The Regional Management of the South Region (being one of the five Regional Managements of the Federal Ministry of Finance in Austria) and WKO Steiermark (being one of the nine regional Departments of the Austrian Economic Chambers) signed a cooperation agreement in 2018. The tax authorities and the chamber of commerce want to work together to increase the tax and customs compliance of (young) entrepreneurs. This is intended to increase the share of the honest economy, so the financial administration can better focus its resources to companies that do not comply with the laws.
What is special about this agreement is that it was concluded for the first time in Austria. It was described by the head of the section – and the group leader of the administrative organisation of the Federal Ministry of Finance – as a benchmark considered suitable for roll-out throughout Austria. The agreement was drawn up by the Regional Manager of the South Region, Hans-Georg Kramer, and the Organisational Developer of the South Region, Johannes Fahrenberger, together with representatives of WKO Steiermark. So far the activities of Erna Tappler (Head of the tax office Graz-Umgebung), such as the participation in the ‘Founders Fair’ in Graz and some cooperation with different industries (e.g. the motor vehicle industry) of the Economic Chambers were already accomplished by Diether Rapf.
These activities have now been expanded for all finance and customs offices in the southern region. The entire cooperation has been brought into a structure to mutually support events planned jointly in an annual cycle. It reminds the young economy, but also experienced companies, of tax and customs compliance by means of targeted information regarding their rights and obligations with the tax authorities and thus increases it.
The effects show that better-informed start-ups are able to file higher quality applications with the tax office and thus save themselves and the tax offices a lot of work. This is also accompanied by the reduction of prejudices. It has been difficult for some companies to understand the information on the homepage of the BMF (Federal Ministry of Finance, Austria) and to carry out a proper incorporation. The submission of advance VAT returns, the payment obligations to the tax office and the consequences of noncompliance with the deadlines were not always known and often led to incorrect reactions and additional work on both sides.
When the Founders Fair took place in 2019, organised by the Messe Congress Graz with WKO Steiermark, the tax office was in attendance. The purpose was to explain to the founders their rights and duties towards the tax office in simple language and with practical examples. Competent employees of the tax office were available to answer questions. A dialogue event was also held for the first time at the 2019 Founders Fair. Around 100 people took part, who received basic information about e-incorporation and alternatives from the regional manager Hans-Georg Kramer, and Johannes Fahrenberger. Questions could be asked about the specifics of tax audit procedures. These included how to proceed in the event of payment difficulties with the tax office, the small business regulation and the safe keeping of documents, which were answered in the dialogue. Two business breakfasts for the young economy have already taken place in the regions, in which representatives of the nearby tax offices took part to answer questions from the participants there as well. The next step was to form an editorial team from the specialist departments to present important findings from the cooperation with the tax office to companies in an understandable form, and to communicate them in the WKO Steiermark newsletters. The activities were supplemented by the participation of experts from the fiscal administration in events organised by individual sectors of the WKO Steiermark (e.g. construction and ancillary building trades, motor vehicle trading). There were lectures on the obligation to issue documents, accounting obligations and the cash register obligation as essential bases for the recording of income by companies.