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In Austria, the work decides a freelancer’s status: an activity that counts as a trade under Austrian trade law needs a trade licence, and most freelance work that doesn’t count as a trade falls under Neue Selbstständige (new self-employed), a category built for people whose work needs no licence at all.
Both routes end at the same insurer, the SVS (Sozialversicherung der Selbständigen, social insurance for the self-employed), at the same contribution rates. What differs is the paperwork, the chamber membership and, above all, a low-earning year: a trade licence insures you from the day you’re entitled to trade, while Neue Selbstständige aren’t insured at all until their profit for the year passes EUR 6,613.20.
ARTICLE SUMMARY
The activity decides the route. Work that Austrian trade law treats as a trade (IT services, business consulting, retail, most crafts) needs a Gewerbeberechtigung (trade licence) and brings compulsory membership of the economic chamber. Work that trade law leaves out and that has no professional chamber of its own (writing, lecturing, psychotherapy, private teaching, the fine arts) is Neue Selbstständige.
Both are insured with the SVS at the same rates: 18.50% for pensions and 6.80% for health on a minimum base of EUR 551.10 a month, plus 1.53% for the severance scheme and a flat accident insurance charge.
A trade licence holder is insured from the first day, however little they earn, unless they apply for a small-business exemption. Neue Selbstständige are insured only once yearly profit passes EUR 6,613.20, and reporting that too late adds a surcharge of 9.30%.
Where a freelance arrangement looks like employment, the SVS and the ÖGK can reclassify it. That line is contested case by case.
- What decides the route: the activity
- The two routes side by side
- Registering a trade
- Registering as Neue Selbstständige
- What the SVS charges on either route
- A low-earning year: where the routes split
- When freelance work is really employment
- Income tax and VAT
- Residence permits, international organisation staff and US persons
- Official sources
What decides the route: the activity
The government’s overview of the kinds of self-employment (in German) sorts them into four groups: trades, farming and forestry, the liberal professions, and the “new” self-employed. Two of those matter for most freelancers arriving in Austria, and which one applies to a given piece of work is a legal question, not a preference.
Austria’s trade law (in German) covers any activity carried on independently, regularly and with the aim of making a profit, unless the same law carves it out. Independently means at your own risk and on your own account, and even a single job counts as regular if repeat work is expected or it takes a long time.
The carve-outs are where Neue Selbstständige come from. Trade law leaves out literary work and the fine arts, private teaching and education, and healing professions including psychotherapy, along with the chamber professions (lawyers, notaries, tax advisers and auditors, architects and civil engineers), which have their own chambers and their own rules and aren’t covered here.
Self-employed work that falls outside trade law and has no chamber of its own is Neue Selbstständige. The government’s own examples are authors, lecturers and psychotherapists.
Everything else that passes the trade-law test is a trade, and trades come in two kinds:
- Freie Gewerbe (free trades) need no proof of qualification. IT services are one, and so is most retail.
- Reglementierte Gewerbe (regulated trades) need a Befähigungsnachweis (proof of qualification) first. The list in trade law runs to over 80 trades, including business consulting, hairdressing, travel agencies and insurance brokerage.
This is why two freelancers doing superficially similar work can land on different routes. A freelance writer producing articles is Neue Selbstständige; a freelance developer building software for clients is exercising a trade, and a management consultant needs a regulated licence before starting.
Running a trade without the licence it needs is an administrative offence under the same law, with a fine of up to EUR 3,600.
CONTESTED – CONTESTED FLAG: borderline activities. Whether a particular activity is a trade, falls outside trade law, or is really employment turns on how the work is actually done, not on what the contract calls it. The trade authority decides whether a licence is needed, and the SVS and the ÖGK decide the insurance side, sometimes differently from what the freelancer expected. Where your work mixes elements (writing and consulting, say, or teaching and coaching), the authority’s decision is the answer, and this article can’t predict it.
The two routes side by side
| Point | Trade licence | Neue Selbstständige |
|---|---|---|
| Where you register | The district trade authority, before starting | The SVS, once profit will pass the threshold |
| SVS insurance starts | The day you’re entitled to trade | The day your declaration reaches the SVS, or backdated once the tax assessment shows profit over the threshold |
| Income threshold | None; insured from the first euro | EUR 6,613.20 of profit a year |
| Economic chamber (WKO) | Compulsory membership, yearly fee | None |
| Health contributions, first two years | Fixed on the minimum base, never recalculated, for newcomers | Provisional, recalculated once the tax assessment is in |
| Low-income relief | A small-business exemption, on application | Automatic: below the threshold, no insurance |
| Late-registration surcharge | Not applicable | 9.30% of the recalculated contributions |
The insurance rates themselves are identical, which the section on what the SVS charges sets out.
Registering a trade
A trade is registered with the trade authority for the place of business: the Bezirkshauptmannschaft (district authority), or the municipal office in a city with its own statute. The business service portal’s guide to registering a trade (in German) says it can be done in person, in writing or online, with no stamp duty or administrative fee.
A free trade can start on the day of registration, which in law is the day all the required documents reach the authority. The same goes for most regulated trades, where the documents include the proof of qualification, but a short list of sensitive ones (financial advice among them) can’t start until the authority’s formal decision is final.
The authority checks the conditions and enters you in GISA (Gewerbeinformationssystem Austria, the trade register) within 3 months, and you receive a GISA-Auszug (an extract from the register) as proof. The old paper Gewerbeschein is still what most people call a trade licence, but the register entry is what counts.
The same portal lists three conditions for an individual: being at least 18, having no grounds for exclusion (certain criminal or tax-offence convictions, for example), and, for citizens of countries outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland, holding a residence title.
Registering a trade also makes you a member of the WKO (Wirtschaftskammer, the economic chamber) automatically. SVS insurance starts on the day you’re entitled to trade, according to the SVS information sheet for trade licence holders (PDF, in German).
STATE NOTE – Trade law, SVS insurance and the chamber membership duty are federal and work the same way in every state. Two things vary. The trade authority is local (in Vienna, the Magistratisches Bezirksamt, the municipal district office, or, for some trades, a central municipal department), and the chamber’s yearly Grundumlage (basic membership fee) is set by each trade group, which is organised state by state, within limits in the law governing the economic chambers (in German). So the fee for the same trade can differ from one state to the next.
Registering as Neue Selbstständige
There’s no licence and no chamber. Neue Selbstständige deal with the SVS and the tax office, and nobody else.
Insurance depends on profit. According to the business service portal’s page on Neue Selbstständige (in German), you’re insured once your Einkünfte (profit, meaning income after business expenses) from this work pass the Versicherungsgrenze (insurance threshold) of EUR 6,613.20 in a calendar year, and the portal’s guidance is to report to the SVS within 1 month of starting the work.
The threshold is on profit, not turnover. A freelancer invoicing EUR 15,000 a year with EUR 9,000 of genuine business costs has profit of EUR 6,000, which is below it.
There are two ways into insurance, set out in the SVS information sheet for Neue Selbstständige (PDF, in German):
- By declaration. You file an Überschreitungserklärung (a declaration that your profit will pass the threshold). Insurance starts on the day it reaches the SVS, and it stays in place for the year even if profit ends up lower.
- After the fact. If you don’t declare, the SVS learns your profit from your income tax assessment and backdates the insurance. If the profit passed the threshold and you hadn’t reported it, a Beitragszuschlag (contribution surcharge) of 9.30% is added to the recalculated contributions.
Below the threshold and without a declaration, this work brings no statutory health or pension cover at all, which matters for anyone not covered through a job or a family member’s insurance.
ILLUSTRATION
a hypothetical freelance lecturer living in Graz, registered as Neue Selbstständige, in the 2026 tax year, with no other insured work, not a US person and not on international organisation staff. Their contribution base for the year comes to EUR 20,000, and they never file a declaration.
Their income tax assessment arrives the following year and shows profit well above the threshold. The SVS backdates their insurance and charges 18.50% for pensions (EUR 3,700) and 6.80% for health (EUR 1,360), EUR 5,060 in all.
The late-reporting surcharge of 9.30% on those contributions adds EUR 470.58, for a bill of EUR 5,530.58 before the smaller severance and accident insurance charges (and any surcharge on those). Had they reported within 8 weeks of the assessment being issued, the surcharge wouldn’t apply.
The surcharge has two escape routes, both in the SVS information sheet. Filing the declaration during the year avoids it, and so does reporting within 8 weeks of the date your income tax assessment is issued. After that window, it’s due.
What the SVS charges on either route
Once insured, both routes pay the same contributions, according to the SVS table of contribution bases and contributions for 2026 (PDF, in German).
| Branch | Rate or amount | Charged on |
|---|---|---|
| Pension insurance | 18.50% | Profit, between the minimum and maximum base |
| Health insurance | 6.80% | The same base |
| Selbständigenvorsorge (self-employed severance scheme) | 1.53% | The health insurance base |
| Accident insurance | EUR 12.95 a month | Flat, whatever the income |
The minimum base is EUR 551.10 a month, so contributions never fall below what that amount would produce once you’re insured. The maximum is EUR 8,085 a month, and profit above it attracts no further contributions. The severance scheme rate and base come from the business service portal’s page on the Selbständigenvorsorge (in German), which confirms it applies to both routes.
In the first three calendar years, pension contributions are charged provisionally on the minimum base and topped up once the income tax assessment for each year is in. Health contributions are where the routes part.
Trade licence holders who haven’t been insured with the SVS in the previous 10 years pay them on the fixed minimum base for their first two calendar years, with no later recalculation. Neue Selbstständige have health contributions recalculated too.
From the fourth year, provisional contributions are based on the profit shown in the assessment from three years earlier, uprated by a yearly factor, and recalculated once the current year’s assessment arrives. A profitable year can therefore produce a catch-up bill a year or two later on either route, which the SVS normally spreads over four instalments.
A low-earning year: where the routes split
At healthy profit levels the two routes cost almost the same in SVS contributions, with the chamber fee as the main extra for a licence holder. The gap opens in a thin year.
A trade licence holder is insured from the first day, and pays at least the minimum-base contributions even with little or no profit. Their relief is the Kleinunternehmer-Ausnahme (small-business exemption), which the SVS information sheet for trade licence holders says is available on application where yearly turnover is at most EUR 55,000, yearly profit is at most EUR 6,613.20, and the person hasn’t been insured with the SVS for more than 12 months in the last 60.
The exemption removes pension and health insurance, not accident insurance. It also removes the health cover that comes with them, so someone relying on it needs cover from somewhere else.
A Neue Selbstständige below the threshold needs to apply for nothing. They’re simply not insured, and pay nothing to the SVS, including the accident insurance charge.
ILLUSTRATION
Two hypothetical freelancers starting out on 1 January 2026 in Linz (this example is pinned to 2026 values), each with profit of EUR 5,000 for the year, turnover well under the small-business limit, no other insured work, never previously insured with the SVS, not US persons and not on international organisation staff.
The first gives private language lessons, which is Neue Selbstständige. Profit is below the EUR 6,613.20 threshold, so without a declaration they aren’t insured and owe the SVS nothing.
The second provides IT services on a trade licence. On the minimum base of EUR 551.10 a month, they pay EUR 101.95 for pensions, EUR 37.48 for health (the SVS’s published figure), EUR 8.43 for the severance scheme and EUR 12.95 for accident insurance: EUR 160.81 a month, or EUR 1,929.72 for the year, plus their chamber fee and any pension top-up once the assessment is in.
If the IT freelancer applies for the small-business exemption instead, the SVS bill falls to accident insurance alone, EUR 155.40 for the year, but they then have no SVS health or pension cover.
For a hypothetical freelancer expecting modest, uncertain profit in the first year, the Neue Selbstständige route involves noticeably less cost and admin than a trade licence. That’s a reading of how the rules add up, not a choice: someone whose work is a trade can’t opt into Neue Selbstständige to get it.
When freelance work is really employment
What the contract is called matters less than how the work is done. If it’s done under the client’s direction, on the client’s schedule and with the client’s equipment, the social insurance carriers may treat it as employment (insured with the ÖGK and paid through the client’s payroll) or as a freier Dienstvertrag (free service contract), a hybrid that is also insured with the ÖGK and registered by the client.
The business service portal’s page on free service contracts (in German) describes a continuing obligation to provide services personally, largely free of instructions, using the client’s essential equipment and paid for time rather than results. A Werkvertrag (contract for a specific piece of work), which is the typical freelance contract, owes a finished result instead.
CONTESTED – reclassification as employment.
Whether a given arrangement is self-employment, a free service contract or employment is decided on how it works in practice, and the carriers and the courts assess it case by case. The ÖGK’s page on the social insurance classification procedure (in German) explains that the SVS passes new registrations to the ÖGK for an early check, and that the freelancer or the client can ask for a formal determination. A determination binds the ÖGK, the SVS and the tax office in later audits, as long as the facts don’t change.
If an arrangement is reclassified, contributions already paid to the SVS are set against what the client owes, and any surplus goes back to the freelancer, according to the same ÖGK page.
Income tax and VAT
Income tax follows the income, not the route. Profit from a trade and profit from new self-employment are both declared on the annual income tax return and taxed under the same brackets, with no wage tax withheld during the year.
The flat-rate expense option works the same way. The business service portal’s page on the basic flat-rate scheme (in German) sets a lower percentage for writers, lecturers, scientists, teaching and commercial or technical consulting than for other activities, whichever route the person is on.
VAT, including the small business VAT exemption, applies to both routes in the same way. Neither route changes the tax rate on the same profit.
Residence permits, international organisation staff and US persons
For citizens of countries outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland, a residence title is a condition of registering a trade, and whether a particular permit allows self-employment at all is an immigration question. This article doesn’t assess it: the residence authority, or an immigration lawyer, is the place to ask before registering on either route.
International organisation staff – If you work for one of the international organisations based in Vienna (the UN bodies, the IAEA and OPEC among them) and freelance on the side, your social insurance and tax position may be shaped by your organisation’s headquarters agreement rather than the general rules here. Check with your organisation’s HR or legal office before registering.
US PERSONS – US citizens and green-card holders with self-employment income have US tax obligations on top of everything above. Which country’s social security system covers a self-employed person is decided by the US-Austria totalization agreement, which generally assigns self-employed work done in Austria to the Austrian system, according to the US Social Security Administration’s page on the agreement with Austria. A certificate of coverage is what proves an exemption from US self-employment tax. The US side is a question for a US-qualified tax professional.
KEY TAKEAWAY
The work decides the route. Activities that trade law treats as trades need a licence and chamber membership; writing, lecturing, teaching, the arts and psychotherapy are usually Neue Selbstständige. Both pay the SVS at the same rates once insured.
The real difference shows in a low-earning year. A licence holder is insured and paying from the first day unless they apply for the small-business exemption, while Neue Selbstständige pay nothing until profit passes the threshold, and pay a surcharge if they pass it without telling the SVS.
The general rules stop being enough where the work sits on a boundary: a mix of activities, a single client dictating the terms, or a trade that might need a regulated licence. The trade authority for your district decides whether a licence is needed, and the SVS or the ÖGK can give a binding classification for insurance.
For the tax side of the same decision, and for estimating a first year’s contributions against your own figures, a licensed Steuerberater (tax adviser) is the regulated route. The professional chamber’s register of tax advisers (in German) lists who is authorised.
Official sources
- oesterreich.gv.at: Welche Arten selbstständiger Erwerbstätigkeit gibt es? (the kinds of self-employment) (in German)
- Unternehmensserviceportal: Gewerbeanmeldung (registering a trade) (in German)
- Unternehmensserviceportal: Neue Selbstständige (in German)
- SVS: Informationen Neue Selbständige (information sheet) (PDF, in German)
- SVS: Monatliche Beitragsgrundlagen und Beiträge 2026 (contribution table) (PDF, in German)
- ÖGK: Sozialversicherungs-Zuordnungsgesetz (classification procedure) (in German)
