Austria introduced a new ecommerce cost on 1 October.

But it is not a €2 charge on every online order delivered in the country.

The new Paketsteuer applies to qualifying distance sellers and marketplaces whose prior-year Austrian distance sales exceed €100 million.

For those businesses, the tax is €2 per delivered B2C parcel. Businesses can instead elect to calculate it per order for the return period.

That distinction matters even more because another European ecommerce charge starts one month later.

From 1 November, the EU’s separate Union Handling Fee is due on goods entering the EU from outside the bloc, generally at €2 per distinct item.

These are different charges with different triggers, taxpayers and counting rules.

For ecommerce teams selling into Austria, the immediate job is not to add the numbers together. It is to identify which rules actually apply to each fulfilment path.

What went live on 1 October

Austria’s Finance Ministry says the Paketsteuer applies when four important conditions come together.

The transaction is a distance sale.

It is B2C rather than B2B or C2C.

The goods are delivered in Austria.

And the liable distance seller exceeded €100 million in Austrian distance sales in the previous year.

The tax is generally €2 per delivered parcel.

A business can instead elect to calculate the tax per order. That election then applies consistently for the relevant return period.

The liability is linked to when payment is accepted. The law therefore applies where the relevant payment is accepted after 30 September 2026.

The first quarterly self-assessment covering Q4 2026 is due by 31 January 2027.

Marketplaces can become the taxpayer

The rule is especially important for marketplace sellers.

Austria uses a platform attribution rule for qualifying marketplace sales.

Where the marketplace is treated as the deemed supplier, those sales are attributed to the marketplace for Paketsteuer purposes.

That means a small merchant selling through a large marketplace is not automatically the party directly liable for the tax merely because its products are delivered in Austria.

The marketplace can be the taxpayer.

That does not answer a separate commercial question: whether the marketplace passes that cost back to sellers through fees, pricing rules or another mechanism.

NEMO has not found a general marketplace rule establishing how that pass-through works.

Small sellers should therefore separate two questions:

Who owes the tax legally?

and

Who ultimately bears the cost commercially?

They are not necessarily the same party.

Per parcel and per order can produce different results

The counting method matters when one transaction creates several shipments.

Under the standard approach, Austria charges €2 per delivered parcel.

A qualifying business can instead elect to calculate the charge per order.

That can change the economics of split shipments and multi-item baskets.

Secondary reporting from APA, carried by Austrian outlets including ORF and Salzburger Nachrichten, says Amazon, Otto Austria and Zalando are applying the charge per order.

Amazon has reportedly shown customers a separate €2.40 checkout line, reflecting the charge including VAT.

Those are reported retailer implementations, not a rule requiring every liable seller to show the tax in the same way.

Businesses should check their own checkout treatment rather than copying another retailer’s presentation.

Some transactions are outside the tax

The Austrian Finance Ministry identifies several important exclusions.

B2B transactions are outside scope.

C2C transactions are outside scope.

Orders placed directly in a physical store are outside scope.

Click-and-collect transactions can also fall outside the distance-sale definition where the qualifying order conditions are not met.

This makes fulfilment structure important.

A retailer with Austrian stores, for example, should not assume every digital customer journey produces the same Paketsteuer result.

The location of the goods before shipment is not the key test.

Cross-border distance sales can still be relevant when the goods are delivered to Austrian consumers.

The value of an individual item is also not what determines liability under the Austrian threshold.

Returns do not automatically reverse the tax

This is one of the details ecommerce teams should put into their returns model.

According to the Finance Ministry, once a taxable parcel has been delivered, a later customer return does not generally cancel the Paketsteuer.

A replacement delivery, however, does not automatically create a second charge where it qualifies as a replacement under the rules.

Some retailers have reportedly chosen to refund the consumer-facing tax amount when a complete order is returned.

That is a retailer policy decision.

It should not be confused with the tax itself being reversed by law.

This distinction matters for returns forecasting during the holiday period, when a retailer may voluntarily reimburse a customer even though its original tax liability remains.

Austria’s €2 charge and the EU’s €2 fee are different

NEMO covered the EU’s €2 Union Handling Fee separately.

The two systems should not be collapsed into one number.

Rule Austria Paketsteuer EU Union Handling Fee
Start 1 Oct 2026 1 Nov 2026
Basic amount €2 €2
Counting unit Parcel, or order by election Distinct item
Geography B2C deliveries in Austria Ecommerce goods entering EU from outside bloc
Seller threshold More than €100m prior-year Austrian distance sales No equivalent Austrian revenue threshold
Marketplace treatment Marketplace can be deemed supplier/taxpayer Customs/import handling rules apply separately
Returns Delivery can leave tax payable even after return NEMO’s EU analysis notes the handling fee is non-refundable
B2B Outside Austrian Paketsteuer Separate customs treatment; not the same rule

A non-EU order delivered into Austria can potentially intersect with both systems.

But the practical amount depends on the seller, marketplace, item count, fulfilment structure and customs treatment.

NEMO therefore would not publish a universal “€4” or “€X per Austrian order” figure.

The evidence does not support one.

Run this Austria readiness check

Before Q4 volume rises, ecommerce teams selling into Austria should document eight things.

1. Prior-year Austrian distance sales

Determine whether the relevant seller or marketplace crosses the €100 million threshold.

2. Marketplace attribution

Identify whether marketplace transactions are attributed to the platform rather than the individual merchant.

3. Parcel versus order election

Record which counting method the liable business is using.

4. Checkout display

Check whether the customer sees the charge separately, inside delivery costs or inside the final product economics.

Do not assume another retailer’s presentation is mandatory.

5. Free-shipping thresholds

Recalculate Austrian promotion and shipping economics where the business is directly absorbing the tax.

6. Returns policy

Separate the legal tax treatment from any voluntary refund the retailer gives the customer.

7. Non-EU fulfilment

Model the Austrian Paketsteuer separately from the EU handling fee and existing customs charges.

8. Filing responsibility

The Austrian return is quarterly. The first Q4 2026 return and payment are due 31 January 2027.

Non-EU and non-EEA businesses that are directly liable should also check the Austrian fiscal-representative requirement.

Several Austrian retailers and industry groups have criticised the Paketsteuer.

Secondary reporting says Zalando filed a challenge with Austria’s Constitutional Court in August, and industry organisations have discussed possible EU Single Market arguments.

Those challenges matter.

They do not suspend the current rule.

There is no court judgment or European Commission finding establishing that the Austrian tax is unconstitutional or incompatible with EU law.

For sellers, the operational position today is therefore straightforward:

The Paketsteuer is live while the legal challenges remain unresolved.

What NEMO will watch next

Three issues now deserve monitoring.

First, how large marketplaces pass the cost through to third-party sellers.

Second, how Austrian checkout presentation develops across large ecommerce platforms.

Third, how the national parcel tax interacts operationally with the EU handling fee once that separate system starts in November.

Until there is clearer platform guidance, sellers should keep those costs as separate lines in their internal models.

The important distinction is simple:

Austria’s Paketsteuer is a national ecommerce tax with a large-seller threshold. The EU handling fee is a separate import-handling mechanism.

Treating them as the same €2 charge will produce the wrong calculation.

Sources