After a significant increase in COVID-19 infections, Austria entered a second lockdown in November 2020.

This forced retail businesses that don't cover daily needs, service providers that operate in close proximity to customers (such as barbers and massage therapists), restaurants and hotels to shut down.

To ease the burden this has placed on the economy, the Austrian government recently initiated a new measure to substitute part of the turnover lost by those directly affected by the lockdown.

Key points of the new measure

• The affected Austrian companies will be, for the duration of the lock down, compensated for between 20-60% of the loss of turnover in case of retail businesses, and 80% of the loss of turnover for the other directly affected businesses.
• The loss of turnover is calculated based on the turnover in November 2019.
• For companies founded after November 2019, the loss of turnover is calculated based on the advanced sales tax returns of 2020.
• The turnover compensation can be applied for until 15 December 2020.
• The maximum disbursement per company is capped at EUR 800,000 (however, there are plans to increase the cap).
• State guarantees for bridging loans, direct aid from municipalities or federal states reduce the cap.
• Applicant companies must have either their headquarters or a permanent establishment in Austria, and carry out operational activities in Austria.
• Companies with pending insolvency proceedings at the time of application are excluded (this doesn't include reorganisation proceedings).
• Companies that dismissed employees after 3 November 2020 are excluded.

Find out more

To discuss the new measure in more detail, please reach out to a member of our Restructuring & Insolvency team.