Austria's €2 parcel tax — and why it costs €2.40

What the law says

The tax is the Paketsteuergesetz (PakStG), Article 44 of the Budgetbegleitgesetz 2027–2028, published in BGBl. I Nr. 62/2026 on 29 July 2026. It is seventeen short paragraphs, and we read all of them for this page.

What is taxed — § 1

The delivery of parcels in Austria as part of a distance sale. Not the goods, not the packaging: the delivery.

How much — § 3

€2 per delivered parcel. Alternatively €2 per order that leads to a delivery; the seller picks one method per quarter and it applies to every order in that quarter. The choice has a price: where an order goes out in three parcels, a per-order shipper owes €2 once, a per-parcel shipper €2 three times. Where the levy is passed to the customer, VAT comes on top of the €2: €2.20 on goods at the reduced 10% rate — books, for instance — and €2.40 at the standard 20%, the arithmetic set out below.

Who owes it — § 4, § 2(4)

The Versandhändler: a business whose Austrian distance sales of goods shipped in parcels exceeded €100 million in the previous financial year. Sales a business facilitates through an electronic interface — a marketplace, platform or portal — count as made by that business.

Which sales — § 2(3)

Deliveries to consumers under a distance contract, shipped by or on behalf of the seller. That covers domestic, intra-EU and third-country sellers alike. Two carve-outs follow from the VAT definition the Act borrows: goods the customer collects in the seller's own shop, including a collection point at that shop (Click & Collect), are not a distance sale and are not taxed; and neither is a sale whose contract is concluded in the seller's business premises, even where the seller then delivers the goods to the customer's home — the Finance Ministry works through both examples in its FAQ.

When it arises — § 5

When the payment is accepted, not on dispatch or delivery. Once the parcel has been delivered, the debt cannot lapse again — the Finance Ministry's FAQ says a correction is ruled out when a delivered parcel comes back, even where the return unwinds the contract. Nothing in the Act obliges the shipper to refund the amount to the customer, so any refund a retailer gives is its own policy (returns).

Filing and payment — §§ 6, 7, 10

Self-assessed per calendar quarter, filed only electronically through FinanzOnline, and paid by the last day of the month after the quarter.

Sellers outside the EU/EEA — § 9

Must appoint an Austrian fiscal representative — a tax adviser, lawyer or notary based in Austria — before the first return.

Records — § 13

Kept for seven years and handed over electronically on request.

Review — § 16

The finance minister must evaluate the tax in 2029, including whether the €100 million threshold needs adjusting, and report to parliament by 30 April 2029.

In force — § 17

1 October 2026, for every delivery whose tax debt arises after 30 September 2026.

The finance ministry expects it to raise around €280 million a year, partly to pay for the VAT cut on basic food that took effect on 1 July 2026.

Why €2 becomes €2.40 — the tax on the tax

The law says €2, and it says the seller owes it. The customer owes the state nothing. What the customer sees is a different matter.

When a retailer passes the €2 on, it stops being a tax from the customer's point of view and becomes part of what they pay for the order. Austrian VAT is charged on everything the customer pays — so the passed-on €2 attracts VAT like any other part of the price:

Both halves go to the Austrian state: the €2 through the parcel-tax return, the 40 cents through the seller's ordinary VAT return. That is the "tax on the tax" people are angry about, and it is simple arithmetic rather than a separate rule — the PakStG itself says nothing about VAT. The €2.20 figure is as reported in the press. Which rate applies to a mixed basket is something we have not seen an official answer on.

Does it apply to me?

Almost certainly not as a taxpayer. It may well apply to your customers.

Austria's trade association, the Handelsverband, counts 15 or 16 large retailers and marketplaces as caught, depending on the outlet, and the names reported are Amazon, Temu, Zalando, Shop-Apotheke, eBay.at/eBay.de, Otto, Best Secret, AliExpress, MediaMarkt, Apple, Universal, IKEA, Shein and XXXLutz. Read that as the list of obvious candidates, not as the test — the €100 million line is the test, and it decides case by case. Two cases from the first days show how it works in practice:

Refurbed — under the line, not liable

The marketplace for refurbished goods said the wording of the law left it unclear for a long time whether it was caught, because its Austrian revenue had swung between €90 million and €110 million. It came in below €100 million, so Refurbed is not liable for the levy.

shöpping — under the line, and selling that

Austrian Post's marketplace shöpping is also below the threshold and now positions itself as the "paketsteuerfreie Alternative" — the parcel-tax-free alternative.

The Handelsverband also estimates that around 4,000 Austrian businesses that sell through those platforms are affected indirectly — through their buyers, not through a tax bill.

What it means for a small seller

For once, a rule that is aimed at the big players actually lands on them. The practical consequence for a small seller is a price gap: the same order costs an Austrian customer €2.40 more on Amazon than in your own shop.

• If you sell on a big marketplace and from your own shop, Austrian buyers now have a €2.40-per-order reason to come to you directly.
• If you sell only through a big marketplace, your Austrian prices just rose by €2.40 per order without you changing anything, and you can't opt out.
• Bundling helps the buyer on per-order platforms. Where the platform charges per order, one basket of five items pays the tax once; five separate orders pay it five times.

Returns, cancellations and subscriptions

The tax is owed on the delivery, and § 5 says the debt cannot lapse again once the parcel has arrived. Sending the goods back does not undo that delivery, so the law does not require anyone to refund the fee. What your Austrian customers actually get back depends on the retailer's own policy.

Delivered, then returned

Liability generally stays, and a refund is not provided for by law.

Complete, timely returns

Amazon, Otto Österreich and Zalando told the APA they refund the tax voluntarily on complete, timely returns. That is goodwill on each retailer's own conditions — not a legal entitlement.

Partial returns

Keep at least one item and expect nothing back: customers should not assume that the whole levy, or even part of it, is refunded on a part return.

Amazon's refund triggers

Amazon refunds the tax where the order is cancelled before dispatch, where a parcel is lost, or where the entire order goes back within the free return window or under warranty. Where only part of the order is cancelled or returned and at least one item is kept, there is no refund.

Subscription deliveries

Reported inconsistently. Amazon's help page, as quoted in the press, says the tax is not charged on the recurring deliveries of a Spar-Abo; an account from the day it started had the levy contained in the total of the first order and not charged again afterwards. Both readings agree that recurring deliveries do not each carry €2.40 — which line it appears on is the part in dispute.

Identical baskets, different bills

Because the shipper elects per parcel or per order (§ 3), the same three-item basket that ships in three parcels carries the levy once on an order-billing platform and three times where the shipper bills per parcel. Whether, and at what amount, that reaches the customer is then the shipper's pricing decision.

It is not a packaging levy

The name invites confusion with the things this site is mostly about, so to be clear:

• It does not replace, reduce or count towards your Austrian packaging licence under the Verpackungsverordnung, or your authorised representative. See the Austria desk.
• It does not depend on the weight or material of the packaging. A tiny padded envelope and a large carton pay the same €2, if they are parcels.
• It is separate from the EU-level charges on low-value imports — a different legal basis and a different debtor. The €2 handling fee reported to start on 1 November 2026 is drafted per item against goods imported from outside the EU and, unlike the Austrian tax, is reported to land on the platforms that count as the importer for the sales they facilitate rather than on the seller. Both are set out in our note on the EU's €3 duty on low-value parcels.

The court challenges

The law applies as written until a court says otherwise, but it may not last. This is the state of play in the Austrian press on 2 October 2026.

Constitutional Court

Zalando says it filed a challenge against the parcel-tax law with the Verfassungsgerichtshof on 20 August 2026, as reported by the Austrian press.

The route the others are taking

Otto Österreich's chief Harald Gutschi expects up to ten retailers to take legal action, and said the company will lodge appeals (Beschwerde) against the tax assessments — the route that produces a case rather than a general challenge to the law. He has also said a path up to the Constitutional Court and the Court of Justice could take up to four years.

Amazon's position

A spokesperson said Amazon has "concerns about the constitutionality of the law and its compatibility with the rules of the EU internal market", that it does not believe the law is suited to achieving its stated aims, and that it is seeking "legal clarification".

Zalando's position

Zalando stated that the Austrian parcel-tax law is, in its view, "neither constitutional nor compliant with EU law": it interferes impermissibly with EU competences, distorts competition one-sidedly to the detriment of distance and online retail, and creates unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles in the free internal market.

EU single-market complaint

The Handelsverband, together with Ecommerce Europe, is considering a complaint to the European Commission aimed at infringement proceedings. The association rejects the levy outright and expects falling sales, with the affected businesses passing the cost to their customers.

Known traps

Sources

The statute first, then the finance ministry, then the press reports we rely on for anything the law doesn't say.

1. BGBl. I Nr. 62/2026 — Budgetbegleitgesetz 2027–2028, Article 44: Paketsteuergesetz (RIS) The authentic text, §§ 1–17. Read in full for this page
2. BMF — Paketsteuer: Kurzdarstellung und FAQs Federal Ministry of Finance: the platform rule, how the threshold is measured, what counts as a parcel, the two carve-outs (collection in the shop, orders concluded in the shop — Q4 and Q6), and returns (Q10)
3. USP.gv.at — Paketsteuer Official business portal: exemptions (B2B, C2C, click and collect, orders concluded in the shop, warranty replacements) and FinanzOnline filing
4. KPMG — Austria: Parcel levy on distance sales effective 1 October 2026 Secondary. Cross-check of the statute summary
5. ORF — Paketsteuer bei großen Onlinehändlern in Kraft Secondary. The list of affected retailers, Amazon's and Otto's per-order charging, voluntary refunds on returns, the €280m estimate
6. Paketsteuer ab 1. Oktober: 2,40 Euro pro Paket Secondary. Source for the €2.20 figure at the 10% rate
7. VOL.AT — Paketsteuer wird fällig Secondary. Zalando's Constitutional Court filing of 20 August 2026, the Handelsverband's planned complaint, the 4,000 indirectly affected businesses, the three-parcel comparison, Refurbed and shöpping below the threshold, and the Amazon and Zalando statements
8. VOL.AT — Paketsteuer: Amazon und andere Händler verlangen ab sofort 2,40 Euro (1 October 2026) Secondary. Amazon's per-order charging and the checkout notice, the Spar-Abo treatment on day one, the 16-name retailer count, the €280m estimate
9. Kronen Zeitung — Paketsteuer auch für Retouren – aber nicht immer (2 October 2026) Secondary. The 15-retailer count, Refurbed's revenue range and its position below the threshold, shöpping's "paketsteuerfreie Alternative", Gutschi's up-to-ten expectation and the appeals against the tax assessments, the full Amazon and Zalando statements
10. oe24 — Paket zurückschicken: Auch dann gilt die neue Steuer (2 October 2026) Secondary. The voluntary refunds, the nil return on partial returns, Amazon's refund triggers, the Handelsverband's rejection and its sales warning
11. Heute — Retouren-Falle aufgedeckt (2 October 2026) Secondary. The APA statements on refunds, the Amazon help page on subscription deliveries, the 16-name list, the two billing models

Help us keep this page honest

We want to know how each platform actually charges it — per order or per parcel, whether it refunds on returns, and whether any platform has tried to pass it to sellers rather than buyers. A screenshot of a checkout or a seller notice is worth more than anything we can read in the press.