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Eurofound's EU PolicyWatch collates information on the responses of government and social partners to the COVID-19 crisis, the war in Ukraine, rising inflation, as well as gathering examples of company practices aimed at mitigating the social and economic impacts.

Factsheet for measure AT-2020-36/1238 Updated – measures in Austria

Investment premium

Investitionsprämie

Country Austria , applies nationwide
Time period Temporary, 01 September 2020 – 31 May 2021
Context COVID-19, Green Transition, Digital Transformation
Type Other initiatives or policies
Category Supporting businesses to stay afloat
– Direct subsidies (full or partial) or damage compensation
Author Bernadette Allinger (Forba) and Eurofound
Measure added 05 October 2020 (updated 29 June 2021)

Background information

In order to support the Austrian economy in the wake of the Corona crisis, the federal government has designed a new support programme in the form of the aws investment premium, which creates an incentive for business investment and thus makes a significant contribution to securing business locations, creating jobs and training positions and strengthening the international competitiveness of Austria as a business location.

Content of measure

The premium is a tax-free, non-repayable subsidy which is granted to companies that carry out first measures for new investments in depreciable fixed assets between 1 August 2020 and 28 February 2021 and implement them by 28 February 2022 at the latest. Companies of all sectors and all sizes are eligible. Premiums lie at 7% of the investment costs and 14% in the specific areas of digitalisation, ecologisation and health.

The following investments are funded:

  • material and immaterial new investments required to be capitalised
  • depreciable fixed (long-term) assets
  • combinations with funding from other sources are possible

Exempt from the investment premium are:

  • climate-damaging investments (especially vehicles with a conventional drive system and installations which make use of fossil energy sources)
  • real estate/plot of land
  • purchase of buildings except for directly from the developer
  • building and expansion of residential buildings if they are planned for purchase or rent for private users
  • financial investments
  • company takeovers
  • capitalised assets
  • state units (except when they are in competition and have no sovereign tasks)

The premium needs to be applied for by 28 February 2021 and investment (which includes ordering, payments, deliveries, ...) needs to start before 1 March 2021. €1 billion has been earmarked for this measure.

Updates

The following updates to this measure have been made after it came into effect.

28 May 2021

On 28 May 2021, the legal requirements for the measure were somewhat changed:

  • Start: The deadline for taking the first measure has been extended by three months; the first measure must have been set by 31 May 2021 in order to become eligible.
  • Completion: The investment must have commissioned and paid for by 28 February 2023 at the latest (and by 28 February 2025 for investments over €20 million).
19 April 2021

On 19 April 2021, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced to increase the investment premium from €3 to €5 billion. Investments must lie between €5,000 and €50 million in order to be eligible for the premium. The timeline has been expanded also, with first measures to be taken by 31 May 2021. The government expects that the premium will trigger investments in the amount of €55 billion.

02 December 2020

Funding for the measure was first increased to €2 billion and on 2 December 2020 to €3 billion.

Use of measure

As of 27 November 2020, 49,613 applications have been received with an investment volume of €21.7 billion and a requested grant volume of around €2.3 billion. Over half of the applications have a digitisation or greening aspect.

Almost two thirds of all applications (64%) are from micro-enterprises (fewer than 10 employees), 18.5% from small enterprises (fewer than 50 employees), 9.8 percent from medium-sized enterprises (fewer than 250 employees) and 7.7% from large enterprises (over 250 employees). Regionally, most applications have been filed by companies in Upper Austria (26.2%), followed by Lower Austria (19.5%) and Styria (13.9%).

Target groups

Workers Businesses Citizens
Does not apply to workers Applies to all businesses Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors Funding
Public support service providers
National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

Trade unions Employers' organisations
Role Unknown Unknown
Form Not applicable Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

  • Unknown
  • Main level of involvement: N/A

Involvement

The social partners' involvement is unknown.

Views and reactions

No views/reactions are available.

Sources

Citation

Eurofound (2020), Investment premium, measure AT-2020-36/1238 (measures in Austria), EU PolicyWatch, Dublin, https://static.eurofound.europa.eu/covid19db/cases/AT-2020-36_1238.html

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Disclaimer: This information has not been subject to the full Eurofound evaluation, editorial and publication process.