The Auditing Service Wage-Related Taxes and Contributions

The Auditing Service Wage-Related Taxes and Contributions (Prüfdienst für Lohnabgaben und Beiträge) is a nationwide organisational unit that is independent in terms of human and economic resources. The tasks include wage tax audits, social security audits, municipal tax audits and performance of general supervision and inquiry measures for the collection of wage-related levies.

The Auditing Service Wage-Related Taxes and Contributions is a separate service authority (not a tax authority) based in Vienna with offices in all Federal States of Austria. The Auditing Service reports directly to the Federal Ministry of Finance.

The Auditing Service is chaired by a Managing Director and is currently segmented into 21 audit teams. By default, an audit team consists of twelve auditors and is headed by a team leader.

To ensure optimal technical support in the Auditing Service, a legal unit on tax audit is available. A dedicated investigation service is being established to assist in other supervision and inquiry measures.

The tasks in the Auditing Service are carried out on behalf of the Tax Authority responsible for the collection. In the context of audits, all factual and legal circumstances relevant to the levying of duties can be examined. General supervision measures (investigations and inspections) as well as the necessary control and evidence preservation measures can be carried out by the Tax Authority, the Financial Police or the Auditing Service, whereby the acting employees always act as organs of the competent Tax Authority.

Most recent update: 1 January 2021