FinanzOnline facilitates the access to the Austrian tax administration for citizens and businesses as well as for public administrations through an online portal. Since 2003, citizens can file their tax returns electronically without having to reenter data, as this can be automatically transferred from previous years.

How does it work?

The FinanzOnline portal allows citizens to file their tax returns and other financial requests electronically without using a specialized software. Citizens can identify themselves through the Austrian digital ID ‘Bürgerkarte’. The portal allows them to gain insights into their entire tax account including data, that was transmitted by their employees. Data from the previous year can be transferred automatically and a notification service for the tax statement delivery is available in the electronic DataBox. All process steps can be traced online, which means that citizens can see how long it will take until they get their tax return. Furthermore, it is possible to manage your personal data online and to calculate your tax returns anonymously.

Businesses can process their administrative transactions with the authorities through FinanzOnline as well, such as income tax, VAT and corporation tax returns. In addition, tax agents use FinanzOnline for the tax affairs of 1.9 million clients.

High security standards guarantee that all data remain secure. FinanzOnline is also the key for numerous other e-government applications – for example for the Business Service Portal and for electronic invoicing - and it is the flagship portal of e-government service in Austria. At the moment, FinanzOnline has more than four million users which is nearly half of the Austrian population.

What are the benefits and challenges?

A challenge was that data sharing solutions such as FinanzOnline always have to apply to very high data protection standards. All transactions need to be secure.

Benefits are that processing tax returns online saves times and relieves the burden on the government budget. Since 2003, 330 million Euro in administrative costs were saved.

https://english.bmf.gv.at/e-government/portals/fon.html