Austria Law Articles in English

Warning Instructions: As Easy as Riding a Bicycle
The Supreme Court has twice addressed the issue of warning instructions on products for sale, and has laid down guiding pri...

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The Supreme Court has twice addressed the issue of warning instructions on products for sale, and has laid down guiding principles. In both cases, ...... Pursuant to the court's reasoning, the appropriate scope and content of such instructions is to be determined ...
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.. [align=left]In both cases, which resulted from accidents with a bicycle and a bottle of sparkling fruit drink respectively, the consumers' claims were rejected. Pursuant to the court'...[/align]

Article by Michael Kutschera, Thomas Schirmer and Alexander Kramer


Introduction


Austrian law expressly recognises and protects a bank's duty of confidentiality (sometimes referred to as 'bank secrecy') with respect to information received by or relating to its customers. This duty is primarily governed by s 38(1) to (4) (scope and exceptions) and s 101 (criminal liability) of the Banking Act (BWG) and supplemented by several provisions of a procedural nature such as the Revenues Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code.


Section 38(5) of the BWG, a provision of constitutional law, affords special protection to the provisions of s 38(1) to (4) of the BWG by stipulating that an amendment of these provisions requires - similar to an amendment of a provision of constitutional law - a quorum of at least 50% and a majority of two-thirds of the deputies to the National Counsel (Nationalrat, the more powerful of Austria's two Houses of Parliament).1


Since 1 January 1994, the provisions on bank secrecy were partly amended, in particular with regard to money laundering, as Austrian law and banking practice initially permitted the opening of anonymous accounts in certain cases. In order to avoid the abuse of the Austrian banking system for the purpose of money laundering, Austrian banks in 1989 agreed on the wording of a uniform declaration, according to which each bank voluntarily undertook a number of duties to prevent such abuse.2 These duties were expanded by another declaration on additional duties of diligence in 1992, the compliance with which still was voluntary.

Due to increasing national and international political pressure, as well as the fact that Austria became a full member of the EEA in 1994 and of the EU in 1995, most of the duties contained in the above-mentioned two declarations were implemented into s 39ff of the BWG.3 Furthermore, money laundering was rendered a criminal offence. By amendment of s 40 of the BWG, with effect from 1 Novemb...

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Global Survey Shows: Basel II Driving IT

Global Survey Shows: Basel II Driving IT Investments Financial Industry Regards Data Quality As A Key Issue For Risk Management
A study of 1,700+ banks from 63 countries, conducted by AIM Software, the Vienna University of Economics and sponsored by Reuters, has revealed that improving data quality is regarded as a key issue for risk management - and that regulatory requirements including Basel II and Sarbanes-Oxley are driving subst...
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Significant Changes Regarding Corporate Income Tax

1. General


Recently, the Austrian Parliament adopted the Tax Reform Act of 2005 (Steuerreformgesetz 2005), which will have a significant impact upon the taxation of corporations in Austria. The most important elements of the Act include:




a considerable reduction in the corporate income tax rate;
the introduction of new group taxation rules, which allow setting off the profits of group members with the losses of other group members for tax purposes;
the introduction (within the framework of the new group taxation rules) of the amortization of goodwill acquired in a share deal;
the statutory recognition of recent case law regarding the application of the losses of foreign permanent establishments against the income of their Austrian head offices; and
the introduction of the deductibility of interest on loans taken out in connection with the acquisition of shares.

2. Corporate Income Tax Rate

In the last few ye...
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Proposed Changes regarding the International Participation Exemption

I. Overview


The Austrian Ministry of Finance (Bundesministerium für Finanzen) has proposed certain changes regarding the international participation exemption which, if enacted, could lower the attractiveness of Austrian holding companies and adversely affect M & A transactions in Austria.

II. Current Regime
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