Leaving Austria: Taxes, Pension and Deregistration (2026)

What Do You Have to Do Before Leaving Austria, and by When?

Our checklist, built from the statutes as consolidated on RIS on 14 October 2026: MeldeG, ORF-Beitrags-Gesetz, FLAG, EStG, BMSVG, ASVG. The ORF figure is the federal levy; four states add a surcharge.

Leaving Austria means about nine separate notices to six authorities, and no office tells the others. Deregistration under § 4 Abs. 1 MeldeG is due 3 days before or after you move out and costs nothing. It ends the ORF levy at the end of that month. It does not stop Familienbeihilfe, defer your exit tax or claim your Abfertigung. Each of those needs its own request.

The order matters more than any single deadline. Keep your Austrian bank account open until the last refund has arrived, because the Finanzamt, your landlord and the BV-Kasse all pay out after you have gone. Download your Versicherungsdatenauszug before you go: every later pension claim in any country starts from it. Deregister last, in the three-day window around your move.

The deregistration form is the same Meldezettel you signed on arrival. Any registration office accepts it, so you can hand it in at the office nearest your last flat or post it. Our registration guide covers the form itself, and mandatory levies lists the state surcharges on the ORF levy.

How Does the Exit Tax on Shares, ETFs and Crypto Work?

Our calculation. Method: taxable amount is market value on the day Austria loses its taxing right minus acquisition cost (§ 27a Abs. 3 Z 2 lit. b EStG), times 27.5%. Deferral and the €100,000 proof threshold from § 27 Abs. 6 Z 1 lit. a and f EStG, read on RIS on 14 October 2026. The threshold applies to the deferred gain, not to the depot value.

Austria treats the day you give up your Austrian residence as a sale. § 27 Abs. 6 Z 1 EStG covers shares, fund units and ETFs, bonds, derivatives and crypto bought from 1 March 2021. The taxable amount is the gain built up while you lived here, taxed at the usual 27.5%. No cash changes hands, which is why the rule surprises people: the bill arrives for a sale that never happened.

Moving to another EU or EEA country, you can apply for Nichtfestsetzung. The tax office records the debt in your assessment but does not collect it until you actually sell. It also falls due if you later move on to a country outside the EU and EEA. The BMF has said in a ruling (EAS 3372, January 2017) that you apply in the tax return for the year of departure. Moving to Switzerland, the UK or the US, there is no deferral.

The Budgetmaßnahmengesetz 2026 added a duty that catches deferred cases. Under lit. f, anyone whose deferred gain exceeds €100,000 must prove every year, in writing or through FinanzOnline, that nothing has been sold. The proof is due by the end of the following year, for example by 31 December 2027 for a deferral decided in 2026. A missing proof counts as a sale. Tax advisers report a one-off proof for deferrals from before July 2026, due by 31 December 2026; capital gains tax covers the rest of the 2026 changes.

What Happens to Your Austrian Pension Contributions?

Sources: ASVG §§ 70 and 308 and APG § 4 on RIS; agreement list from the Sozialministerium overview, as of 3 August 2026. The full list of 22: Albania, Australia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Chile, India, Israel, Japan, Canada (with Québec), Korea, Kosovo, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Philippines, Serbia, Tunisia, Türkei, USA, Uruguay and the United Kingdom.

Austria does not refund pension contributions to people who emigrate. We read every refund rule in the ASVG: § 70 returns 45% of contributions paid above the yearly ceiling, and § 308 covers moves into a civil-service pension scheme. Neither depends on nationality or on leaving the country. The 24-month refund that circulates in expat forums is the German rule, and it does not apply to Austrian contributions.

What you keep is the record. Every month you paid stays on your account with the Pensionsversicherungsanstalt. Inside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland, the months from every country are added together to check whether you qualify, and each country then pays its share. You apply once, in the country where you live when you retire.

The hard case is a move to a country without an agreement. There, your foreign years never count in Austria, so you need 180 insurance months here, 84 of them from work, under § 4 APG. Someone who leaves after six years for Dubai or Singapore and never comes back and never builds more Austrian or EU months gets no Austrian old-age pension from those years. Check the destination against the list above before you sign the contract.

Can You Take Your Abfertigung With You?

Our reading of § 14 BMSVG as in force since 1 January 2026: Abs. 2 (exclusions), Abs. 4 Z 3 (five years), Abs. 8 (ten years). The €173 figure is our calculation: 2.5% of 30 times the 2026 daily contribution ceiling of €231. Tax from § 67 Abs. 3 EStG.

Your employer pays 1.53% of your gross pay every month into a BV-Kasse, and that money is yours. Whether you can take it when you leave depends on how the job ended, not on where you go. If the employer ended it and you have 36 contribution months in total, from one or several jobs, you can ask for the lump sum at once. The BV-Kasse withholds a flat 6% under § 67 Abs. 3 EStG.

Most people who emigrate resign, and that is the trap. § 14 Abs. 2 BMSVG bars a payout after your own notice. The balance stays invested, and the kasse deducts its fees. The way out is § 14 Abs. 4 Z 3: once nobody has paid contributions for you for five years, you can claim the whole amount from abroad, whatever the reason the job ended. Put the date in your calendar the week you leave.

Short stays carry a second risk. If you have fewer than 36 months and never claim, a small balance passes to the kasse 10 years after the last contribution under § 14 Abs. 8. The cap is low, about €173 in 2026, but the rule shows the direction: nobody pays you automatically. Moving the balance to a Pensionskasse or an insurer instead is tax free.

Which Tax Return Do You File in the Year You Leave?

Source: EStG §§ 1, 41 and 98 on RIS, 14 October 2026. The § 1 Abs. 4 threshold rises to €13,846 for 2027.

Until the day you give up your Austrian home you are taxed on your worldwide income under § 1 Abs. 2 EStG. From the next day only Austrian income counts, such as rent from a flat you keep or a salary still paid by an Austrian employer for work done here. Most leavers have nothing Austrian after the move. For them the departure year is the last Austrian return.

File it even when nothing forces you to. Payroll withholds tax as if your salary ran for twelve months, so leaving in June means half a year taxed at a rate meant for a full one. The Arbeitnehmerveranlagung corrects that, and you have 5 years to file it under § 41 Abs. 2 EStG. FinanzOnline works from abroad, and our income tax guide explains the refund mechanics.

The refund can go to a foreign account. FinanzOnline's standard field expects an Austrian IBAN, so enter a foreign one as foreign bank details in your profile instead. A return becomes mandatory if, for example, you had capital income without Austrian KESt; then the deadline is 30 April on paper or 30 June online of the following year.

How Do You Stop Familienbeihilfe, the ORF Levy and ÖGK Cover?

Three running items stop on three different rules. Familienbeihilfe must be reported to the Finanzamt Österreich within one month under § 25 FLAG. The ORF levy ends at the end of the month you deregister (§ 8 ORF-Beitrags-Gesetz). Your ÖGK cover ends with the job, and the usual after-cover lapses the day you move abroad.

Familienbeihilfe depends on your family's centre of life being in Austria. When it moves, the entitlement ends and any month paid after that has to be repaid. One exception matters for commuting families: if one parent keeps working in Austria while the children move to another EU country, EU coordination can keep a claim alive. Ask the Finanzamt before you stop it yourself.

The ORF levy of €15.30 a month attaches to your main residence in the central register. The OBS receives register data from the interior ministry, but § 9 Abs. 5 still obliges you to report the end without delay. Send the deregistration confirmation to the OBS and keep the receipt.

Health cover is the gap people notice too late. § 122 Abs. 2 ASVG normally keeps ÖGK benefits running for six weeks after a job ends. § 122 Abs. 4 ends that after-cover once you move abroad. Inside the EU, register with the insurer in your new country straight away; elsewhere, buy travel or expat cover for the first weeks.

Should You Keep or Close Your Austrian Bank Account?

Keep it until the last payment has arrived, then decide. The tax refund lands months after you leave, your rent deposit comes back after the handover, and an Abfertigung payout follows the written request. An Austrian IBAN receives all three without workarounds. No Austrian law forces you to close the account when you move.

Tell the bank your new address and tax residence. Under the GMSG, Austria's law implementing the Common Reporting Standard, the bank then reports the account and its balance to your new country every year. That is not a problem if you declare it there. It is a problem if you assumed an Austrian account stays invisible abroad.

Two costs decide whether to keep it longer. Package accounts charge a monthly fee whether you use them or not. And tell your depot bank too: its KESt handling changes once you are no longer resident, and the exit tax above applies whichever bank holds the securities. If you hold investments there, read the broker comparison before you decide where the securities should live.

Which Laws and Authorities Govern Leaving Austria?

None of these rights applies automatically. Deferral needs an application, the Abfertigung needs a written claim, and a refund needs a return. Each one is a separate request to a separate body.

Frequently Asked Questions