Austrian commercial leases carry a fee of 1 per cent under § 33 TP 5 of the Gebührengesetz 1957. The rate is not what catches people out — the base is. Recurring rent is not valued at one year: where the term is indefinite it is valued at three times the annual value, and where the term is fixed, at the annual value multiplied by the term, capped at eighteen times. Residential leases are exempt. The landlord self-assesses the fee and pays it to Finanzamt Österreich by the 15th day of the second month after the liability arises — though who bears it commercially is settled by the lease, not by the statute.
The Short Answer
| Question | Answer | Provision |
|---|---|---|
| Rate, in general | 1% of the value | Abs 1 Z 1 |
| Rate, hunting leases | 2% | Abs 1 Z 2 |
| Base, indefinite term | Three times the annual value | Abs 3 |
| Base, fixed term | Annual value × term, capped at eighteen times | Abs 3 |
| Break clause | Disregarded in a fixed-term contract | Abs 3 |
| Residential leases | Exempt | Abs 4 Z 1 |
| De minimis | Assessable value up to EUR 150 — exempt | Abs 4 Z 3 |
| Who remits | The landlord, by self-assessment | Abs 5 Z 1 |
The Rate
Tarifpost 5 catches Bestandverträge under §§ 1090 ff. ABGB, and also other contracts under which someone obtains the use of a non-consumable thing for a certain time and against a certain price. The second half of that definition matters: the Tarifpost is not limited to documents headed "lease". It reaches agreements that have the substance of one.
The rate is 1 per cent of the value in general. Hunting leases are charged at 2 per cent — a genuinely Austrian provision, and the only rate in this Tarifpost that is not one per cent.
Paragraph 2 closes an obvious gap: one-off or recurring payments agreed for the grant of use count towards the value even where they can be set off against other performance under conditions the contract specifies. A deposit structured as a credit against future rent does not fall outside the base merely because it is described that way.
The Base Is Not the Annual Rent
This is the provision worth reading twice. Paragraph 3 values recurring payments as follows:
- where the contract term is indefinite, at three times the annual value;
- where the term is fixed, at the annual value multiplied by the term — but no more than eighteen times the annual value.
Then the sentence that removes the obvious workaround: where the term is fixed but a right of earlier termination is reserved, that reservation is left out of account for the purposes of the fee. A ten-year lease with a tenant break at year three is assessed over ten years, not three.
The practical consequence is that the length of the lease, not just its rent, drives the fee — and the difference between an indefinite arrangement and a long fixed term can be a factor of six on the same monthly figure.
What Is Exempt
Paragraph 4 lists the exemptions. Four matter in ordinary commercial life:
- Contracts for the rent of residential space. This is why the fee is largely invisible to private tenants in Austria and unavoidable for companies taking offices.
- Copyright and neighbouring-rights licence agreements, and patent, trade-mark and design licence agreements. Intellectual-property licensing is outside the Tarifpost.
- Leases whose assessable value does not exceed EUR 150. A genuine de minimis, and it is measured on the assessable value — that is, after the multiplier in paragraph 3, not on the monthly rent.
- Demands for payment of a maintenance contribution under § 45 MRG.
Note the shape of the residential exemption: it turns on the space being residential, not on the tenant being an individual. A company renting a flat for an employee and a person renting an office are on opposite sides of it from where intuition would put them.
Who Calculates It and When
The statutory duty sits with the landlord. Under paragraph 5, a landlord who has an Austrian domicile, habitual abode, place of management or seat, or who maintains an Austrian permanent establishment, must calculate the percentage fee itself and pay it to Finanzamt Österreich by the 15th day of the second month following the month in which the liability arose.
Two points for a tenant. First, that the landlord remits it says nothing about who bears it: Austrian commercial leases very commonly pass the fee to the tenant by contract, and the clause doing so is easy to miss in a document negotiated in German. Second, the deadline is short enough that the figure is usually settled at or shortly after signature — so a tenant who wants to understand what it is paying should ask for the calculation before signing, not after.
How the Multiplier Works
Take a monthly net rent of EUR 2,000 — an annual value of EUR 24,000 — and hold it constant across three structures. The figures below are the statutory arithmetic of paragraph 3 applied to that assumed rent; they are an illustration of the method, not a quotation of anyone's actual fee.
| Structure | Multiplier | Assessable value | Fee at 1% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indefinite term | 3× | EUR 72,000 | EUR 720 |
| Fixed term, 5 years | 5× | EUR 120,000 | EUR 1,200 |
| Fixed term, 25 years | Capped at 18× | EUR 432,000 | EUR 4,320 |
The cap does real work at the long end: beyond eighteen years the fee stops growing. At the short end, the indefinite lease is the cheapest structure for this fee — which is one input into a lease negotiation, and rarely the decisive one, since an indefinite term carries its own commercial consequences.
What This Page Does Not Cover
The Gebührengesetz contains many Tarifposten. This page covers Tarifpost 5 only, and the 1 per cent figure should not be carried across to any other kind of contract — assignments, guarantees, settlements and the rest are charged, where they are charged at all, under their own provisions and at their own rates.
Two related points sit outside it as well. The fee on an assignment under § 33 TP 21 is a different Tarifpost, and it is the one waived for business contributions under Article III of the Umgründungssteuergesetz where the assets have been held for more than two years. And real-estate transfer tax, which arises on the acquisition of land rather than on its lease, is a separate tax under a separate act.
Where a contract's classification is genuinely uncertain — a serviced-office arrangement, a co-working agreement, a licence to occupy — the question is decided on the substance of what is granted, and it is worth resolving before signature rather than after an assessment arrives.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there stamp duty on Austrian leases?
Yes. Lease agreements and other contracts granting the use of a non-consumable thing for a period and for a stated price attract a fee of 1% of the value under § 33 TP 5 of the Gebührengesetz 1957. Hunting leases are charged at 2%. Leases of residential space are exempt, which is why private tenants rarely encounter the fee and companies renting offices always do.
What is the stamp duty calculated on?
Not on the annual rent. Where the term is indefinite, the recurring payments are valued at three times the annual value. Where the term is fixed, they are valued at the annual value multiplied by the term — capped at eighteen times the annual value. A break clause in a fixed-term contract is disregarded for the calculation, so a ten-year lease with a right to terminate after three is still measured over ten.
Are residential leases subject to Austrian stamp duty?
No. Contracts for the rent of residential space are expressly exempt under § 33 TP 5 Abs 4 Z 1. So are copyright and neighbouring-rights licences, and patent, trade-mark and design licences. There is also a de minimis threshold: leases whose assessable value does not exceed EUR 150 are free of the fee.
Who pays the stamp duty on a lease, the landlord or the tenant?
The landlord calculates and remits it. Where the landlord has an Austrian domicile, habitual abode, place of management, seat or permanent establishment, it must self-assess the percentage fee and pay it to Finanzamt Österreich by the 15th day of the second month following the month in which the liability arose. Who bears it commercially is a matter for the lease, and in Austrian commercial practice it is very often passed to the tenant — read the clause before assuming.
Does the fee apply to a virtual office or a serviced office agreement?
It depends on what the contract actually is, not what it is called. The Tarifpost catches lease agreements under §§ 1090 ff. ABGB and other contracts under which someone obtains the use of a non-consumable thing for a period and for a stated price. A pure service agreement is a different thing from a lease; an agreement that in substance grants the use of defined space for a term and a price is closer to one. Where the sum at stake is material, the classification is worth confirming before signing.