Kleinunternehmerregelung (small business exemption)

The exemption applies if your turnover did not exceed EUR 55,000 in the previous calendar year and has not yet exceeded it in the current year. If your business is based in Austria, it applies from your first sale, with no application.

Count the supplies you make in the calendar year, to consumers and businesses alike, at the full agreed price. You do not take out a notional VAT amount. Leave out ancillary transactions such as selling a used company vehicle, certain exempt supplies (for example medical treatment by a doctor) and services you buy in where you owe the VAT under reverse charge.

If you exceed EUR 55,000 by no more than 10 %, that is up to EUR 60,500, every supply of that year stays exempt. From the following year the exemption no longer applies. Above EUR 60,500, the supply that takes you over that limit is already taxable, and so is every later one. Earlier supplies stay exempt; the pre-2025 rule that taxed the whole year retroactively is gone.

Your invoices show no VAT and carry a note on the exemption, for example „Umsatzsteuerfrei aufgrund der Kleinunternehmerregelung“ (VAT-exempt under the small business exemption). You do not have to show your VAT number, and the simplified invoice under § 11 Abs. 6 UStG is enough whatever the amount. If you show VAT on an invoice to another business anyway, you owe it to the tax office until you correct the invoice (§ 11 Abs. 12 UStG).

As a small business you generally file no advance VAT return (UVA) unless the tax office asks you to. The annual VAT return is waived if your turnover for the year does not exceed EUR 55,000 and you owe no tax (§ 21 Abs. 6 UStG). You do owe tax, for example, when you buy consulting from Germany and the liability passes to you under reverse charge; you cannot deduct that tax as input VAT. If you need a VAT number for business with companies in other EU countries, apply on form U15.

You can waive the exemption and charge VAT, for example to deduct input VAT on investments. Declare the waiver to the tax office in writing on form U12, at the latest before the VAT assessment becomes final. It takes effect from the start of a calendar year and binds you for at least five calendar years. After that you can revoke it from the start of a year; you declare the revocation by the end of January of that year at the latest.

Since 2025 you can also use the exemption in other EU countries. You file a prior notification through FinanzOnline. Your EU-wide turnover must not exceed EUR 100,000 in the current or the previous year, and each country applies its own small business limit. Once confirmed, you receive a small business ID ending in -EX and report your EU turnover every quarter, by the end of the following month.