can take up and give back, not a duty you are in breach of.

The trigger sits in UGB § 189 Abs. 1 Z 3, in the version in force from 19 February 2026: every other entrepreneur with more than EUR 700,000 of turnover per uniform business in a financial year, with Abs. 4 keeping the liberal professions, farmers and foresters out altogether. The timing rules and the acceleration where the threshold is cleared by a wide margin are on our guide to starting a business in Austria.

Two people running something together should read Abs. 3 of § 8 rather than this page: an informal civil-law partnership above the same threshold has to be registered as an OG or a KG, which are different forms.

The fee is fixed by the Gerichtsgebührengesetz and it is small. It is also charged in two parts, which is why published figures for it vary.

Two annotations are worth having in writing. Under Anmerkung Z 4 the application fee is owed whatever the outcome, including where the filing leads to no entry at all. Against that, NeuFöG § 1 Z 3 removes the court fees for a qualifying new business, and Anmerkung Z 8 keeps the relief alive where the official form reaches the court within 14 days of the application, provided the application claimed it expressly.

This runs in both directions: registering imposes a suffix, and not registering imposes your own name.

A Firma is not a trading style. UGB § 17 Abs. 1 defines it as the entrepreneur's name as entered in the Firmenbuch, under which he does business and signs, and Abs. 2 lets it be used as the party designation before courts and administrative authorities, with one carve-out: not for a sole trader in criminal proceedings. UGB § 18 sets the test the register court applies. The Firma must identify the entrepreneur and possess distinctiveness, and must not mislead about business circumstances material to the relevant public, although before the court that last point counts only where it is apparent.

Then the suffix. UGB § 19 Abs. 1 Z 1 requires a registered sole trader's Firma to contain "eingetragener Unternehmer" or "eingetragene Unternehmerin", or a generally understood abbreviation of it, "insbesondere e.U.". That is where the e.U. on an Austrian invoice comes from, and it is not decoration: it tells a counterparty that one natural person stands behind the contract.

One line in § 63 Abs. 1 catches people out: a bare telephone number, a post-office box or an email address with no distinctive expression in it is not capable of identifying the business, so it will not do as the designation. And once a name is in the register, UGB § 37 gives whoever is injured by another's unauthorised use of it a claim to stop that use, on top of any damages claim.

The Firmenbuch is a public register kept by the courts (UGB § 7), and FBG § 2 Z 1 puts Einzelunternehmer first in the list of who goes in it. For a natural person the entry shows more than a company's does.

FBG § 3 Abs. 1 lists the general fields: the register number, the Firma, the legal form, the seat and the business address for service, a short self-described line of business, any branches, and, for a sole trader, name and date of birth. Abs. 2 adds that on the entry of a natural person the address is also shown. Two further fields matter later on this page: Z 10 records agreements under UGB § 38 Abs. 4, and Z 15 records transactions transferring a business or part of one, with their legal ground, at both the acquirer and the transferor.

One provision answers a question every non-resident owner asks. Under Abs. 2a, a natural person with no active residence registration in Austria states nationality and country of residence in the application, and those two data points are not entered in the Firmenbuch: they go to Statistik Austria for the business register under Bundesstatistikgesetz 2000 § 25 Abs. 2. Abs. 3 works the other way, and the website address is entered only on request.

FBG § 4 adds fields that exist only for sole traders and registered partnerships, and they are not what a founder expects: marriage contracts, an ordered consent reservation and the Verlassenschaftsprovisorium under UGB § 32, and substitutions under ABGB §§ 707 to 709.

There are no shares in an Einzelunternehmen, so there is nothing to sell in the way a GmbH is sold. What changes hands is the business itself, under a short set of UGB rules few people read before they sign.

UGB § 38 Abs. 1 is the default: whoever continues a business acquired inter vivos takes over the seller's business-related, not strictly personal legal relationships, with the rights and liabilities established up to the transfer, unless something else is agreed, and securities given for them stay in place. Under Abs. 2 the other party may object within three months of being told, and has to be told of that right in the notice.

Abs. 4 decides who pays. The buyer is liable for the business-related liabilities even where he does not take the relationship over, and an agreement to the contrary binds a third party only where, at the transfer, it was entered in the Firmenbuch, made known in a customary way, or notified to that third party. That is the one place on this page where the register is worth money rather than credibility.

Nothing here is advice on your own position, which Austrian law reserves to a licensed Steuerberater under WTBG 2017 § 2 Abs. 1. These are the rules and where they are written.

The profit is the owner's income. EStG § 23 Z 1 calls it income from a trade or business, and it is taxed under the same income tax tariff as a salary, set out on the income tax guide on this site. There is no second layer, because taking money out of your own business is not a distribution and there is nobody to distribute to.

One consequence decides more GmbH-versus-sole-trader questions than any rate does. A natural person is not a corporation, so a sole trader owes no corporate income tax and, in particular, no minimum corporate income tax: the EUR 125 for each full calendar quarter and EUR 500 a year in KStG § 24 Abs. 4 Z 1 are charged on corporations, and a company owes them in a year that produces nothing.

Three reliefs exist because the taxpayer is a natural person. EStG § 10, in the version in force from 30 July 2026, gives a Gewinnfreibetrag on a sliding scale to a ceiling of EUR 46,400 a year. The part that needs nothing in return is the Grundfreibetrag: 15 percent of the first EUR 33,000 of the base, so at most EUR 4,950, once an assessment year with no investment requirement. Above EUR 33,000 the further allowance has to be covered by the cost of qualifying assets. EStG § 17 adds two flat-rate regimes: from the 2026 assessment, business expenses at 15 percent, at most EUR 63,000, or 6 percent capped at EUR 25,200 for listed advisory, literary, teaching and scientific work, where last year's turnover was not more than EUR 420,000; and, under § 17 Abs. 3a Z 4, for a small business, 45 percent of receipts capped at EUR 24,750, or 20 percent capped at EUR 11,000 for a service business. Which one fits a given trade is exactly the question we may not answer for you.

Two thresholds belong to other pages and are stated once so the shape is complete. VAT is not charged below the small-business ceiling of EUR 55,000 in UStG § 6 Abs. 1 Z 27. And double-entry books become compulsory only when the UGB § 189 duty bites, at the same EUR 700,000 that makes the register entry compulsory; BAO § 124 then turns whatever the UGB requires into a tax obligation as well.

Staying out of the register does not make a sole trader invisible to the state. Three things happen whatever form the business takes, each with its own authority.

The trade licence comes first where the activity is a trade at all, in your own name rather than a company's, and the trade licence guide on this site covers it. The tax office must be told the activity has started, within one month, under BAO § 120 Abs. 2 with § 121. The SVS must be told that compulsory insurance has begun, also within one month, under GSVG § 18 Abs. 1, and the social insurance guide sets out what follows.

One provision saves a step: under GewO § 333 Abs. 2 a filing at the trade authority counts as the SVS notification and carries the tax-office notice as well, so one electronic filing can discharge three obligations.

Four things, and price is not one of them.

Liability. GmbHG § 61 Abs. 2 exists for a GmbH and has no counterpart here. If the activity can generate a claim larger than you can pay, that sentence is the whole argument.

Standing charges. A GmbH owes minimum corporate income tax whether or not it trades. A sole trader owes nothing in a year with no profit.

Cost of getting in. EUR 102 of court fee against EUR 522 for a GmbH, both under Tarifpost 10 Z I of the Gerichtsgebührengesetz, and a GmbH also needs EUR 10,000 of share capital with EUR 5,000 paid in before the filing (GmbHG § 6 Abs. 1 and § 10 Abs. 1) and a notarial deed.

What happens next. A GmbH can take an investor, be transferred in one instrument and outlive you. A sole trader business changes hands only under UGB §§ 38 to 40.

Once there is more than one business, or assets that ought to sit apart from the trading, the question stops being which trading form and becomes which structure: the holding company guide and the private foundation guide.

Every provision below was read on 17 September 2026 in the consolidated text published by the Bundeskanzleramt through its open-data service.

• Unternehmensgesetzbuch §§ 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 37, 38, 39, 40 and 189, the last in the version in force from 19 February 2026. Firmenbuchgesetz § 2 Z 1, § 3 Abs. 1 to 3 and § 4.
• Gewerbeordnung 1994 § 63, in force from 27 March 2015 (BGBl. I Nr. 18/2015), and § 333 Abs. 2.
• Gerichtsgebührengesetz Tarifpost 10 Z I with its Anmerkungen, in the amounts raised by BGBl. II Nr. 227/2026 from 1 August 2026. Neugründungs-Förderungsgesetz § 1 Z 3.
• EStG 1988 §§ 10, 17 and 23, the first two in force from 30 July 2026 (BGBl. I Nr. 62/2026); KStG 1988 § 24 Abs. 4 Z 1; UStG 1994 § 6 Abs. 1 Z 27; BAO §§ 120 Abs. 2, 121 and 124; GSVG § 18 Abs. 1; GmbHG § 61; WTBG 2017 § 2 Abs. 1.