End of tax-free self-promotion according to the Supreme Administrative Court

Contrary to established case law, the VwGH 2005/17/0053 of 22 February 2006 undertakes a Judicial turnaround and extends the advertising levy to self-promotion, even though the implementing decree AÖFV No. 121/2000 expressly states that self-promotion is not subject to the advertising levy. According to the Constitutional Court (VfGH) B 171/02, advertising that the advertiser undertakes for themselves without the involvement of third parties (i.e., self-promotion) is also not subject to the advertising levy. The aim of the advertising levy is to subject the dissemination of advertising messages to a levy insofar as contractors provide services to the advertiser for remuneration, with the tax base being the remuneration paid for this. The bone of contention was the publication of a product catalogue by a trading house that had set up its own cost centre for this purpose and occasionally sourced new texts and printing templates from manufacturers. The tax authorities derived the tax base for the advertising levy from various settlements (invoices issued, discounts, rebates, and bonuses) in this cost centre. For the Practice therefore, it should be noted that under the title "Advertising" no items appear that can be interpreted as space or space usage or advertising, in order to Liaison point as a basis for assessment Advertising levy to avoid.

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