The plot has belonged to the family for decades. You yourself only inherited or were gifted it a few years ago. For an Austrian sale you may therefore only know your own deed of transfer. Tax preparation should not end there in such a case. This article describes a way of obtaining documents for an individual examination and does not calculate real estate income tax.
Record the chain of acquisition instead of just a single date
§ 30 Absatz 1 EStG 1988 refers in the case of gratuitously acquired properties to the acquisition date of the predecessor in title. [ESTG-30] Your own deed of inheritance or gift can therefore, by itself, leave open an earlier acquisition date that is needed.
Our editorial recommendation is a simple chain: who received which item from whom, when and on what known basis? Mark whether a transfer for consideration or a gratuitous transfer is actually documented or still needs to be checked. The article does not classify a mixed transfer from personal observation.
Search older documents in a targeted way
Start with the available deeds and their references. Note which earlier deed is mentioned and which office might have kept it. Ask the law firm or tax advisor involved about the appropriate procurement route. Do not search indiscriminately for everything bearing the family name.
Separate areas and shares where the holdings have changed. A parcel bought later can have a different history from the part held for generations. What tax significance that has will be examined on the actual object.
An invented, incomplete family folder
An owner finds their deed of gift and assumes that this alone fully documents the acquisition date. However, a reference reveals an earlier purchase, and an additional plot was purchased later. The current land register status combines both.
They mark the two known acquisition routes separately and purposefully obtain the mentioned deeds. The advice receives a comprehensible history instead of a single freely chosen date for the entire property. The example does not state which calculation is to be applied in the end.
Do not use old buzzwords as a result
For properties held for a longer time § 30 contains special investigation rules. The correct application, possible exemptions and the current version require a separate examination. [ESTG-30] The sentence “old assets are always settled with a certain old percentage” is expressly not offered here as a calculation aid.
When researched on 17 October 2026 RIS shows a version effective from 30 July 2026. The flat-rate values amended in § 30 Absatz 4 there are, however, pursuant to § 124b Ziffer 498 EStG 1988 only to be applied to disposals after 31 December 2026; for a sale in 2026 the previous version therefore remains determinative in this respect. Earlier guides or examples are therefore not adopted into a current calculation without checking. A source year belongs in the note for review just as much as the deed date.
Proceed with a specific gap
If an earlier document is missing, formulate the open question precisely: the event being sought, the presumed date, the existing indication and the responsible procurement. A gap is not closed by a favourable family recollection. Ask which other reliable basis can possibly be used.
Preparation is useful when the advice can trace the present object of sale back to its known acquisition steps. That way you do not have to interpret the family history yourself for tax purposes and at the same time prevent a single recent deed of transfer from making the older history invisible.