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The Federal Museums Act (2002) grants full legal capacity to the federal museums (Albertina, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (with Weltmuseum and Theatermuseum), Belvedere, MAK - Museum für angewandte Kunst, Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (MUMOK), Naturhistorisches Museum, Technisches Museum Wien (with Mediathek) und Österreichische Nationalbibliothek) and has transformed them into scientific institutions under public law – a step towards more autonomy. The federal museums are still under the authority of the Arts and Culture Division of the BMKOES and receive annual subsidies from the Ministry. According to the Federal Arts Promotion Act, selected federal, provincial and municipal museums can receive... read more →

Specific federal regulations or Acts in the culture field include: Actors' Act (1922), Theatre Employment Law Act since 2011; Artists' Social-Security Fund Act (2001), Artists' Social-Security Structure Act (KSVSG) since 2011; Arts Restitution Act (1998; 2009); Arts support Act (1981);Collection Societies' Act (1936); Copyright Act (1996);Federal Arts Promotion Act (1988); Federal Law on Retail Price Maintenance for Books (2000);Federal Museums Act (2002; 2013); Federal Theatre Organisation Act (1998; 2015);Film Promotion Act (1980); Film-Television Agreement (1981; 2006); General Framework Regulations for Granting Supports from Government Funds (1977);Monument Protection Act (1923; 2013); Museums regulations (2009) for the Kunsthistorische Museum (with the Ethnology... read more →

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As described in chapter 2.5.4, the official language in Austria is German. Croatian, Hungarian, Slovene and the Austrian sign language are recognised as minority languages and as regional official languages they are protected by the Ethnic Groups Act (Volksgruppengesetz). The Broadcasting Act (2001) stipulates that the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation is obliged to ensure that "all aspects of democratic life are to be understood by the public" (§ 10), and an appropriate share of their programming has to be broadcast in the language of ethnic minorities. Although there is regulatory support for programmes broadcast in the languages of ethnic minorities, the... read more →

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR; Datenschutz-Grundverordnung DSGVO) of the EU has been in force since May 2018 in Austria. Following the implementation, two amendments of the national Data Protection Act (2000) came into force (in addition to modifications of numerous other relevant laws): the Data Protection Amendment Act and the Data Protection Deregulation Act. The Data Protection Act implements the EU data-protection guidelines, regulates all rights and obligations of operators of information collections and applies both to public-legal (authorities etc.) and private legal information collections (companies, associations and other organisations), including those held by cultural institutions. Fundamentally, according to... read more →

The function of the copyright law is to protect works of literature, music, arts and film and to allow an effective enforcement of the – immaterial and financial – interests of the authors and originators. According to the Austrian Copyright Act, copyright arises with the creation of a work by its originator. No formal act (notification or registration) is required in order to obtain copyright protection for a work. According to paragraph 1, such works must be "personal intellectual creations in the fields of literature, music, visual arts and film". The legal basis is the Copyright Act, the 2015 amendment... read more →

In the field of the performing arts, there is a specific labour law, the Actors' Law (Schauspielergesetz, 1922, amended 2011) regulating the working hours, holiday rights and bonuses for actors, which are different from the employee regulations. Formerly, actors were assumed to be employees, but full employment with all the costs and obligations for employers (e.g. festival-organisers) is now often circumvented. New legal conditions to improve their situation have been created for actors in 2011: the Theatre Employment Act (Bü-ARG) since then covers all workers in a theatre company together and envisages adaptation to the Holiday and Working Hours Law.... read more →

There are three tax rates under the Austrian VAT Law (1994): the regular rate of 20%, a reduced rate of 10% (books, press) and a third rate of 13% which has been established in the course of a tax reform in 2015. The latter specifically applies to cultural institutions, cinemas, theatres and concert tickets, but not to charitable public institutions, such as the national theatres and the Salzburg Festival. These institutions are subject to the reduced tax rate, as well as turnover related to artistic activities, museums, botanical gardens or nature parks, as well as services by the Austrian Broadcasting... read more →

The Law on Social Security for Artists (Künstler-Sozialversicherungsfondsgesetz 2001, renamed as Artist's Social-Security Insurance Structure Act 2011) covers social security issues for artists. Since its implementation, freelance artists have been treated the same as other self-employed professionals, which means they must pay their statutory social security insurance if they earn more than 5 527,92 EUR per year (2020; this amount is adopted annually). In many cases, the law created a situation whereby artists end up making two different types of social insurance payments: statutory insurance for freelance work and any other social security insurance payments which result from other part-time employment... read more →

The Federal Arts Promotion Act, adopted in 1988, includes the provision that the federal budget must include the requisite funds for public arts promotion and that the social situation of artists and the framework for private sponsoring need to be improved. The law stipulates that promotion has to be directed mainly at "contemporary art, its spiritual changes and its variety" and lists the fields to be supported by way of production, presentation, dissemination and preservation of works and documents. Facilities that serve this purpose have to be similarly supported. The law also lists individual measures that may be taken (e.g.... read more →