Who must issue an invoice in Austria — and by when?
Under § 11 Abs. 1 UStG 1994, an invoice must be issued for a supply to another business for its business or to a legal person, and for taxable Werklieferungen or real-property-related supplies to a private customer. The deadline is six months after the supply is made.
Two cases have a shorter deadline: for a service to an EU business where the tax liability shifts to the recipient (Art. 196 MwStSystRL), the invoice is due by the 15th of the month following the supply — the same deadline applies to an intra-Community supply of goods (Art. 11 Abs. 1 BMR).
Mandatory invoice content (§ 11 Abs. 1 Z 3 UStG 1994)
A full invoice over €400 (see the small-amount invoice below) needs the following elements:
| lit. | Mandatory field |
|---|---|
| a | Name and address of the supplier |
| b | Name and address of the recipient; above a gross amount of €10,000 to another business, also the recipient's UID number |
| c | Quantity and trade description, or the type and extent of the service |
| d | Date of supply or the supply period (Leistungsdatum — Fakturcho always prints it) |
| e | The consideration and the applicable VAT rate, or a note of the exemption |
| f | The VAT amount attributable to the consideration |
| g | The date of issue |
| h | A sequential invoice number, assigned once |
| i | The supplier's UID number, except for a Kleinunternehmer or purely input-VAT-exempt supplies |
Where several rates apply, the consideration and VAT amount must be shown separately per rate (§ 11 Abs. 5 UStG 1994). Where the invoice is in a foreign currency, the VAT amount must also be shown in euro (§ 20 Abs. 6 UStG 1994) — Fakturcho prints a dedicated line with the ECB rate for this.
Small-amount invoice: simplified content up to €400
Where the gross total is no more than €400, or the invoice is issued by a Kleinunternehmer, § 11 Abs. 6 UStG 1994 requires only the date of issue, the supplier's name and address, the quantity and description of the supply, the Leistungsdatum, the gross amount with the VAT amount as a single sum, and the VAT rate. The recipient's name and address, the invoice number and the UID number are not required.
Cross-border cases are excluded — intra-Community supplies, reverse-charge supplies to another EU country, and triangulation always need the full invoice. Fakturcho always prints the full invoice regardless; the simplification is purely optional.
VAT rates in Austria in 2026
| Rate | Applies to |
|---|---|
| 20% | Standard rate (§ 10 Abs. 1 UStG 1994) |
| 13% | e.g. art, culture, sports admission, domestic flights (§ 10 Abs. 3, Anlage 2) |
| 10% | e.g. food, books, restaurant meals, residential rent, passenger transport (§ 10 Abs. 2, Anlage 1) |
| 4.9% | New from 1 July 2026: milk, eggs, certain fruit/vegetables, rice, flour, bread and other staples under Anlage 3 (§ 10 Abs. 1a UStG 1994) |
| 0% | Exempt, reverse-charge and intra-Community supplies |
Residential letting is taxable at 10%, not exempt (§ 6 Abs. 1 Z 16 UStG 1994 expressly excludes it from the exemption). The earlier 0% rate for photovoltaic modules has expired and no longer applies in 2026.
Special case, Jungholz/Mittelberg: a business with its seat or a permanent establishment in these two municipalities (in Tyrol and Vorarlberg respectively) charges 19% instead of 20% as its standard rate (§ 10 Abs. 4 UStG 1994) — the reduced rates stay the same. This excludes the delivery and rental of motor vehicles to recipients with their residence or seat elsewhere in Austria, and supplies to a business establishment (Betriebsstätte) outside these two areas — both stay at 20%. Fakturcho offers a dedicated checkbox for this in the issuer profile, pre-ticked from the postcode (6691, 6991, 6992, 6993).
The Kleinunternehmerregelung: up to when is there no VAT?
Since 1 January 2025, the Kleinunternehmer exemption under § 6 Abs. 1 Z 27 UStG 1994 applies up to €55,000 gross turnover in the preceding and in the current calendar year. If the threshold is exceeded by no more than 10%, the exemption still applies until year end; a larger excess ends it immediately from that supply on.
A Kleinunternehmer issues invoices with no separate VAT shown and needs no UID number for this. Fakturcho automatically prints the note "Umsatzsteuerfrei aufgrund der Kleinunternehmerregelung gemäß § 6 Abs. 1 Z 27 UStG 1994." instead of a VAT line.
Important: if a Kleinunternehmer sells services to a business in another EU country, the place of supply is abroad (§ 3a Abs. 6 UStG 1994) — a UID number is then needed after all, and the reverse-charge rules apply.
Reverse charge and intra-Community business
Where the tax liability shifts to the recipient (§ 11 Abs. 1a UStG 1994), no VAT may be shown; instead the recipient's UID number and a note of the liability shift must appear. This mainly covers:
- EU B2B services: place of supply at the recipient (§ 3a Abs. 6 UStG 1994), tax owed under Art. 196 MwStSystRL — invoice due by the 15th of the following month, also reported in the EC Sales List (Zusammenfassende Meldung, ZM).
- Intra-Community supplies of goods: exempt under Art. 6 Abs. 1 iVm Art. 7 UStG 1994, both UID numbers must appear.
- Domestic reverse charge: among others, construction work (§ 19 Abs. 1a), security-transferred goods (§ 19 Abs. 1b), certain electronics/metals (§ 19 Abs. 1d) and mobile phones/emission certificates (§ 19 Abs. 1e).
Fakturcho picks the right wording automatically: the Art. 196 wording for cross-border EU services, the selected or a generic § 19 UStG wording for domestic cases, and the Art. 6/7 BMR note for intra-Community supplies of goods.
Company name, Firmenbuch and legal form on business documents (UGB § 14)
Every business entered in the Firmenbuch — from a sole trader (e.U.) through an OG or KG to a GmbH — must state its Firma, Rechtsform, Sitz, Firmenbuchnummer and Firmenbuchgericht on business letters addressed to a specific recipient (§ 14 Abs. 1 UGB). An unregistered sole trader (for example below the § 189 UGB accounting thresholds) does not need this — only name and address under § 11 UStG are required.
Fakturcho requires the Firmenbuchgericht and Sitz automatically once a Firmenbuchnummer is entered in the issuer profile, and prints both together with the UID number in the invoice footer.
Rechnungskorrektur and Gutschrift
In Austria, "Gutschrift" is its own legal term: it denotes a document with which the recipient of a supply self-bills (§ 11 Abs. 7 UStG 1994), not a later correction by the supplier. A correction document the seller issues itself should therefore never be called "Gutschrift" — Fakturcho calls it "Rechnungskorrektur" — including for a full cancellation — and a later additional charge "Nachtragsrechnung" (not the German "Belastungsanzeige").
Every correction references the number and date of the original invoice and states the reason for the correction.
E-invoicing: who is required to use it in Austria?
There is no e-invoicing mandate for B2B or B2C invoices in Austria in 2026; a PDF counts as an electronic invoice once the recipient agrees (§ 11 Abs. 2 UStG 1994). For federal (Bund) contracting authorities (B2G), however, structured e-invoices have been mandatory since 2014, submitted via USP.gv.at or PEPPOL in the ebInterface or Peppol-UBL formats.
From 1 July 2030, structured e-invoicing becomes mandatory for intra-Community B2B supplies under EU Directive 2025/516 (ViDA); no earlier domestic date has been announced so far.
For Austrian invoices, Fakturcho can generate a generic UBL XML file on request; it does not currently offer a dedicated format for submission to federal authorities (ebInterface/PEPPOL).
Retention and the cash-register obligation
Invoices must be kept for seven years (§ 11 Abs. 2 UStG 1994, § 132 BAO). The cash-register obligation (§ 131b BAO) only covers cash sales — this also includes card payments made in person, but not bank transfers. Fakturcho is not a cash register and does not replace an RKSV-compliant till for cash payments.