Tax

Schindler Attorneys’ Tax Practice is highly regarded and among the largest of Austria-based law firms. Our experts mainly work in three areas:

• First, tax planning and structuring of acquisitions, corporate reorganizations, financial restructurings, financing transitions and incentive schemes for employees and management.
• Second, tax audits, tax litigation, voluntary self-disclosures and fiscal criminal law proceedings.
• Third, our Tax team also has extensive experience in advising on a wide range of national and international tax matters, including tax rulings and transfer pricing.

The international tax climate is changing rapidly. Various measures have been deployed both at the OECD and the EU-level, to combat ‘aggressive’ tax planning and to increase tax transparency. Thus, internationally operating taxpayers are faced with even greater challenges than before. Structuring your investments, businesses and transactions to achieve an optimal tax position but also effectively managing tax risks is crucial for being successful.

We combine profound tax knowledge with a deep economic understanding of your business and investments. Through our market presence, we are in a constant exchange with academia, tax authorities and government representatives. In this way, we become aware of current legislative projects and the further development of tax administration practice at an early stage and actively follow them.

Tax Advisory

With several of our experts having a double professional qualification (attorney at law and tax advisor) and long-time working experience in international leading tax advisory firms, our focus in the tax advisory practice is the development of tax-optimized strategies and solutions.

Our work includes preparing tax returns for companies, individuals and non-profit organizations. The Tax team also keeps sight of international and national tax risk management in particular. Furthermore, we record our clients’ income in cross-border tax cases, provide our specialist knowledge in tax audits, and provide opinions on capital investments from a tax perspective.

We further provide tax-law opinions before, or assist our clients during, international cross-border activities. We obtain binding rulings and negotiate with the tax authorities in order to avoid time-consuming disputes.

Transactions and Reorganizations

Schindler Attorneys’ Tax Practice is closely involved in the planning and structuring of acquisitions and corporate reorganizations in domestic and cross-border transactions. We help clients determine the most tax efficient transaction structure. Many of our projects have a cross-border element, which requires close alignment with foreign tax regimes, which we cover through our international network. In the context of LBO transactions, we regularly advise clients in relation to the acquisition structure and the tax aspects of the funding structure.

Holding and SPV Structures

Austria is a popular jurisdiction for international holding structures, this is due to a vast number of double tax treaties concluded, as well as, the availability of binding tax rulings in various areas (including transfer pricing).

Restructurings

The main objective in restructuring transactions is to minimize transfer taxes, stamp duty and corporate income tax on debt forgiven by creditors as part of the restructuring transactions. Some restructurings require that assets or debts are migrated, which is another area that raises complex tax questions which our experienced tax team is positioned to answer.

Financing Transactions

The main issues in relation to financing transactions are withholding tax on interest payments, taxation on deemed distributions, deductibility of interest and off-setting with ordinary income, as well as stamp duty (which is inter alia assessed on deeds on sureties, assignments and out-of-court settlements).

Contested Tax Matters

We regularly assist our clients with tax audits and tax litigation, in particular in a post transaction or post reorganization or restructuring context. Where tax disputes are imminent, we usually work closely together with the current tax advisors and accountants of our clients. In more complex matters, we are retained to review existing structures independently of tax audits.

Although we aim to prevent disputes in the advice we give our clients, conflicts cannot always be avoided. Our tax-law experts have broad experience of litigating before the Federal Fiscal Court, the Administrative Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court. We represent our clients in litigation, arbitration, fiscal criminal law and mediation proceedings. Our experience with tax controversies encompasses both substantive issues and procedural matters.

We also support our clients in the preparation of voluntary self-disclosures in order to avoid fiscal criminal charges or penalty payments. If fiscal criminal law proceedings are already initiated, we represent our clients even before fiscal criminal authorities and in connection with investigations conducted by public prosecutors.

Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)

Tax implications related to DLT (commonly referred to as block chain technology) are manifold and are increasingly in the focus of regulatory and tax authorities. In addition to general aspects of income, taxation concerning mining, acquisition and sale of cryptocurrencies, or crypto assets (e.g., Bitcoin, Ether or Monero) DLT becomes increasingly relevant for fund raisings (e.g., via Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs)). The structuring of ICOs triggers complex tax questions from an issuer as well as an investor perspective which Schindler Attorneys Tax Team is prepared to advise on.