Last Updated
Jump to
Quick summary
Employers withhold Lohnsteuer (wage tax) every month as an advance, and the Arbeitnehmerveranlagung (employee tax assessment) recalculates the year’s tax afterwards. An employee can apply for it up to five years after the end of the tax year, and for someone who arrived mid-year it often produces a refund, because payroll treats a half-year of pay as a full year’s income. The tax office also runs an automatic version, but only when its file shows nothing except wage income and a refund of at least , so it misses anything the tax office hasn’t been told. This covers tax residents earning wages in Austria; income tax and the assessment are federal and work the same in every state.
Austrian payslips look final, and most employees never file anything. The tax taken each month is an advance all the same, and the assessment is the step that settles it, sometimes by paying part of it back.
The rest of this article explains why the payroll figure and the assessed figure drift apart, which items close the gap, and what a hypothetical mid-year arrival’s refund looks like in numbers. Compulsory cases, where filing is not a choice, have their own article, linked below.
How payroll withholding differs from the assessment
Austrian tax law has payroll work out each month’s Lohnsteuer by multiplying that month’s taxable pay by 12, running the annual tariff on the result, subtracting the credits and dividing by 12 again. The method assumes this month’s pay repeats all year. The finance ministry’s overview of the assessment (in German) describes the consequence: where income changed during the year, the tax is recalculated and spread evenly over the year, which often ends in a Lohnsteuergutschrift (a tax refund).
For a full-year employee on a steady salary, the two calculations land close together. They drift apart when pay starts mid-year, stops, jumps, or comes with expenses payroll never saw.
The 13th and 14th salary sit outside the monthly calculation: they’re taxed at fixed rates after a tax-free slice, as the article on the 13th and 14th salary explains. The tariff the assessment applies is the one in how the income tax brackets work.
The five-year window for a voluntary assessment
Where no compulsory ground applies, an employee can apply for an assessment within five years of the end of the tax year, according to the finance ministry’s overview. The window closes year by year: each 31 December the oldest open year drops out, and for the 2025 tax year the last day is 31 December 2030.
Compulsory grounds are a separate list: other income above a small limit, two or more payers of wages at the same time during the year, capital income with no tax withheld, and a few more. Those cases carry their own rules and deadlines, which the article on compulsory assessment covers.
An application triggers a full recalculation, so the result follows the numbers. The ministry says the outcome often is a refund, and the arithmetic further down shows why that holds for part-year pay.
The automatic assessment and where it stops
The tax office also assesses some employees without being asked. According to the finance ministry’s page on the automatic assessment (in German), it happens in the second half of the following year, and only if no return was filed by the end of June, the records show nothing but wage income, and the result is a refund of at least .
For a newcomer, the limits matter more than the conditions. The file is built mainly from the wage statements (Lohnzettel) that employers report and from data certain recipients transmit, so it can’t know about work expenses above the flat allowance, a commuter allowance nobody claimed, children, or special expenses nobody reported. The tax office also skips the automatic route where the records suggest a larger refund exists, and anyone can opt out.
Filing afterwards still works. Under the income tax act’s assessment rules (in German), a return filed within the five years makes the tax office decide on it and set the automatic notice aside. If no return has been filed by the end of the second calendar year after the tax year, the tax office assesses automatically whenever the file shows a refund.
An appeal (Beschwerde) that asks for the automatic notice to be cancelled needs no reasons, and the article on deadlines, notices and appeals covers that route. For a hypothetical employee who arrived mid-year with no expenses, the automatic route can deliver the whole refund without a form. For one with a commute, children or costs, it delivers at best what the file supports, and the five-year window is where the rest can still be claimed.
What drives a refund after you arrive
The biggest driver for a mid-year arrival is the part-year effect: payroll annualises half a year of pay into a full year’s income, so the monthly tables reach higher tax bands than the income actually earned does. The assessment taxes the real income against a full year’s bands and credits, which is why part-year pay produces most of the refund in the worked example below. The article on the year you arrive or leave goes deeper.
Everything else on the list is something payroll never saw:
| Source of a refund | How it works | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| Work-related expenses | The finance ministry’s overview of work-related expenses (in German) says payroll tables already include a flat allowance of EUR 132, so only costs above it reduce tax. Its examples include work clothing, tools, training and a second household. | Work-related expenses |
| Commuting | A Pendlerpauschale (commuter allowance) missed at the employer can be claimed in the assessment. | Commuter allowance |
| Special expenses | Church contributions and donations are reported to the tax office by the recipient if it has your name and date of birth, according to the ministry’s page on special expenses (in German). Special expenses (Sonderausgaben) nobody reported go on the return. | Special expenses |
| Extraordinary burdens | Außergewöhnliche Belastungen are claimed in the assessment, on their own supplement. | Extraordinary burdens |
| Credits | The ministry lists the sole-earner and single-parent credit, the maintenance credit, the child supplement and Familienbonus Plus among the items claimed in the assessment. | Tax credits and Familienbonus Plus |
The SV-Rückerstattung (refund of social insurance contributions) reaches employees whose tax is already zero. When tax comes out below zero after credits, the income tax act’s credit rules (in German) pay back 55% of the employee’s compulsory contributions, up to EUR 496 a year, or EUR 750 with a Pendlerpauschale.
The refund is open to employees entitled to the Verkehrsabsetzbetrag (the standard employee credit, EUR 496 a year). That credit gets a Zuschlag (supplement) of EUR 804 for the lowest incomes, phasing out by EUR 30,259 of income, and for employees entitled to it the refund cap rises by up to EUR 804, the SV-Bonus. The article on tax credits works through a low earner’s case.
Deductions and credits that this article doesn’t touch sit in the Taxation hub, and the checklist of items employees often leave unclaimed pulls the common ones together.
A hypothetical mid-year arrival: the refund worked through
The numbers below show where the gap between payroll and assessment comes from, step by step.
Illustration
A hypothetical single employee moves to Graz, in Styria, and becomes tax resident in Austria on 1 July of the tax year, starts a salaried job that day at a gross EUR 6,500 a month, works until 31 December and applies for the assessment afterwards.
Assumptions: 14 salary payments a year, with the 13th and 14th paid pro rata for the six months worked, so EUR 6,500 of special payments in total. No children, no commuter allowance, no work-related expenses beyond the flat allowance and no special expenses. Not a US person, not international organisation staff, and no income from abroad after arriving. Income tax is the same in every state; Styria matters only for one social insurance item, below.
Pre-arrival income is left out of the assessment, in line with the finance ministry’s information described in the contested flag below. Pay is high enough that the Zuschlag has fully phased out, which happens at EUR 30,259.
Contributions: on regular pay the employee pays health (), pension (10.25%) and unemployment insurance (2.95%), plus the chamber of labour levy (0.50%) and the housing-subsidy contribution (0.50%, higher in Vienna), 18.07% in all, according to the social insurance carriers’ table of 2026 values (in German). The same table charges neither of the last two on special payments, so those carry 17.07%. Pay stays under the contribution ceilings. Payroll is modelled as the tariff on annualised pay, whereas the employer’s official monthly table works in rounded steps, so a real payslip can differ by a few euros.
What payroll withholds. Each month, contributions take EUR 1,174.55 and one twelfth of the flat allowance (EUR 132 a year, EUR 11 a month) comes off too, leaving EUR 5,314.45. Multiplied by 12, that’s treated as an income of EUR 63,773.40, even though it runs for six months. The tariff then applies to it:
| Tariff band | Annualised pay in band | Tax |
|---|---|---|
| Up to EUR 13,539 at 0 % | EUR 13,539 | EUR 0 |
| EUR 13,539 to EUR 21,992 at 20 % | EUR 8,453 | EUR 1,690.60 |
| EUR 21,992 to EUR 36,458 at 30 % | EUR 14,466 | EUR 4,339.80 |
| Above EUR 36,458 to EUR 63,773.40 at 40 % | EUR 27,315.40 | EUR 10,926.16 |
| Tariff tax on the annualised pay | EUR 63,773.40 | EUR 16,956.56 |
The employer subtracts the Verkehrsabsetzbetrag (EUR 496 a year), which leaves EUR 16,460.56 a year, or EUR 1,371.71 a month. Over six months that’s EUR 8,230.28.
The special payments are taxed on their own. After EUR 1,109.55 of contributions (17.07%), EUR 5,390.45 remains; the first EUR 620 is tax-free and the remaining EUR 4,770.45 is taxed at 6 %, which gives EUR 286.23. A sixth of the EUR 39,000 of regular pay actually received is EUR 6,500, so the special payments fit inside the annual sixth and keep these fixed rates, in payroll and in the assessment alike.
What the assessment computes. It starts from the pay actually earned: EUR 39,000, less EUR 7,047.30 of contributions and the flat allowance of EUR 132, leaves EUR 31,820.70. The same tariff is applied once to that amount:
| Tariff band | Pay in band | Tax |
|---|---|---|
| Up to EUR 13,539 at 0 % | EUR 13,539 | EUR 0 |
| EUR 13,539 to EUR 21,992 at 20 % | EUR 8,453 | EUR 1,690.60 |
| EUR 21,992 to EUR 31,820.70 at 30 % | EUR 9,828.70 | EUR 2,948.61 |
| Tariff tax on the actual pay | EUR 31,820.70 | EUR 4,639.21 |
The full Verkehrsabsetzbetrag of EUR 496 comes off, since the assessment gives the whole year’s credit rather than a twelfth a month, and the special payments add EUR 286.23.
| Item | Payroll withholding | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Tariff tax on regular pay | EUR 8,478.28 (half of EUR 16,956.56) | EUR 4,639.21 |
| Verkehrsabsetzbetrag | EUR 248 (six twelfths) | EUR 496 |
| Tax on regular pay | EUR 8,230.28 | EUR 4,143.21 |
| Tax on special payments | EUR 286.23 | EUR 286.23 |
| Total | EUR 8,516.51 | EUR 4,429.44 |
The difference is about EUR 4,087 in the employee’s favour. Nearly all of it comes from the tax on regular pay: payroll priced six months of pay as if they were a year, while the assessment priced them as what they were.
For a hypothetical starter whose annualised pay lands in the 40% band, as here, the monthly tables charge six months at the rate of a full year. The gap shrinks as pay falls, because less of it is annualised into the upper bands. A person who left a job mid-year, or had a gap between jobs, meets the same mechanism from the other side.
The arrival year and what’s still open
Tax liability on worldwide income starts once a person has a home or habitual abode in Austria, as the article on tax residency explains. For the year of arrival, the finance ministry’s position is that only income from that point goes into the assessment, which is how the worked example treats it.
Contested flag
How the arrival year is assessed depends on the date tax residence starts, and no single official page settles every case.
The finance ministry’s information on a mid-year move to Austria (in German) says that only income earned while the person has unlimited tax liability (unbeschränkte Steuerpflicht) goes into the assessment. It adds that only foreign income received in that period can raise the rate through the progression proviso (Progressionsvorbehalt, where exempt foreign income lifts the rate on the rest). The information dates from 2007 and rests on guideline paragraphs that couldn’t be opened on the ministry’s own site.
Whether a given person’s home or habitual abode began on a given date, and which country a treaty gives the taxing right, are questions for a professional. The article on foreign income covers how Austria treats income from abroad once residence has begun.
US persons
The Austrian assessment doesn’t settle US obligations. US citizens and residents abroad generally file in the same way as people in the United States and count income from worldwide sources, according to the IRS page on citizens and residents abroad. The article on US persons covers the overlay, and a US-qualified tax professional is the route for the US side.
International organisation staff
Pay from an international organisation with a headquarters agreement in Vienna may follow that agreement instead of the general payroll rules, so withholding and an assessment may not apply to it. The organisation’s HR or legal office is the first stop; the article on international organisation staff covers what applies where.
Non-residents
This article covers people who are tax resident in Austria. Someone taxed only on Austrian-source income as a non-resident falls under different rules, set out in the article on non-residents with Austrian income.
Filing: form L 1, its supplements and FinanzOnline
An application means filing form L 1 (the employee assessment declaration). The finance ministry’s page on the procedure (in German) says it can go through FinanzOnline (the ministry’s online portal), by post or in person at the tax office. Supplements cover particular cases: L 1k for each child, L 1i for foreign income, L 1ab for extraordinary burdens, plus L 1k-bF, L 1 HO and L 1d. The article on tax return forms maps situations to forms.
No wage statements or receipts go in with the application. FinanzOnline delivers the notice to the electronic mailbox in the portal (the Data-Box), and the article on tax numbers and FinanzOnline covers getting access.
The result arrives as an assessment notice (Einkommensteuerbescheid), and the article on deadlines, notices and appeals covers reading it.
Tip
Receipts need to be kept for seven years even though none are sent, because the tax office can ask for them after the notice arrives.
Bottom line
Payroll tax is an advance, and the assessment is the settlement, open to apply for up to five years after the tax year ends. For a mid-year arrival the gap between the two can be large, because payroll prices half a year of pay as a full year, while the automatic version pays out only what the tax office’s file supports. Which expenses and credits apply to a given person is an individual question, and that’s where a professional earns the fee.
Getting help
The assessment is a form with a calculation behind it, and each item on it depends on the individual’s facts. A Steuerberater (licensed tax adviser) can advise on an individual case, and the member directory of the Chamber of Tax Advisers and Auditors shows who holds a licence.
Bilanzbuchhalter and Personalverrechner (licensed bookkeeping and payroll professions) have a reserved right to advise on the employee assessment and to prepare and send the declaration for their clients, and the bookkeeping authority’s public register lists them. Members of the Arbeiterkammer (chamber of labour) can get free advice on the assessment from their state chamber; the Vienna chamber, for one, books appointments for members only and asks for FinanzOnline or ID Austria access at the appointment. The article on tax and payroll help sets out who may do what.
Official sources
- Arbeitnehmerveranlagung overview, Federal Ministry of Finance (in German)
- Automatic employee assessment, Federal Ministry of Finance (in German)
- The procedure at the tax office, Federal Ministry of Finance (in German)
- Work-related expenses overview, Federal Ministry of Finance (in German)
- Income tax act: assessment rules, Legal Information System of the Republic (in German)
- Contribution values in social insurance for 2026, umbrella body of the social insurance carriers (in German)
