Government measures in key jurisdictions 3rd edition final - Flipbook - Page 9
Austria
Company
law matters
Have any measures
been put in place to
accommodate social
distancing (such as
remote general
meetings)?
•
Legal transactions necessary for the proper handling of the Covid-19 crisis are exempt from
stamp duty if concluded any time from 1 March 2020 to 31 December 2020 (e.g., sureties
granted to ensure the liquidity of a company during the
Covid-19 crisis).
•
Bonus payments of up to EUR 3,000 made by employers to their employees in the calendar
year 2020, which are solely being granted due to the Covid-19 crisis and would not have been
granted otherwise, are exempt from income tax.
•
Public grants to be offered from 1 March 2020 onwards to maintain sustainability during the
Covid-19 crisis are tax-free.
•
An exemption from fees and federal administrative charges for all documents and official acts
related to Covid-19 applies. In particular, registrations of mortgages to secure loans taken out
by companies to bridge their liquidity problems due to the Covid-19 crisis shall be exempt from
court fees, provided that the application for registration has been received by the court before
1 July 2020.
•
Meetings of all types of Austrian companies can be held without the physical presence of the
participants. In principle, an acoustic and optical connection is necessary in order to hold virtual
(general) meetings, whereby a common video conference solution should be sufficient. In exceptional
cases, participants can only participate acoustically. Special rules apply, inter alia, to the general
meetings of a listed companies: it may be provided that submitting an application for a resolution,
voting and raising of an objection in the virtual general meeting can only be made by a special proxy
instructed by the company. In such case, the company has to propose at least four suitable and
independent proxies, whereby at least two of such special proxies must be lawyers ornotaries.
•
To the extent a notarial deed or a certification is required with respect to e.g. M&A transactions,
capital measures and any legal document, notaries are entitled to use electronic tools to render
their services. Such regulation applies until December 2020 and substitutes the requirement of
physical meetings in front of anotary.
•
The deadline for the ordinary general meetings has been extended to twelve months following the
balance sheet date.
•
Furthermore, the deadline for submitting the annual financial statements has been extended by three
months, so that the annual financial statements of companies must be submitted to the responsible
commercial register court no later than twelve months following the balance sheet date.
Government measures in key jurisdictions
9