Standard Fuel Consumption Tax (NoVA)

Taxes on vehicles not only serve fiscal purposes, but also serve traffic and environmental objectives. In recent years, some amendments of the taxation of vehicles were enacted to assist in forming a more environmentally friendly vehicle fleet.The total revenue from this tax amounted to 394.5 million euros in 2015, compared to 437.5 million euros in 2014. In 1992, a tax on the standardised fuel consumption of vehicles (Normverbrauchsabgabe/NoVA) was introduced. The NoVA has to be paid when a vehicle is registered for the first time in Austria, in form of a percentage rate of the vehicle price. As the tax burden is progressively linked to fuel consumption and CO2-emissions of the vehicle, NoVA is an incentive to buy more efficient cars regardless of the expected mileage. NoVA has to be paid for passenger cars, station wagon, small buses, vans, recreational vehicles, motorcycles and special-purpose vehicles such as Quads (four-wheeled motorcycles). Vehicles for special purposes such as driving school vehicles, taxis, rental cars and ambulance and fire brigade vehicles, as well as electric vehicles (BEVs) are exempt from NoVA taxation. In 2008,the NoVA system was improved by a malus systemwhere cars with relative high CO2-emissions have to pay a higher NoVA.