self-employed business/setting up as individual entrepreneur (Einpersonenunternehmen – EPU)

What

Setting up as individual entrepreneur (Einpersonenunternehmen – EPU)

Good to know

It’s highly recommended to contact WKO. They will give you counselling as well as all the information. They also offer translation services free of charge. If you’re going to hire employees, you have to notify the municipality/city in order to pay municipal tax.

Steps

STEP 1: You can consult with specialised departments and experts at the Austrian Economic Chamber (Wirtschaftskammer – WKO).

STEP 2: Give a declaration of the start-up and your business purpose.

STEP 3: (Electronic) Business registration: you’ll need the following documents

A) If you can give proof of competence:

• Passport
• Criminal record certificate of your country of origin if you don’t live in Austria or you live there for less than five years.
• Proof of competence
• Residence permit for the purpose of self-employment (for third country citizens)

B) If you can’t give proof of competence yourself, but the director manager who can. You’ll need:

• Passport
• Criminal record certificate of your country of origin if you don’t live in Austria or you live there for less than five years.
• Permanent residence permit – EU (for third country citizens)

For the director manager:

• Passport
• Criminal record certificate of the country of origin of the director manager if he/she doesn’t live in Austria or live there for less than five years.
• Commercial Social Insurance (Sozialversicherungsanstalt der gewerblichen Wirtschaft – SVA) of the registration as a worker working at least 20 hours per week.
• Proof of competence
• Declaration of the director manager under trade law on his/her activity in the company.

STEP 4: If you employ a director manager under trade law, you have to register him/her at GKK before registering your business.

STEP 5: You have to register the director manager with the Commercial Social Insurance if they haven’t been insured with the State medical insurance (GKK).

STEP 6: You have to report your commercial activity with the fiscal authorities during the first month and apply for a tax number and the company at the regional department of the Ministry of Finance (Finanzamt).

STEP 7: Certain activities require permission of the authorities. Contact the municipality.

Where

• State medical insurance (Gebietskrankenkasse – GKK). You can find the office responsible for your place of residence (in German): sozialversicherung.at/portal27/esvportal/content?contentid=10007.683713&viewmode=content
• Ministry of Finance (Finanzamt). You can find the office responsible for your place of residence here (in German): bmf.gv.at/service/anwend/behoerden/
• Austrian Economic Chamber (Wirtschaftskammer). You can find the office responsible for your place of residence here (in German): wko.at