The differences at a glance
This article collects the differences that actually matter for an online store. Legal status: August 2026. Sources are the UStG 1994 (Austrian VAT Act), the BAO (Bundesabgabenordnung, Austria's Federal Fiscal Code) and guidance from the Wirtschaftskammer (Austrian Economic Chamber).
| Germany | Austria | |
|---|---|---|
| Standard VAT rate | 19 % | 20 % |
| Reduced rates | 7 % | 13 % and 10 % |
| Mandatory invoice details | § 14 UStG | § 11 UStG 1994 |
| Small-amount invoice | up to €250 | up to €400 — but not in distance selling |
| Small business threshold | €25,000 previous year / €100,000 current year | €55,000 gross, current and previous year, with 10 % tolerance |
| Receipt obligation | no general one | obligation to issue receipts under § 132a BAO |
Tax rates: three instead of two
Besides the standard rate of 20 percent, Austria has two reduced rates. Ten percent applies to food, books and medicines, among other things; thirteen percent applies to live animals, plants, works of art and admission to sporting and cultural events, among other things.
For your store, this means: if you work from a German template, the 13 percent rate is often missing from your system entirely — it has no equivalent in Germany. So check in your Shopify tax settings that all three rates are set up before you invoice your first orders.
A practical note: Shopify sets the tax rate on the product, not on the invoice. A product set up incorrectly will therefore keep producing incorrect documents, and the invoicing app can't spot it — it uses what Shopify delivers. If you took over your product range from a German store, go through all tax classes once before the first order comes in.
Mandatory details under § 11 UStG 1994
The Austrian list is similar to the German one, but not word for word. An invoice must include:
- Name and address of the business supplying the goods or services
- Name and address of the recipient
- Quantity and customary trade description of the goods supplied, or the type and scope of the service
- Date of supply or service, or the period
- The net amount, broken down by tax rate
- The applicable tax rate and the tax amount — or a note on the tax exemption
- The date of issue
- A sequential number
- The issuer's UID number (Austrian VAT ID)
For invoice amounts of 10,000 euros or more, the recipient's UID number must be added if the recipient is a business.
The small-amount invoice — and why it doesn't help your store
Austria allows a simplified form for invoices up to 400 euros gross: recipient details, sequential number and UID may be left out, the tax amount doesn't have to be shown separately, and the gross amount and tax rate are enough. That threshold is well above Germany's 250 euros, and many guides list it as a relief.
For an online store, it isn't. The simplification explicitly does not apply to distance selling — and a Shopify store is distance selling. Nor does it apply to sales to other EU countries. In practice, this means your invoices always need the full set of mandatory details, even for an order of 19 euros.
If you rely on the 400-euro threshold and leave out the recipient's address or the number, you are issuing an incomplete invoice from your online store. Of all the differences listed here, this is the most expensive one.
Small business scheme: one threshold, two years, ten percent leeway
Since 2025, the Austrian threshold for the Kleinunternehmerregelung (small business scheme) is 55,000 euros, and it is explicitly a gross threshold. Unlike in Germany, there aren't two different values for the previous and current year, but a single one that must be met in both years.
The most important part in practice is the tolerance rule. If you exceed the threshold by no more than ten percent, you may keep invoicing without VAT until the end of the year. If you exceed it by more, every further invoice from that point on is taxable — not just from the following year.
| Situation | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Revenue stays below €55,000 gross | Small business scheme continues to apply |
| Exceeded by up to 10 % (i.e. up to €60,500) | Continue without VAT until the end of the year |
| Exceeded by more than 10 % | From this revenue on, every further invoice is taxable |
Instead of the tax amount, the invoice carries the note on the tax exemption under § 6 Abs 1 Z 27 UStG 1994 — not the German § 19 note. A template taken over from Germany cites the wrong provision here.
Obligation to issue receipts — yes. Cash register — usually no.
Two Austrian obligations are regularly mixed up.
The Belegerteilungspflicht (obligation to issue receipts) under § 132a BAO requires you to issue a receipt for every cash payment and hand it to the customer. For an online store, this means in practice: the customer gets a receipt for their purchase. An automatically generated invoice takes care of exactly that.
The Registrierkassenpflicht (cash register obligation) under § 131b BAO only applies once annual revenue exceeds 15,000 euros and more than 7,500 euros of it are cash sales. The key term is cash sales: they include cash and card payments on site. Bank transfer, online banking, PayPal and direct debit do not count.
A pure online store whose customers pay by bank transfer, credit card at checkout, PayPal or Klarna will therefore usually not reach the cash sales threshold and doesn't need a cash register. The exception is a mixed business: if you sell online and also offer pickup with cash payment, those are cash sales.
Note: This article is a general overview and does not replace tax advice. Whether the cash register obligation applies to you depends on your specific payment structure. Legal status: August 2026.
Record retention: seven years instead of ten
A difference that German guides inevitably get wrong: § 132 BAO requires books, records and the related documents to be kept for seven years — not the ten years of the German § 147 AO (German Fiscal Code). The period starts at the end of the calendar year for which the entries were made or to which the document relates.
Electronic storage is allowed, as long as complete, orderly reproduction true to the original is guaranteed for the entire period. A document archive from which every invoice can be output again in its original form meets this requirement. Having documents only as attachments in sent emails does not.
Seven years is shorter, but it remains an obligation with teeth: if records are missing, the tax authority may estimate.
The UID number
The Austrian VAT identification number starts with ATU and must appear on every invoice as part of the issuer's details. Small businesses don't receive it automatically — if you use the scheme, you usually don't have a UID and don't need one for domestic business.
As soon as you buy goods from other EU countries or sell to businesses in other EU countries, you still need one and must apply for it at the tax office. For invoice amounts of 10,000 euros or more, the recipient's UID must also appear on the invoice if the recipient is a business.
E-invoicing: public authorities have their own rules
For federal government contracts, Austria has required electronic invoices via the Unternehmensserviceportal (USP, the business service portal) for years — in ebInterface format or via PEPPOL. This only affects you if you supply public-sector clients.
To be honest: Belegio creates e-invoices in the European EN 16931 format as ZUGFeRD. We don't offer the Austrian ebInterface format or submission via the USP. If you regularly invoice federal agencies, you'll need an additional route for that.
Cross-border sales
Austrian stores almost always sell to Germany as well. The same EU rules apply as the other way round:
- For consumers in other EU countries, the One-Stop Shop (OSS) procedure applies from 10,000 euros in annual revenue — the invoice then shows the tax rate of the destination country, not the Austrian 20 percent.
- For businesses with a valid UID in other EU countries, the tax liability passes to the recipient (reverse charge); the invoice shows no tax and carries the corresponding note.
- Export deliveries to non-EU countries, such as Switzerland, are tax-free — with a note on the invoice.
- Since 2025, small businesses can also deliver tax-free across borders if they have an EX identification number (EX-Kennnummer).
The 10,000-euro threshold applies to all EU distance sales combined, not per country.
What Belegio takes care of
If you enter Austria as your country of business in your company details, the tax logic switches accordingly:
- The rates of 20, 13 and 10 percent instead of the German ones
- The legal note under § 6 Abs 1 Z 27 UStG 1994 when the small business scheme is active
- The full mandatory details on every document, without the small-amount simplification
- Continuous number ranges for each document type
- OSS, reverse charge and tax-free exports, depending on the recipient's country and UID
- Monitoring of the 55,000-euro threshold on the overview
Documents are created automatically as soon as an order is paid and, if you like, sent to the customer by email — which takes care of issuing the receipt without you having to think about it.
→ How to set up automatic sending
Belegio is free during the launch phase — all features, unlimited documents, no credit card. This is a launch-phase offer, not a permanent pricing commitment.
