Significant changes of the Austrian Ordinance on the Research Premium (FoPV)

Prior to the expected publication of the final version of the Research Premium Guidelines 2025 (FoPR 2025), an amendment of the FoPV was issued on 18 December 2025.

What you need to know

The main changes concern the assessment basis:

• An addition has been made specifying that only tax-deductible expenses can be included in the assessment basis. Research expenses within the meaning of section 1 para. 1 FoPV must be determined considering the provisions relevant for the determination of profits for tax purposes. Options exercised within the determination of profits for tax purposes regarding the amount of business expenses also apply for the research premium. This rule applies to all open cases. With this amendment to the FoPV, the legislator reacts to the Austrian Supreme Administrative Court (VwGH) ruling of 30 September 2025 (Ro 2024/13/0017-6), which stated that the prohibition on deduction of manager remuneration was not applicable for determining the research premium assessment basis (see our newsletter dated 20 November 2025.
• A clarification has also been added regarding direct investments in assets subject to capitalisation. Direct investments in assets subject to capitalisation used consistently for R&D can still be included (once) up to the total expenses (acquisition/ production costs; or book value for assets acquired, produced, or contributed before used for R&D purposes). However, a new explicit rule now allows consideration of the amortisation or depreciation attributable to the asset insofar as the asset is consistently used for R&D. This practice was already common and is now explicitly regulated for the Research premium from calendar year 2026 onwards.
• Generally, direct investments in assets subject to capitalisation always required a (partial) consistent use for R&D purposes. Newly introduced was an adjustment of acquisition/production costs, if the usage for R&D purposes deviates by more than 25% from the usage previously assumed for the calculation of the research premium or if the R&D use is discontinued.
• Furthermore, the “market-oriented research and experimental development (R&D)” was added in Annex I, part B subsec. 7a of the FoPV. If products or materials are commercially used after the R&D activities without prior internal use, only expenses caused by R&D, but no commercialization expenses may be included as R&D expenses in the assessment basis for the research premium.

Additionally, an amendment was made regarding the information to be disclosed as part of the application for the FFG expert opinion (according to Annex III FoPV). When applying for the expert opinion from the FFG, the number of research projects assigned to a research topic must now be specified.

In practice

The new FoPV brings significant changes, particularly the obligation to make adjustments related to the actual use of R&D investments as well as the commercial use of products or materials subsequently to R&D activities can have substantial (negative) effects on the assessment basis.

It remains unclear how the new provisions regarding the commercial usage of products or materials should be interpreted. Information from the BMF (Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance) with further explanations on the FoPV were published but do not yet provide further clarity. However, it is anticipated that the final Research Premium Guidelines will contain more detailed information on this topic.

After the final Research Premium Guidelines are published, we will inform you promptly on the most important details in a separate newsletter.

If you have any questions, our experts are happy to provide advice.

Our newsletters on fundings until the end of 2025 can be found on our Austrian Tax News page under the topic “Funding.”