Austria

Foreign tax credit (matching credit)

Generally, foreign WHT can be credited against Austrian CIT (see Foreign income in the Income determination section). In special cases (e.g. Brazil, China, Korea), the DTT provides for a matching credit, which allows the credit of a pre-defined amount that exceeds the actually paid foreign WHT.

Research and development (R&D) incentives

R&D costs are fully deductible at the time they accrue. An R&D premium of 14% (i.e. R&D expenses x 14% = R&D premium) may be claimed for R&D activities performed in Austria.

In order to receive the current R&D premium of 14%, an expert opinion issued by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) is required that confirms the nature of the expenses in question as R&D expenses. The definition of privileged R&D expenses is taken from the Frascati Manual.

The R&D premium is also available in case of subcontracted R&D; however, R&D incentives cannot be claimed by both principal and agent (the agent is just able to apply for the premium if the principal does not). In case of subcontracted R&D, the privileged R&D costs are capped at EUR 1 million per year.

Austria has no ‘patent box regime’.