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Austria

In: Transnational Accounting

Author

Listed:
  • Alfred Wagenhofer

Abstract

The main influence on Austrian financial accounting and reporting has been federal law. The first regulations can be traced back to the eighteenth century. (For a short but informative survey see Nowotny and Gruber, 1993, p. 295.) In substance they followed the French ordonnance de commerce of 1673. The main objective was to protect creditors from being defrauded by the owners of the firms. Accordingly, these regulations were incorporated into penal codes. From 1768 on, all merchants were required to maintain records. The first distinct accounting regulations are to be found in the General Commercial Code (Allgemeines Handelsgesetzbuch, ADHGB), enacted in 1863, which included some rules on inventory-taking, bookkeeping and the preparation of balance sheets. Rules on distributable profit were adopted in 1899. The General Commercial Code was followed in 1938 by the German Commercial Code (Handelsgesetzbuch, HGB) of 1897 after the annexation of Austria by Germany. With some revisions the code is still in force. The General Commercial Code included ten sections which dealt with bookkeeping, inventory-taking and valuation in a very general way; detailed rules had to be deduced from the principles of proper bookkeeping and accounting (Grundsätze ordnungsmäßiger Buchführung, GoB). All enterprises (except the smallest businesses) had to follow these rules.

Suggested Citation

  • Alfred Wagenhofer, 1995. "Austria," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Dieter Ordelheide (ed.), Transnational Accounting, chapter 0, pages 231-313, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-13233-1_4
    DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-13233-1_4
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