Since 1 July 2005, fund companies are required to publish capital yields tax and EU withholding tax amounts for foreign investment funds.
Reporting of capital yields tax for foreign investment funds
Since the amendment of the Austrian Investment Fund Act in July 2005, capital yields tax for foreign investment funds must be reported to OeKB, as is already required for domestic funds. Capital yields tax is an Austrian withholding tax on investment income and is known in German as "Kapitalertragsteuer" or "KESt".
OeKB publishes current capital yields tax figures daily at www.profitweb.at
The facts at a glance
Section 40 (2.2) of the Investment Fund Act gives OeKB the mandate, in its role as the notification office under the Austrian Capital Market Act, of collecting and publishing the following data from 1 July 2005 onward:
- Ongoing reporting of capital yields tax per fund unit
- Periodic reporting of capital yields tax on distributions
- Income deemed equivalent to distributions
In order for this information to be published online at www.profitweb.at, it must be regularly reported to OeKB.
Provided that the capital yields tax amounts are published, end investors holding their fund units in custody accounts in Austria have the benefit of final (i.e. single all-in) taxation on these funds.
OeKB also offers electronic access to capital yields tax amounts and other fund data, such as net asset value, distributions, EU withholding tax, taxable income per share (TIS) and statistical breakdowns.
EU withholding tax for foreign investment funds
Austria's EU Withholding Tax Act ("EU-Quellensteuergesetz") entered into force on 1 July 2005. This law enacts the provisions of the EU Savings Tax Directive in Austria.
In particular, section 7 (3) of the Act stipulates that EU withholding tax amounts for foreign funds must be reported to OeKB for publication, as was already the case for domestic funds. If such amounts are not reported, the capital yields tax on income deemed distributed is to be assessed by reference to the tax base under section 42 (4) of the Investment Fund Act of 1993.
The current amounts can be viewed free of charge at www.profitweb.at to the extent that fund companies have reported the required information to OeKB.