Taxes & Salary
Employees in Austria must pay wage tax and social security contributions from their salary. These amounts are deducted from your gross salary, thus you receive a net salary.
You will receive 14 salaries per year. You will receive your salary in your bank account on the 15th of the month or at the end of the month, depending on the employee group you belong to. A bank account in the SEPA area is required for salary payments. How to open an Austrian bank account can be found here.
The special payments (13th and 14th salary) are paid quarterly (March, June, September, November) in addition in the amount of half a monthly salary. Wage tax and social security contributions are deducted from your gross salary as specified in your employment contract. How much you pay depends on how much you earn.
You can download your monthly salary statement via Employee Self-Service. You can find the link to it in your UNIGRAZonline business card.
In Austria there is a system of compulsory insurance, which means that at the beginning of your employment with the University of Graz you will be registered for social insurance with the Insurance for Public Employees called BVAEB. Austrian social insurance includes health, accident, pension and unemployment insurance. Social insurance contributions are automatically deducted from your salary in Austria.
We will send you an info sheet on health insurance if you are registered for our welcome services.
In Austria, the wage tax of employees is paid by the University of Graz to the Austrian tax office. The wage tax is calculated on the basis of the income tax scale. If the University of Graz has reported your income to the Tax Office Austria (towards the end of February of the following year), you can carry out a tax assessment (employee tax assessment) via FinanzOnline - this is not mandatory in many cases.
We offer an annual event for international researchers about how to do your taxes in Austria, please see our event page for more information.
Highly qualified researchers, especially professors, who move to Austria from abroad can claim extensive tax benefits, if their move serves to promote science and research in Austria.
Prerequisites are that the center of vital interests is moved to Austria (e.g. moving with family), the center of vital interests has not been in Austria for the last 5-10 years and a written application is submitted to the Federal Ministry of Finance within 6 months after moving. We strongly recommend to consult a tax advisor if you want to apply for this tax reduction.
If you move to Austria with children, or have a child in Austria, you may also be entitled to the Family Bonus Plus. This is a direct tax relief.
All persons whose main residence is in Austria for more than 6 months receive a climate bonus as a bonus payment once a year. The climate bonus amounts to between 110-220€ depending on where you live.
