How we calculate Austrian net pay

The calculator reproduces a salaried employee's payroll: twelve regular monthly payments and, unless you switch it off, holiday and Christmas pay of one month's salary each. The tariff and tax credits come from the Federal Ministry of Finance, contribution rates from the umbrella body of the social insurance funds. The documents are listed on the data sources page.

Order of operations

1. Social insurance on regular pay up to the contribution ceiling, rounded to the cent as one amount.
2. Taxable base: gross pay minus social insurance, minus the commuter allowance where it applies.
3. Wage tax on regular pay: annualised, tariff, tax credits, divided by twelve.
4. 13th and 14th salary: their own social insurance and a fixed tax rate.
5. Net pay = gross minus social insurance minus wage tax, for the month and the year.

Wage tax

The monthly taxable base is multiplied by twelve, the €132 work-expense lump sum is deducted and the 2026 income tax tariff applied:

Annual tax is rounded to the cent. The Familienbonus Plus comes off first (€2,000 per child under 18, €700 from 18, optionally shared between parents), at most down to zero; then the transport credit (€496), where applicable the sole-earner or single-parent credit (€612 with one child, €828 with two, €273 for each further child) and the commuter euro (€6 per kilometre a year; €2 in 2025). The result divided by twelve is the month's wage tax. Like the Ministry's wage tax table we use monthly family-bonus amounts (€166.68 per child).

13th and 14th salary

Health, pension and unemployment insurance are deducted from holiday and Christmas pay (without the Chamber of Labour levy or housing contribution, up to €13,860 a year). Of the rest, the first €620 is tax-free, a fixed 6% applies up to €25,000, 27% above that and 35.75% from €50,000; anything over €83,333 is taxed like regular pay. If the annual sixth — one sixth of a year's regular pay, so two monthly salaries — is no more than €2,615 (€2,570 in 2025), both payments are tax-free. Employers may recalculate in December under section 77(4) of the Income Tax Act, which softens the tax just above that threshold; whether they do depends on the employer, and we calculate without it.

Social insurance

Employees pay 3.87% health insurance, 10.25% pension insurance, 2.95% unemployment insurance, a 0.5% Chamber of Labour levy and a 0.5% housing contribution — 0.75% in Vienna since 2026. Unemployment insurance is reduced on low pay: 0% up to €2,225.00, 1% up to €2,427.00, 2% up to €2,630.00, with regular pay and each special payment banded separately. Contributions stop at the ceiling of €6,930.00 a month (€6,450.00 in 2025). Nothing is deducted up to the marginal-employment limit of €551.10.

Employer cost

The employer pays 20.98% social insurance on regular pay (21.23% in Vienna) and 20.48% on special payments, plus 1.53% severance-fund contributions, the 3.7% family-burden-equalisation contribution, the state's surcharge on it (0.31% to 0.40%) and 3% municipal tax. Exemption thresholds for very small payrolls, Vienna's underground tax and exemptions for older employees are not included.

Tests

We used the Ministry's calculators through their normal interface for a few dozen queries; on the website only our own code calculates.

Not yet included

• Manual workers, apprentices, freelance employees, pensioners and civil servants.
• Tax relief on overtime and allowances, benefits in kind, personal allowances notified by the tax office.
• The annual tax assessment: social insurance refunds, the transport-credit supplement, the child supplement, special expenses and church contributions only take effect there.

Updates and errors

New tariffs and contribution figures are added as soon as the Ministry and the social insurance publish them; the version and verification date appear on the calculator. If a result does not match your payslip, tell us — corrections ship as a new rules version.

Estimates only. Not tax, legal or financial advice.