Capital Gains Tax in Austria (2026)

Which Brokers Withhold KESt for You in Austria?

Withholding status as of October 2026, from each provider's Austrian tax information and our broker comparison. "Withheld" means the provider pays Austrian KESt over and keeps a loss-offset pot for you (§ 93 EStG).

Whether you file anything depends on where the account is licensed, not on where you live. An Austrian bank or an EU bank with an Austrian tax set-up deducts the Kapitalertragsteuer (KESt) when income arrives, and that payment is final. Austrians call such a depot steuereinfach. A broker without that set-up pays you gross, and the tax becomes your job on the E1kv annex.

Two rates apply under § 27a Abs. 1 EStG. Interest on bank deposits pays 25%. Everything else pays 27.5%: dividends, realised gains on shares, bonds and fund units, derivatives, fund distributions and crypto. The two rates sit in separate pots, which matters as soon as you have a loss. Gains on property are taxed separately at 30% (ImmoESt) and are not covered here.

The mixed case catches the most people. Trade Republic withholds on shares and ETFs but, by its own Austrian FAQ, not on the interest it pays on your cash. On €10,000 earning 2.5%, that is €250 of interest and €62.50 of tax you must declare yourself. Check the annual tax report for an interest line with KESt deducted before you assume it is settled.

How Do You Fill In the E1kv Step by Step?

Kennzahlen from the BMF notes to the E1kv 2025 (version of 27 June 2025) and the reporting annex to BGBl. II Nr. 213/2024; 863 from the BMF form layout. Interest on foreign bank deposits (25%) has its own line next to Kennzahl 860. Kennzahlen can move between tax years, so check the form for your year.

The E1kv is the capital-income annex to the E1 income tax return. You need it whenever capital income arrived without Austrian KESt: a foreign broker, a foreign savings account, a crypto exchange abroad. You also use it voluntarily to offset losses between two depots or to apply the Regelbesteuerungsoption. The deadline for 2025 income is 30 June 2026 on FinanzOnline.

1. 1Download the annual tax report from each broker and convert foreign-currency amounts at the rate on the payment day. Interactive Brokers reports in USD by default.
2. 2Look up every fund ISIN on my.oekb.at and note the reported deemed distribution per unit for the fund year that ended in the tax year. Multiply by your units.
3. 3Raise the acquisition cost of each fund by the deemed distribution you declared, and keep the record. On a later sale only the remaining gain is taxed (§ 186 Abs. 3 InvFG).
4. 4Enter gross amounts in the Kennzahlen above. Foreign withholding tax goes in the foreign-tax block, capped at 15% of the dividend for treaty countries such as the US.
5. 5To offset an Austrian depot, add its realised gains and losses in point 1.3 and the KESt it withheld in Kennzahl 899. Entering losses there exercises the loss-offset option under § 97 Abs. 2 EStG.

Two rules from the BMF notes save time. Capital income you must declare is only entered if it exceeds €22 in the year, the Freigrenze; above that the whole amount counts. And income-related costs such as order fees or custody fees are not deductible from capital income taxed at the special rates, with an exception for crypto. Fees only enter through the acquisition cost and the sale price.

A self-filed E1kv takes most people an evening once they have the reports. Pay a Steuerberater when you hold many non-reporting funds, short positions or several currencies. Its fee is deductible as a special expense under Kennzahl 460. For the wider return, read our income tax guide.

How Does Loss Offsetting Work Under § 27 Abs. 8 EStG?

Our calculation. Method: realised gains and losses of both depots netted at 27.5% under § 27 Abs. 8 EStG; the €400 deposit interest stays in the 25% pot because Z 1 bars securities losses from offsetting it. Assumes no foreign tax and no loss already offset by either bank.

Inside one Austrian depot the bank nets losses against gains automatically, up to the end of the calendar year. Across depots nothing happens unless you file. In the example the €3,000 loss at depot A is worth €825 of tax, but only through an E1kv for 2026, filed by 30 June 2027 on FinanzOnline or later within the 5-year window of a voluntary assessment.

§ 27 Abs. 8 EStG sets four limits, and each one costs money when ignored. Losses on securities, derivatives and crypto never offset bank interest. Income taxed at the special rates never offsets income taxed at the normal bands. A net capital loss never offsets salary or rent. And there is no carryforward: the BMF notes to the E1kv state plainly that a loss carryforward is not permitted.

The practical move is timing. If you hold a loser at one bank and a winner at another, realise both in the same calendar year and file. Selling a loser in January does nothing for a gain booked the previous December. Moving a depot does not help either: an Austrian-to-Austrian transfer carries the cost basis over, but the loss pot stays behind.

When Does the Regelbesteuerungsoption Pay Off?

Our calculation, 2026 bands (§ 33 EStG: 0% to €13,539, 20% to €21,992, 30% to €36,458). Method: tax on other income plus capital income minus tax on other income alone, against KESt at 25% or 27.5%. Taxable income before tax credits; no sole-earner or child credits. Simplified, not an assessment.

Under § 27a Abs. 5 EStG you can ask for capital income to be taxed at your normal band rate instead of 25% or 27.5%, and the KESt already withheld is credited. It pays while your capital income lands in the 0% or 20% band, so up to about €22,000 of total taxable income in 2026. Our income tax guide shows four salary cases; the table above adds interest-only and mixed cases.

The option is all or nothing. The statute says it can only be used for all income subject to a special rate, so the 25% interest comes along with the 27.5% gains. In the last row the €2,000 of interest pushes total income into the 30% band, and the refund shrinks from €124.20 to €24.20. A larger cash balance would turn the result negative.

Do the comparison yourself. The BMF's notes to the 2025 E1kv state that the tax office does not check automatically whether the option is cheaper. You tick it in point 8.1 of the E1 and it then applies. Run both versions in the BMF calculators first. One more rule from the same notes: where a sole-earner or child credit runs through you, a minimum tax equal to that credit stays due.

How Are Accumulating ETFs and Non-Reporting Funds Taxed?

Our calculation. Method: the non-reporting column applies § 186 Abs. 2 Z 3 InvFG (90% of the year's price rise, at least 10% of the year-end price) at 27.5%. The reporting-fund amounts are illustrative assumptions, not a real fund's figures: the real number is whatever the fund reports to the OeKB. Ignores actual distributions.

An accumulating fund pays nothing out, yet Austria taxes it every year. Under § 186 Abs. 2 Z 1 InvFG the fund's interest and dividends plus 60% of its net realised gains count as deemed distributions, the ausschüttungsgleiche Erträge. A tax representative reports them to the reporting office at the OeKB, and they are taxed at 27.5% as if paid to you.

If no report arrives, the law estimates. § 186 Abs. 2 Z 3 InvFG deems 90% of the year's price rise distributed, and at least 10% of the year-end redemption price. The minimum applies even when the fund fell. That is why a non-reporting fund can cost €247.50 on €9,000 in a year you lost €1,000. Check every ISIN on my.oekb.at before you buy: no entry means no report.

Two mechanics stop double taxation. Each deemed distribution you paid tax on raises your acquisition cost under § 186 Abs. 3 InvFG, so the sale gain shrinks by the same amount. And a later actual payout of those amounts is tax-free. An Austrian bank does all of this for you and debits the tax from your settlement account after the fund's financial year, so keep cash there. At a foreign broker you track it yourself in Kennzahl 937 and in your own cost-basis records.

How Much Withholding Tax on US, German and Swiss Dividends Do You Pay?

Our calculation, before any reclaim. Method: foreign rate as withheld, Austrian credit capped at 15 percentage points under the tax treaties, remaining Austrian KESt = 27.5% minus the credit. Withholding rates from the BMF treaty overview as of August 2026.

Austria credits foreign withholding tax against the 27.5% KESt, but never more than the treaty rate, which is 15% for the main dividend countries. Whatever a country keeps above 15% is lost unless you reclaim it there. So the real question is not the headline rate but how much you can get back and at what effort.

For US shares the fix costs nothing: file a W-8BEN with your broker and the US keeps 15% instead of 30%. Austrian banks usually ask for it when you open the depot; foreign brokers sometimes do not. German and Swiss dividends always lose more at source: the excess comes back only through the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern or the Eidgenössische Steuerverwaltung, which is paperwork worth doing on large positions only.

Most Irish-domiciled ETFs avoid the issue at your level, because the fund receives the dividends and you are taxed on its reported income. Enter only foreign tax you cannot get back abroad: the BMF notes forbid crediting tax that the other country would refund.

How Is Crypto Taxed in Austria?

Crypto regime under § 27b EStG since 1 March 2022. Source: BMF, as of August 2026.

Crypto bought since 1 March 2021 sits in the same 27.5% pot as shares, so crypto losses offset share gains and the other way round. Austrian providers such as Bitpanda have withheld KESt on crypto since 2024. Foreign exchanges withhold nothing, and from 2026 they report Austrian customers to the tax office under the DAC8 rules, so undeclared gains will surface.

Exchanges, fees and which providers withhold are compared in our crypto exchange guide. This page keeps to the tax mechanics.

What Changed in Investment Taxation in 2025 and 2026?

Sources: provider announcements, RIS (BGBl. I Nr. 43/2026), BMF, as of October 2026.

The rates themselves have not moved since 1 January 2016, when the special rate for everything except bank interest rose from 25% to 27.5%. What changed in 2025 and 2026 is who withholds and how much the tax office sees. More foreign platforms now withhold Austrian KESt, and the ones that do not are starting to report. The quiet years of an undeclared foreign depot are ending.

Frequently Asked Questions