Federal Council Approves Growth Opportunities Act

Spe­ci­fi­cally, the fol­lo­wing re­gu­la­ti­ons are being amen­ded:

• In­tro­duc­tion of a de­cli­ning ba­lance depre­cia­tion (de­gres­sive AfA) on movable eco­no­mic goods at a ma­xi­mum of twice the li­near depre­cia­tion rate, but not more than 20 %, for ac­qui­si­ti­ons/pro­duc­tions af­ter 31 March 2024, and be­fore 1 Ja­nu­ary 2025,
• In­tro­duc­tion of a de­cli­ning ba­lance depre­cia­tion for re­si­den­tial buil­dings at a rate of 5 %, if con­struc­tion be­gan af­ter 30 Sep­tem­ber 2023, and be­fore 1 Oc­to­ber 2029, or if a new buil­ding is ac­qui­red wi­thin this pe­riod,
• In­crease of the de­duc­tible loss car­ry­for­ward beyond the base amount to 70 % for the pe­riod from 2024 to 2027 (ex­clu­ding trade tax; chan­ges to loss car­ry­back are no lon­ger pro­vi­ded for),
• Mo­di­fi­ca­ti­ons to the re­ten­tion be­ne­fit,
• Mo­di­fi­ca­ti­ons to the op­tion mo­del,
• Re­gu­la­ti­ons on cross-bor­der fi­nan­cing re­la­ti­ons­hips wi­thin the cor­po­rate group in § 1 para. 3d and 3e AStG (For­eign Tax Act),
• Ex­pan­sion of the tax in­cen­ti­ves for re­se­arch from the day af­ter the law is an­noun­ced, in­clu­ding an in­crease in the as­sess­ment ba­sis to EUR 10 mil­lion,
• In­tro­duc­tion of elec­tro­nic in­voi­cing from 2025 with tran­si­tio­nal re­gu­la­ti­ons,
• Re­duc­tion of bu­reau­cracy, among other things, by rai­sing VAT th­res­hold va­lues.

The fol­lo­wing mea­su­res, howe­ver, are not in­clu­ded in the fi­nal ver­sion of the law:

• In­tro­duc­tion of a cli­mate pro­tec­tion in­vest­ment pre­mium,
• In­crease of the th­res­hold for low-va­lue eco­no­mic goods and the lump-sum amount,
• Change of the meal al­lo­wan­ces,
• In­crease of the tax-free al­lo­wance for com­pany events,
• Re­por­ting ob­li­ga­ti­ons for do­mestic tax ar­ran­ge­ments.