According to the Ministry of Finance, the Austrian Reorganization Tax Act (RTA) prohibits the right of taxation of hidden reserves in connection with the exchange of Austrian shares only if the contributing party is located in the EU. The opinion in relevant literature before and after the rulings which are formally non-binding remained the same. This opinion is as follows: If the receiving party is situated in another EU member state either the EU merger-directive prohibits the right of Austrian taxation or in some cases an interpretation can be made according to the Austrian law (which is in conformity with the directive). Other cases are tax neutral because of the direct application ot the merger directive. Andreas Damböck analyzes RTA and EU merger-directive, and his conclusions differ to some extend from previous interpretations.