Austria

Binder Grösswang's tax team is known for its size and ability to cover a wide range of specialisations across the practise area, such as international tax and EU tax law, cross-border acquisitions, mergers, reorganisations and similar transactions, accounting and tax accounting law matters, transactional Tax advice in procedural matters, tax litigation at courts (including the highest tax court and the constitutional court) and private client business. Christian Wimpissinger, Andreas Hable and Clemens Willvonseder are the core team and partners, and they are assisted by attorney Barbara Gangl. Andreas Hable is a well-known private client partner.

During the study period, the team provided tax assistance to Mubadala on two big projects, as well as Austrian tax guidance for the establishment of a fund structure for the Austrian Growth Capital Fund.

Client feedback

“Binder Grösswang is an address where I would expect that a client gets good tax advice.”

“Very responsive, spot on advice.”

“Responsiveness; calm, clear advice; creativity.”

“Excellent client service, strong technical analysis. Very good way of summarising complicated issues.”

“Pragmatic / hands-on / responsive.”

“Very knowledgeable, high expertise, good International network.”

“Binder Grösswang is a top player in Austria and has very good diversified teams, which include the relevant and necessary legal scope of a company. All partners and associates have very good technical and vocational skills. They understand the corporate structure and excellently put themselves in the senior management´s position, which helps a lot during the legal process.”

The team at bpv Hugel operates a full-service tax practice, advising on the full range of contentious and non-contentious tax issues. The firm is a member firm of bpv LEGAL, a co-operation of four independent law firms in CEE, founded in 2006 with currently approximately 150 attorneys at law, with offices in Bratislava, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Prague and Austria. The firm is a key partner for cross-border tax advice in the CEE region.

The core team and partners are Gerald Schachner, Kornelia Wittmann, Nicolas Wolski, Stanislav Nekrasov, Roland Juill, Lucas Hora, Christoph Nauer and Christian Schneider.

During the research period, the team advised European Directories Group, a Triton Partners portfolio company, on the sale of the dogado group to international private equity firm Cinven and leading global investor Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, as well as assisting in the establishment of one of Austria's first multi-family office structures.

During the research period, Katrin Kernbichler joined the firm as an associate.

CERHA HEMPEL is an Austrian law practice with two equity partners who are both attorneys-at-law and certified public tax advisors, three equity partners in total, and six senior lawyers in total, in addition to associates and trainees. The practice includes not only traditional areas of tax advice in law firms, such as M&A, banking and real estate-related (transactional) tax advice, but also genuine tax advice, such as tax litigation, fiscal criminal law, international tax law, tax-driven reorganisations, and private client and non-profit tax advice.

During the research period the firm advised Ground Truth Solutions, a non-profit organisation, on the conversion to a Quasi-International Organisation. The team also counselled a number of UCITS umbrella funds on the Austrian addition to their UCITS prospectuses.

Deloitte Austria is well known for high-end, innovative international tax, finance, accounting, and payroll solutions. Since 2017, the legal team, with about 35 Austrian lawyers, has focused, among others, on corporate law, M&A, banking and finance, restructuring, real estate, employment, IT, IP, data protection and commercial litigation. Herbert Kovar leads the tax team. Karin Andorfer leads the transfer pricing practice.

During the research period, the firm advised a global information technology organisation on tax-advantaged financing for environmentally friendly business model reorganisation and green technology deployment in a new tax era. The team also assisted an Austrian start-up and a world-leading manufacturer on restructuring and acquisition initiatives and environmental, social, and government compliance.

Dorda is renowned for its expertise in international tax planning, transactional tax advice and tax litigation. It is also well-known for its knowledge and strength in advising clients on cross-border issues and for having a significant amount of experience acting as lead counsel internationally. Partner Paul Doralt is in charge of a group of practitioners that includes Katharina Binder, an attorney at law, and Stanislav Nekrasov, an attorney at law and a certified tax advisor.

In one recent example of its work the firm was successful in serving as Austrian counsel for DigitalBridge in its acquisition of GD Towers. The team also advised Croma-Pharma on the first De-Spac transaction in Austria.

Stanislav Nekrasov, attorney at Law, joined the team during the research period.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's Austrian tax team consisting of two partners, two senior associates, and two junior associates handles a wide range of tax matters, including domestic and cross-border M&A, restructuring and financing issues, tax issues arising under European law, VAT law, transfer pricing and tax disputes. Anna Binder-Gutwinski, principal associate, is a rising star in its transactional practice.

Recently the firm provided tax assistance to a large telecom provider in addition to its continuing tax advisory in tax litigation. The team also aided an Austrian real estate company (one of Europe's leading real estate developers) in its effort to achieve carbon neutrality for all energy sources (electricity, heating, and cooling) by 2040.

Partner Michael Sedlaczek retired in May 2022, and the principal associate, Lukas Allram, departed the firm during the research period.

Client feedback

“Proven scientific expertise in the field of corporate tax law.”

“Freshfields Vienna, with tax partner Katarina Kubik, is one of the addresses I would refer to without thinking about whether the client gets good advice.”

ICON was founded in 1993 as a highly specialised tax boutique after the tax division of voestalpine was acquired by management. ICON currently employs more than 95 people, 24 of whom are certified tax advisors, and offers services across nine service lines including audit, corporate tax, global employment services, indirect tax and customs, international tax, M&A, transfer pricing, tax controversy and private client. Stefan Bendlinger, senior partner, and Matthias Mitterlehner, partner, lead the international tax team. The indirect tax and customs practice is directed by partner Günther Platzer and has a staff of 15 individuals. Martin Hummer, a tax expert, leads the transfer pricing service line.

During the research period, the firm assisted a private client in the dissolution of a fiscally questionable Cyprus-based tax structure. In addition, the team developed a concept for several large Austrian companies located in the border region to Germany that employers can offer to their employees based in Germany. The model clearly outlines the tax and social security implications of the selected model for both employees and employers.

LeitnerLeitner is a CEE tax advisory firm with offices in Austria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Switzerland. It is a member of the European Commission's VAT Expert Group, represented by Hannes Gurtner. Gurtner heads the VAT department and has more than 25 years of experience in European VAT. Peter Pichler is a co-head of the VAT department with approximately 20 years of experience in European VAT.

Recently the firm advised a branch of a multinational manufacturer from a transfer pricing perspective on the sale of goods from the Austrian entity to its limited risk distribution entities focusing on year-end adjustments and defending the previous approach to avoid double taxation. The team also represented an automobile manufacturer in an appeal procedure addressing goodwill depreciation on EU participation under the Austrian group taxation framework.

Daniel Lungenschmid, Director, joined the team during the research period.

Schindler Attorneys provides integrated legal and tax advice in a wide range of tax services, including tax litigation and fiscal criminal law, as well as special issues such as cross-border personnel leasing, VAT and sophisticated transfer pricing matters. The team is led by co-founder Clemens Philipp Schindler, who is assisted by Maja Mayrhuber and Daniel Kropf Senior Associates.

As Austrian counsel, the team advised the client Ambridge Europe on providing buyer-side W&I protection in connection with a very short timescale 100% acquisition of the shares in Cloudflight. The firm also advised a Brazilian-based industrial group, one of the country's largest conglomerates, on the accounting and taxation of foreign exchange gains and losses, as well as transfer pricing considerations arising from financing operations, given that the company had related party debt in addition to bank financings.

Client feedback

“Responsive and excellent tax knowledge.”

“Very skilled tax team having multiple very good tax lawyers (in my opinion the best local team in AT), very good in meeting deadlines and responsive, very creative in solving the clients' issues. Great connections to the tax authorities.”

“Very good in keeping the big picture at minimising tax costs.”

“Very competent and confident when implementing more complex topics.”

“Very good knowledge, up-to-date level of relevant legislation. Fair price/value ratio, always available, hands-on mentality.”

“Very fast and very constructive.”

“Great technical processing and structuring.”

“Competent overall advice is provided through the combination of legal advice and tax advice.”

Schönherr has a dedicated tax practice offering legal and compliance services. The team has experience advising on cross-practice and cross-border transactional tax aspects while working with its M&A department. In addition, the group represents clients in tax proceedings and criminal tax matters. Roman Perner is the partner in charge of the tax practise, which is led by Marco Thorbauer.

The firm advised Swiss Life Kapital on its acquisition of the office building Allianz Tech Centre in Vienna's 14th district. DZ BANK also received legal advice from the team on the Austrian, Hungarian, and Romanian legs of a €117.5 million acquisition financing by APR Logistik and PE Waterland, including security pooling for three jurisdictions and tax law guidance.

Stefan Egger joined the tax team during the research period, bringing his major area of practice in national and international tax, particularly in the sphere of real estate transactions with him.

Client feedback

“Schönherr tax, headed by Marco Thorbauer, is also an address where I know that my client gets good advice.”

“Very fund legal knowledge; very responsive; well-structured project managers.”

“Schoenherr has a broad network of legal professionals and thus provides outstanding legal assistance across jurisdictions.”

“Schoenherr always provides top-notch and hands-on legal advice and throughout shows great response times and client care.”

“The Schoenherr tax team provides high-end client-friendly advice and is available 24/7.”

“Schönherr tax is a very responsive team with a lot of experience and know-how in transactional work.”

Wolf Theiss provides corporate tax planning, individual tax planning and estate planning. It also offers tax advice on real estate-related financial products and transactions such as debt and equity instruments, investment funds, facility agreements and receivables purchase transactions. The tax implications of bitcoin assets, voluntary self-disclosure is included in employment tax guidance, tax concerns and fiscal criminal legislation. The tax team is led by Niklas Schmidt, partner, and is assisted by Eva Stadler, counsel, and consultants Melanie Dimitrov and Karin Spindler-Simader.

During the research period, the firm advised one of Austria's largest and most well-known private foundations on the tax implications of a €1 billion asset distribution to the founder's family office. The team also advised two Austrian pharmaceutical holding corporations and their foreign individual shareholders on the feasibility and corporate law and tax law implications of transferring the legal seat of one corporation to Spain and contributing shares in the other corporation to a Spanish company, followed by an outbound upstream merger of said corporation.

Client feedback

“Very good in the tax aspects of private client issues.”