Austria CPD: 120 Hours, Three Professions and a 2026 Change

Austria changed the legal status of its audit CPD rules in July 2026 — moving them from a Richtlinie to a Verordnung, a firmer footing — and added a sustainability requirement with its own annual floor. The core numbers did not move: 120 hours over a three-year averaging period, 30 hours a year, at least 60 of the 120 in accounting and audit.

Austria also splits its professions three ways rather than two, and the third tier carries the most interesting enforcement design in Europe.

The three-way split

Most countries have two accounting professions. Austria has three regulatory tracks:

• Kammer der Steuerberater und Wirtschaftsprüfer (KSW) — the chamber for tax advisers and auditors, formerly the Kammer der Wirtschaftstreuhänder, which is worth knowing if you are reading older documents.
• Abschlussprüferaufsichtsbehörde (APAB) — the audit oversight authority, which sets the continuing-education rules for the audit function.
• Bilanzbuchhaltungsbehörde — the authority for the separate bookkeeping professions, under its own 2014 statute.

The third of those is the closest Austrian analogue to “general accountants” elsewhere in Europe, and it has the clearest numbers of the three.

Statutory auditors: 120 hours, and a 2026 change of instrument

The enabling provision is in the Abschlussprüfer-Aufsichtsgesetz. The current instrument is the APAB-Fortbildungsverordnung, BGBl. II Nr. 165/2026, issued 2 July 2026, which repealed the previous Fortbildungsrichtlinie, BGBl. II Nr. 211/2024.

Three things changed, and only one of them is a number:

• The instrument type changed from a guideline to a regulation — a firmer legal footing for the same obligation.
• The enabling paragraph moved within the oversight act, reflecting an amendment to that act earlier in 2026.
• Sustainability assurance was added as a subject area with its own floor — the substantive change.

The 120 / 30 / 60 core figures are unchanged across both instruments. So anyone describing Austria’s hours as new in 2026 has mistaken a change of legal form for a change of requirement.

The numbers

• At least 120 hours within a three-year averaging period — a Durchrechnungszeitraum, which is a rolling averaging window rather than a fixed block
• 30 hours per calendar year
• At least 60 of the 120 in the accounting and reporting, and audit, subject areas
• Sustainability add-on: at least 40 further hours over three years for those who also contribute to sustainability reporting assurance, with at least 10 hours per calendar year
• Self-study capped at 10 hours per calendar year
• Writing, lecturing and committee work capped at 20 hours per calendar year
• Seminars are uncapped
• A teaching unit of at least 45 minutes counts as one hour — so 120 hours is 90 clock hours, the same convention as Poland, Denmark and Norway
• Reporting electronically by 31 March of the following calendar year, either through the authority’s web form or by consenting to the chamber forwarding the data from its member portal
• No retention period is specified
• No transitional provisions accompanied the 2026 regulation

So a sustainability-active Austrian auditor is looking at 160 hours over three years with a 40-hour annual floor — 30 general plus 10 sustainability.

The scope rule that catches firms, not just licence-holders

This is the Austrian provision most likely to surprise someone. The regulation applies not only to statutory and certified auditors but to staff of audit firms — and of the savings-bank audit association’s audit unit — who materially contribute to audits.

Being unlicensed does not put you outside the rule. If you contribute materially to an audit, the obligation reaches you. That is a broader scope than most European regimes, which attach the duty to the registration rather than to the work.

The bookkeeping professions: random audits and a €5,000 fine

Under the separate 2014 statute, the Bilanzbuchhaltungsbehörde sets straightforward annual figures:

• Bilanzbuchhalter: 30 teaching units per calendar year
• Buchhalter: 15 per year
• Personalverrechner: 15 per year
• Holding multiple bookkeeping authorisations is capped at 30 units a year in total — so the obligations do not simply stack
• One unit is at least 45 minutes

The enforcement design is the notable part:

• The authority selects people at random for the preceding calendar year
• Proof is due within two months of the request
• Failing to provide proof two years running is an administrative offence, carrying a fine of up to €5,000, enforced by the district administrative authority
• No retention period is stated

Random selection plus a two-consecutive-years trigger changes the incentive materially. You cannot predict whether you will be asked, so the only workable posture is to be ready every year — and a single bad year is survivable while two in a row is not. Our guide to what happens when you are selected for a CPD review sets out how the four selection models across Europe differ.

The gap we are not filling

There is one thing we cannot tell you, and it matters.

The chamber states that Steuerberater and Wirtschaftsprüfer must complete extensive continuing education and that completed measures must be notified to it annually. But its page cites no statutory paragraph, names no guideline or regulation, and gives no hours figure, and the two documents it links to were not retrievable. The national legal database blocked access to the professional statute on every route we tried.

So we have no verified hours figure for the general Austrian professional obligation, and we are not going to publish one. The 120 / 30 / 60 figures above are the audit-specific numbers set by the oversight authority, and they must not be presented as the general requirement for Austrian tax advisers.

This is the same discipline we applied to Switzerland, where the professional body’s own figures are unreachable, and to Korea, where we declined to publish a post at all because the training regulation sits behind a member login. An acknowledged gap is a better outcome than a confident guess.

How Austria compares

Austria lands on the same 120 hours over three years as France, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Greece, Belgium, Denmark, Norway and Finland — from an entirely separate instrument. We trace why that keeps happening in our guide to why European CPD converges on 120 hours, and the legal frame underneath all of them is in the EU Statutory Audit Directive, which sets no hours of its own.

Where Austria is distinctive: the three-way professional split, the scope rule reaching contributing staff, the uncapped seminars against a hard 10-hour self-study limit, and the largest sustainability add-on in Europe at 40 hours over three years with a 10-hour annual floor. Compare Denmark’s 30 sustainability hours counting toward the general requirement.

Frequently asked questions

How many CPD hours do Austrian auditors need? At least 120 within a three-year averaging period, with 30 per calendar year and at least 60 of the 120 in accounting and audit subjects.

What changed in 2026? The instrument became a regulation rather than a guideline, the enabling paragraph moved, and a sustainability requirement was added. The 120/30/60 figures are unchanged.

What is the sustainability requirement? At least 40 further hours over three years with at least 10 per calendar year, for those contributing to sustainability reporting assurance.

I am audit-firm staff without a licence. Am I in scope? Possibly. The regulation reaches staff who materially contribute to audits, not only licence-holders.

What do bookkeeping professionals need? 30 teaching units a year for Bilanzbuchhalter and 15 for Buchhalter and Personalverrechner, with random audits and a fine of up to €5,000 after two consecutive failures.

Uncapped seminars, capped self-study — with Learnsignal

Austria caps self-study at ten hours a year and leaves seminars uncapped, which makes structured certificated training the only route to the bulk of 120 hours. Our courses record activity, date, duration and subject area for the 31 March filing. The regulation is published in the Austrian legal information system.