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When you need an Austrian company that can sign a contract this week, a ready-made shelf company, a “Vorratsgesellschaft” or pre-registered Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (GmbH), is the fastest legal route into the Eurozone DACH commercial corridor. ShelfCompanies24 maintains a live inventory of clean, never-traded Austrian GmbH entities registered in the Firmenbuch (Commercial Register), with paid-up Stammkapital and a clean Finanzamt record. Most transfers complete in 5 to 10 working days.
Austria’s GmbH legal framework closely mirrors Germany’s, sharing terminology (Stammkapital, Geschäftsführer, Handelsregister/Firmenbuch, Notar) and offering similar structural reliability. The Austrian CIT was reduced from 24% in 2024 to 23% in 2025 and remains stable for 2026, competitive among DACH and Western EU peers.
Our service covers GmbH, Notar, Firmenbuch filing, WiEReG (UBO register).
Vorratsgesellschaft + virtual office + Austrian banking + Steuerberater bundled.
Most transfers within 5 to 10 working days. German-speaking case manager.
Sign at any Austrian consulate, via eIDAS qualified electronic signature, or delegate to our Vienna Notar via Vollmacht.
We draft the Geschäftsanteilsabtretungsvertrag, file Firmenbuch amendment, update WiEReG.
An Austrian shelf companyVorratsgesellschaft or Mantelgesellschaft, is a pre-registered, never-traded GmbH formed by a professional service provider purely for transfer. From incorporation to sale, the company has:
Austrian commercial practice distinguishes, like Germany, between the Vorratsgesellschaft (pre-registered, never traded) and the Mantelgesellschaft (former trading company stripped to shell form). Mantelgesellschaften carry tax-loss-carryforward implications under the Austrian Mantelkauf rule (similar to German § 8c KStG). ShelfCompanies24 sells exclusively never-traded Vorratsgesellschaften.
| Feature | GmbH | AG (Aktiengesellschaft) | FlexCo (Flexible Kapitalgesellschaft) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum Stammkapital | €10,000 (since 2024 reform, was €35,000) | €70,000 | €10,000 (since 2024 launch) |
| Members | 1+, any nationality | 1+ Aktionäre | 1+, any nationality |
| Governance | Geschäftsführer + Generalversammlung | Vorstand + Aufsichtsrat (dual-tier) | Geschäftsführer + flexible governance |
| Best fit | ~95% of buyers, SMEs, holdings | Listed groups | Start-ups (FlexCo introduced 2024 as start-up-friendly form) |
Note: the 2024 Austrian Company Law Reform (Gesellschaftsrechts-Änderungsgesetz 2023) reduced the GmbH minimum Stammkapital from €35,000 to €10,000 and introduced the new FlexCo (Flexible Kapitalgesellschaft) form for start-up flexibility.
Austria’s geographic and linguistic position between Germany, Switzerland, and Central/Eastern Europe makes it a natural hub for DACH-CEE business operations. German-language jurisdiction, Eurozone membership, and EU single-market access combine for unique commercial reach.
Austria’s CIT was cut from 24% in 2024 to 23% in 2025 and remains stable for 2026, competitive vs. Germany (~30% combined) while sharing the GmbH framework. For DACH-region holdings, Austria offers a tax advantage over Germany while preserving the same legal structures.
A new Austrian GmbH takes 4 to 8 weeks via standard formation; a Vorratsgesellschaft transfers in 5 to 10 working days.
Every Austrian ready-made GmbH carries an active Firmenbuchnummer and where pre-registered an Austrian UID-Nummer for VIES intra-Community trade.
Erste Group, Raiffeisen Bank International, UniCredit Bank Austria, BAWAG P.S.K., Volksbank, Hypo Vorarlberg all serve corporate clients with full SEPA functionality.
Buying a company in Austria means acquiring the shares of a GmbH that already exists, so what follows is a notarial share transfer rather than an incorporation. Austrian law requires that transfer to be executed as a Notariatsakt, which is why the sequence below runs through a Notar rather than a form. Most buyers sit outside Austria, mainly in the United Kingdom, the United States and Singapore, and sign at a consulate, with an eIDAS qualified electronic signature or by Vollmacht. Allow 5 to 10 working days from a complete KYC file.
Live inventory: GmbH entities of various ages registered in Vienna (most), Graz, Linz, Salzburg or Innsbruck.
Apostilled passport copies, proof of address, business-purpose note. Austrian AML rules under Finanzmarkt-Geldwäschegesetz (FM-GwG).
Austrian law requires GmbH share transfers to be effected by notarial deed (Notariatsakt) executed by an Austrian Notar. We draft the bilingual German-English deed.
The outgoing Geschäftsführer is dismissed and your new Geschäftsführer appointed by Generalversammlung resolution.
Name (Firma), registered seat (Sitz), business activity (Unternehmensgegenstand) are amended in the same notarial act.
The Notar files the amendment with the competent Firmenbuchgericht (Commercial Court). Processing: typically 5 to 10 working days.
Beneficial owners filed in the Wirtschaftliche Eigentümer Registergesetz (WiEReG, Beneficial Owners Register) within 4 weeks. Penalties up to €200,000 for non-compliance.
An off-the-shelf company in Austria is a GmbH that was incorporated, capitalised and entered in the Firmenbuch, then left untouched. You are buying four things at once: the legal entity with its active Firmenbuchnummer, the paid-up share capital of €10,000 or more that sits inside it, a documented history of complete dormancy, and the 4 to 8 weeks you would otherwise spend waiting for a new registration. The Firma, the Sitz and the Unternehmensgegenstand are all amended in the same notarial act as the transfer, so the company you end up with carries your identity rather than the placeholder it was parked under.
What you are not buying is a trading history. A Vorratsgesellschaft has never invoiced, never employed anyone and has filed nothing but nil declarations, which is precisely why the Austrian Mantelkauf rule cannot reach it. Anyone offering a genuine trading record attached to a shelf entity is offering a Mantelgesellschaft, and the historical liabilities come with it.
| Tax | Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| KöSt, Körperschaftsteuer | 23% | Reduced from 24% in 2025; stable for 2026 |
| Mindest-KöSt | €500-€1,750/year minimum | Minimum CIT for inactive GmbH; higher for AG |
| USt (VAT) | 20% standard, 13% / 10% reduced | Mandatory above €35,000 turnover (2025 threshold); voluntary below |
| Withholding tax on dividends (KESt) | 27.5% domestic / 25% to corporate recipients | 0% to EU corporate parents under Parent-Subsidiary Directive |
| R&D Premium (Forschungsprämie) | 14% cash refund | R&D tax credit on qualifying expenditure |
| Group taxation (Gruppenbesteuerung) | Available | Cross-border subsidiaries can be included; loss-utilisation benefit |
It is a GmbH that has already been incorporated, capitalised and entered in the Firmenbuch, and is then kept unused until a buyer takes it over. Off-the-shelf and ready-made mean the same thing here, and both translate to Vorratsgesellschaft. Because the registration already exists, the buyer skips the 4 to 8 weeks a new formation needs and takes ownership by notarial share transfer in 5 to 10 working days.
Austrian practice uses two terms and they are not interchangeable. A Vorratsgesellschaft is a company incorporated purely to be held in reserve and transferred later, the same word and the same concept as in Germany. A Mantelgesellschaft is a company that once traded and was stripped back to a shell, which brings the Austrian Mantelkauf rule and its restriction on accumulated tax losses into play. ShelfCompanies24 sells only Vorratsgesellschaften.
5 to 10 working days from a complete KYC file to the finished Firmenbuch amendment. The notarial share-transfer deed comes first and can usually be scheduled within days; the Firmenbuchgericht then processes the amendment in 5 to 10 working days. The company is legally yours from the moment the Notariatsakt is executed rather than from the moment the register catches up, so contracts can be signed before the entry appears.
€10,000 since the 2024 reform (reduced from €35,000), with at least €5,000 paid up at formation. The remainder must be paid up over time.
The FlexCo (Flexible Kapitalgesellschaft) is a 2024-introduced corporate form positioned as a start-up-friendly variant: same €10,000 minimum capital as the new GmbH but with employee-equity-friendly share-class flexibility. For most foreign-investor scenarios, the standard GmbH remains the right choice; FlexCo suits Austrian start-ups with employee-share-option plans.
No. You can sign at any Austrian consulate, use an eIDAS qualified electronic signature, or give our Vienna Notar a notarised Vollmacht so the deed is executed in Vienna on your behalf. Austrian Notare also offer remote videoconference notarisation for eligible transactions. Documents originating outside the EU are apostilled and sworn-translated before filing, and we run the courier chain, so most buyers complete the purchase without leaving their own country.
Körperschaftsteuer at 23%, cut from 24% and stable through 2026. A dormant or loss-making GmbH still pays the Mindest-KöSt shown in the table above. USt is 20% standard with 13% and 10% reduced rates, and registration becomes mandatory once turnover passes the threshold in that table. Dividends to an EU corporate parent leave at 0% under the Parent-Subsidiary Directive, while domestic KESt runs at 27.5%, or 25% for corporate recipients.
No. The Mantelkauf rule (Mantelkaufregelung) restricts use of accumulated tax losses after a major change of shareholder and business activity. Because our Vorratsgesellschaften have never traded, they have no losses to be restricted, the rule is irrelevant.
Want today’s Austrian inventory? Contact our Austrian desk.
Austria is one of several jurisdictions where ShelfCompanies24 maintains pre-formed entities and active formation services. Why pick Austria for your GmbH specifically? CEE bridgehead, group taxation regime is the headline reason, but it pays to understand the trade-offs against the alternatives. Below are concrete differentiators that matter when you are weighing a structure decision against the actual operating profile of your business.
Cross-border corporate structuring in 2026 is governed by a tighter web of rules than in any previous decade. Three forces shape every decision:
For Austria specifically: 23% CIT (cut from 24% in 2024, stable through 2026); GmbH minimum capital post-2024 reform; new FlexCo (FlexKap) form available.
Issues we routinely see when prospects come to us after attempting the process directly with local providers in Austria:
Yes. A name change is filed with the Firmenbuch via a directors’ resolution and a routine filing, typically clears in 5 days. We include up to one name change as standard for both shelf-company purchase and new formation.
Yes. An Austrian GmbH is resident in an EU member state, so the Parent Subsidiary Directive and the Interest and Royalties Directive both apply, and Austria has around 90 comprehensive double taxation agreements on income and capital on top of that. The network has been reshaped by the OECD Multilateral Instrument, which wrote a principal purpose test into most of the treaties, so relief depends on the company having real commercial substance rather than only a registered address.
Client information is held under contractual non-disclosure plus the professional-secrecy obligations applicable to corporate-service providers in our home jurisdiction. We do not share client identity or transaction details with third parties beyond what is statutorily required (KYC reporting, beneficial-owner-register filings, AML/CTF reporting where triggered). Our internal access to client files is logged and access-restricted by need-to-know.
Material tax changes (rate moves, new minimum-tax regimes, treaty amendments) get communicated to active clients with our analysis of impact. Where the change is structural, for example the OECD Pillar Two implementation in Austria or a domestic tax-base reform, we proactively flag clients whose structures may need restructuring and set out the remedial steps. The client is not left to discover material regulatory change from their accountant or from media reports.
No, and you should not engage anyone who claims otherwise. The Österreichisches Firmenbuch (Firmenbuch) records the actual incorporation date, which is publicly searchable and immutable. The shelf GmbHs we offer have honest incorporation dates ranging from a few months to several years old; for buyers who want a longer corporate trading history, we recommend purchase rather than fabrication, since fabricated history would expose you to fraud, tax-evasion, and money-laundering charges in any reputable jurisdiction.
Engaging us for your Austrian shelf GmbH purchase covers the following deliverables under one service:
The deliverable scope is identical regardless of whether you are based in the EU, the US, the UK, the Middle East, or APAC, we operate the same service globally for Austrian corporate setup. Optional add-ons (virtual office, accounting retainer, payroll, sector licences, transfer-pricing documentation) are scoped separately, so the incorporation or transfer work stays exactly as agreed.
Different jurisdictions are stronger for different commercial activities. Austria consistently performs well for international operators in:
None of these are exclusive, an Austrian GmbH can engage in any lawful commercial activity, but choosing a jurisdiction where the activity has a deep operating ecosystem (talent pool, regulatory familiarity, banking and supplier networks) materially shortens the time from incorporation to first revenue. Tell us your activity profile and we will confirm whether Austria is the right fit before we begin.
A Austrian GmbH sits within the EU treaty framework, automatic access to the EU Parent-Subsidiary Directive (zero withholding on intra-EU dividends meeting the holding test), the Interest and Royalties Directive, and Austria’s bilateral double-tax treaties with non-EU partners. The treaty network is shaped by the OECD Multilateral Instrument since 2017, which embedded a Principal Purpose Test (PPT) into existing treaties to deny benefits where a structure was set up primarily for tax advantage rather than genuine commercial purpose.
Common Austrian GmbH patterns we see: EU-wide trading hub with VAT one-stop-shop, IP holding with treaty-protected royalty flows, regional headquarters serving CEE/Western EU subsidiaries, and licensing-and-distribution structures using EU passport rights. Each pattern has its own substance and transfer-pricing implications which your consultant will map before structuring.
The 2026 corporate-law and tax landscape in Austria: 23% headline corporate tax. 23% CIT (cut from 24% in 2024, stable through 2026); GmbH minimum capital post-2024 reform; new FlexCo (FlexKap) form available.
Beyond the headline number, three regulatory currents shape every Austrian structuring decision in 2026: OECD Pillar Two and the local Qualified Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax (QDMTT) for groups above €750 million consolidated revenue; the EU’s progressive AML/CTF tightening (AMLD6 and AMLR transitioning into the Anti-Money-Laundering Authority’s direct supervision); and the Firmenbuch’s ongoing migration toward digital-only filing and real-time beneficial-owner reconciliation. Smaller entities below the Pillar Two threshold continue under the regular Austrian tax regime, but reporting obligations to the Firmenbuch apply to every entity regardless of size.
We track these regulatory currents continuously and flag anything material to active clients within working days of the change being announced. You do not need to monitor Austria regulatory news yourself, that is part of what we provide for the annual retainer.
Three deadline buckets: Firmenbuch confirmation/return (typically annual, on the company’s accounting reference date), corporate tax return (filed via the Austria tax authority following the financial year-end, usually 6-12 months after period close), and VAT/sales-tax returns (monthly or quarterly cadence depending on turnover, where applicable). Beneficial-owner-register updates are event-triggered (filing required when ownership changes) rather than calendar-based.
Penalty consequences vary by jurisdiction but typically follow a pattern: small late-filing fee for short delays, larger automatic penalty for sustained non-filing, and ultimately strike-off from the Firmenbuch for prolonged non-compliance. Strike-off voids the company and may require court application to restore. Our retainer service handles the full filing calendar so this never happens to a client on our books.
Three layers determine the after-tax dividend: Austria corporate tax already paid at the GmbH level on profits (23%); Austria withholding tax on outbound dividends, which is the variable that depends on where the recipient sits, zero under the EU Parent-Subsidiary Directive for qualifying EU/EEA corporate holders meeting the minimum holding test, reduced rates under bilateral treaties for non-EU recipients, default Austrian statutory rate where no treaty applies; and recipient-country tax on the dividend in the parent’s hands (often subject to participation exemption at the recipient level). Your consultant maps this end-to-end in the initial scoping so the after-tax economics are clear before incorporation.