RSb and RSa Registered Mail in Austria: Who Can Accept It

In Austria, RSb and RSa registered letters can both be accepted by a third party holding postal power of attorney. The only exception are items marked “Nicht an Postbevollmächtigte” (not to be handed to authorised representatives), which the post delivers to the recipient in person exclusively. For business owners who travel or live abroad, this decides whether official mail reaches them in time: 1010 Works collects RSa and RSb mail under power of attorney as part of its Premium plan at 129 EUR per month plus VAT with annual billing. Last updated October 2026.

What are RSa and RSb letters?

RSa and RSb are the two classes of official registered mail used by Austrian authorities and courts, both delivered against signature. The difference is who may sign.

• RSa, blue envelope: delivery into the recipient's own hands, meaning the recipient personally or a holder of postal power of attorney. Substitute delivery to employees or family members without authority is excluded.
• RSb, white envelope: delivery against signature, where substitute recipients or holders of postal power of attorney may also accept.

Tax assessments, administrative decisions and official notifications typically arrive as RSb. RSa is reserved for documents where substitute delivery is meant to be excluded. If you run an Austrian company, you will see both, and each carries deadlines.

Can a service provider accept RSa mail?

Yes, if it holds the recipient's postal power of attorney. What RSa rules out is substitute delivery to housemates, relatives or employees without authority. If the postal carrier finds nobody authorized to accept, the letter is deposited at the post office and a notification slip goes into the mailbox. The critical part: a deposited RSa letter counts as delivered when the pickup period begins, and any deadline in the document starts running from that day, whether it is collected or not.

There is one exception: items marked “Nicht an Postbevollmächtigte” (not to be handed to authorised representatives) are delivered by the post to the recipient in person exclusively, and a postal power of attorney does not cover them. We receive the notification slip for you in every plan, and you collect such items from the post office yourself.

How does postal power of attorney work for RSa and RSb letters?

A postal power of attorney authorizes a named person or provider to accept RSa and RSb mail and other deliveries on your behalf. At 1010 Works the process looks like this:

• You subscribe to the Premium plan and sign the power of attorney
• We register it, and from then on we accept your RSa and RSb letters for Seitenstettengasse 5/37, 1010 Vienna and collect held items from the post office
• You receive the content as a scan and see immediately which deadline is running
• You collect the original any day of the week or have it forwarded anywhere in the EU or the rest of Europe

For founders managing an Austrian company from abroad, this is the missing piece between a registered address and actually staying on top of official correspondence. Combined with mail forwarding from Vienna, nothing depends on you being in the country.

What happens to an RSb letter when nobody can accept it?

It is deposited at the post office and counts as delivered when the pickup period begins, even if you never learn about it. Objection periods and payment deadlines start running from that point. This is where the expensive cases come from: missed appeals, missed payments, enforcement steps that could have been avoided with a two-line reply sent in time.

An unattended business address is therefore a real liability for official mail. A staffed address with registered power of attorney removes it: someone authorized is always there, and you are notified at once.

Which plan includes RSa and RSb collection?

Premium, at 129 EUR per month with annual billing or 149 EUR monthly, plus VAT, includes collection of RSa and RSb mail under postal power of attorney. With Basic (49 or 59 EUR) and Plus (79 or 89 EUR) we receive your business mail and the notification slips, and you collect held RSa and RSb items from the post office yourself. Premium also includes everything in Plus, such as unlimited scanning and EU-wide forwarding, plus forwarding to the rest of Europe and 4 hours of meeting room use per month. With monthly billing all plans are cancellable monthly, and the location has handled business mail since 2015. The full comparison is on the pricing page.

Conclusion

The rule of thumb: RSa and RSb can both be delegated with postal power of attorney, except items marked “Nicht an Postbevollmächtigte” (not to be handed to authorised representatives). Deposited letters count as delivered when the pickup window opens, so the way your mail acceptance is organized determines whether deadlines are met. With the Premium plan at 129 EUR per month, 1010 Works collects RSa and RSb mail for a real first-district address, scans it the moment it arrives in the workflow, stores the original for pickup seven days a week and forwards it across the EU and the rest of Europe on request. Official mail becomes a process instead of a risk.