As a general rule, the shareholders of an Austrian limited liability company or stock corporation are only entitled to receive profits as set out in the annual financial statements of the company. Further, for limited liability companies, interim dividends are not permissible. Thus, dividend distributions can only be made based on the (audited, if required) approved annual financial statements of the company. For stock corporations, interim dividends are permissible to a certain limited extent (and in particular only based on interim financial statements). 

Unless the articles of association or the shareholders' resolution on approval of the annual financial statements / dividend distribution provide otherwise, a dividend is payable immediately upon approval of the annual financial statements / adoption of the resolution on profit distribution.

See above.

Dividend distributions have to be made based on the annual financial statements of the company (in case of a stock corporation, distributions can also be made to a certain extent based on interim accounts). Whether or not the annual financial statements will have to be audited depends on the size of the company. Interim financial statements of stock corporations do not have to be audited.

Yes, there are  restrictions on the amount of dividends that can be paid. 

Financial statements must show the profit to be distributed as balance sheet profit. Further, statutory distribution restrictions have to be observed. In particular, any material losses and/or permanent impairments occurring between the balance sheet date and the approval of the financial statements automatically reduce the amount available for distribution. Further, certain amounts must be booked as legal reserves and not as balance sheet profit (depending on the size/type of a company).

Capital reserves can be increased e.g. by shareholder contributions. Contributions can be made at any point in time, whereas execution of a written contribution agreement in advance is recommended.

No regulatory approvals are required in connection with payment of a dividend.

No, there are no foreign exchange requirements on paying dividends to foreign parent companies.

Yes.

Yes, generally speaking dividends in kind are  possible, provided that there is sufficient balance sheet profit shown in the annual financial statements. In case there is not sufficient balance sheet profit shown in the annual financial statements, distribution of an asset in kind would constitute an infringement of Austrian capital maintenance provisions, rendering the transaction void.

In this context, there is intensive discussion in Austrian legal doctrine whether the fair market value or only the book value of an asset being distributed must be covered by the distributable profits set out in the annual financial statements. There does not seem to exist directly relevant case law addressing this question. 

No.

As a general rule, the shareholders of an Austrian limited liability company or stock corporation are only entitled to receive profits as set out in the annual financial statements of the company. Any other payments of an Austrian entity to its shareholders are only permissible if made based on an agreement entered into at arm's length terms. Otherwise, payments to the shareholder would be deemed an infringement of the aforementioned capital maintenance provisions, resulting in the respective transaction being held void.

On the basis of this general rule, Austrian courts and legal scholars developed specific requirements for intra-group (up stream or side stream) lending by Austrian companies and in particular also cash pooling arrangements, irrespective of whether this is cross-border or not. In this context, Austrian legal doctrine established in particular the following criteria to be complied with (considering that the lending company in most cases is not a bank, so that providing a loan does not qualify as ordinary course of business):

• after a due investigation –from an ex ante perspective – the Austrian company must have assessed the financial standing of the borrower as sufficient, i.e. the borrower must be considered creditworthy;
• usually, the borrower is requested to provide adequate (valuable) collateral (as an exception, short-term loans of minor amounts might be permissible, but this would have to be assessed on a case by case basis);
• the Austrian company has to have a particular business interest in the lending which justifies the lending;
• a market standard interest rate must be agreed upon; and
• entering into the lending must in any event not result in the company being under threat of insolvency in the event of a default of the borrower (i.e. granting of loans threatening the company's existence are in any event impermissible, irrespective of the collaterals provided by the borrower or the interest rate agreed upon).