Corporation Tax Statistics 2015

Income Levels

In 2015, like in previous years, the majority of corporation tax revenue was allocated to the few highest-earning enterprises. Those 2.5% of all cases assessed which had a taxable income of €1 million or more accounted for 75.2% of the total tax revenue. On the other hand, 74.2% of all cases assessed in 2015 had no or less than €40 000 taxable income and generated only 3.4% of the total tax revenue.

Legal Forms

Of those companies, which were not part of a company group, the limited liability companies (Gesellschaften mit beschränkter Haftung) had the biggest share with 86.8% of all cases assessed. They contributed 47.7% of the tax revenue. Although joint stock companies (Aktiengesellschaften) represented a mere 0.4% of all cases (634), they contributed 5.7% to the tax revenue.

Company Groups

Despite the low numeric share of company groups of merely 2.8% they generated 39.6% (€12 466 million) of the taxable income. In this figure the losses and repaid profits of foreign group members are already included. In the year 2015 the repaid profits were higher than the losses for the first time and amounted to €333 million. Company groups contributed an overall of 39.0% (€3 125 million) to the tax revenue.

Economic Branches

The primary sector accounted for 1.1% of all cases assessed and its share of the tax revenue amounted to 0.4%. Those 18.7% of the companies, which belonged to the secondary sector, contributed 31.2% of the tax revenue. The largest shares were provided by the tertiary sector with 80.2% of all cases and 68.3% of the tax revenue.

Regional Structure

Due to the regional allocation of entities subject to corporation taxation to their respective registered head offices, regional representation is subject to a distorted picture of the economic concentration, since enterprises with different sites (e.g. the branches of retail chains) are allocated to their main location only. The federal province of Vienna dominated quite clearly with a share of 30.3% in all cases and 38.3% of the total tax yield. It was followed by the federal provinces of Lower Austria (14.8% of all cases) and Upper Austria (13.8% of all cases). Burgenland provided only 2.6% of the cases and 1.4% of the tax yield.

Note: The brochure “2015 Corporation Tax Statistics” (in German only) with all the tables is downloadable free of charge after its completion as a PDF file. Simply click the “Publications” sheet (see below).