Check for sham companies
If you give an order to a sham company, you can be liable for the wages of its staff. The Federal Ministry of Finance therefore publishes every final finding in a list. The search there is free and takes a minute.
List of sham companies at the BMF
What a sham company is
Under section 8(1) SBBG a sham company is mainly set up to cut wage taxes, social security contributions or wages, to register people for benefits without work, or to issue invoices for business that never happened. The Office for Fraud Control decides by notice. The list covers final findings since 1 January 2016, not suspicions.
When a client is liable
From the final finding, a client who knew or should have known at the time of the order is liable as guarantor for the statutory or collectively agreed wages of the sham company's staff for that work, and down the chain of subcontractors (section 9 SBBG).
What firmenbuchdaten.at shows
Every company page and the customer check link the BMF list. We copy no entries: the terms of the BMF website do not allow its content on other sites, and the register extract we receive does not carry the finding. So there is no "sham company" flag here, and no all-clear either.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the list of sham companies?
On the website of the Federal Ministry of Finance. It lists every company found to be a sham company by a final decision since 1 January 2016 and is updated continuously. The search there is free and needs no account.
What does an entry tell me?
The name, address, register number, VAT ID, the date of publication, the date the decision became final and the date from which the company counts as a sham company (section 8(10) SBBG).
When am I liable as a client?
From the final finding, if at the time of the order you knew or should have known that the contractor or a later subcontractor was a sham company. You then stand as guarantor for the statutory or collectively agreed wages of its employees for that work (section 9 SBBG).
Does firmenbuchdaten.at show the entry on the company page?
No. The terms of the BMF website do not allow its content to be made available on other sites, and the register extract we receive does not carry the finding. The company page links the list at the BMF instead.
Legal texts from RIS (Social Fraud Act, version in force), read on 13 Nov 2026. List: Federal Ministry of Finance. Information, not legal advice.
Source: Austrian company register (Firmenbuch), Republic of Austria, represented by the BMJ, open data under CC BY 4.0.