Austria hosts about more than one million of foreigners working in various sectors. As the economy changes, the job demand differs as well, but still, tourism sector is the most requested area in order to find an easy and seasonal job. Quite a lot, unfortunately, don’t know anything about income tax and tax refund. So what to do if you want to work in Austria and comply with the Austrian regulations?

Austria is slowly migrating from  heavy industries to a more service-oriented labour-market. Luckily, new jobs in the service industry, in marketing and in the information technology sector compensate for other job losses. Austria is strongly supporting entrepreneurs; in fact, it has become very easy to start your own venture.

However, if you are looking for a seasonal job, the easiest way for a foreigner is to lead the research to the tourism sector, especially if you can speak more than two languages.

The difference to other job markets is that the jobs are likely to be found outside the big cities on the countryside or in the famous ski-resorts of Austria. The country districts with most tourism in Austria are Carinthia (Kärnten), Tyrol (Tirol), Salzburg, Styria (Steiermark) and last but not least Vienna (Wien).

The best way to search for jobs is to do it locally and online. As always with the internet – how do you choose which job site is the better one? No problem, we have a short list of the most popular job-sites for you:

• jobpilot.at is one of the most visited job-sites in Austria. You can create here your profile and receive weekly listings of new job offers matching your criteria.
• derstandard.at/stellenmarkt The known newspaper Der Standard offers here a thousands new job offers every day. You can search here for specific Austrian region and the type of job you prefer (Internship, full-time, part-time).
• dermarkt.at is a newspaper job portal as well, the Kleine Zeitung. Many postings are from agencies.
  
  

Besides this, the AMS (Arbeitsmarktservice) is a government institution committed in the job searching. AMS can also help you as they maintain a list of open positions, especially for tourism-related jobs. Bear in mind that contracts in the hospitality industry will always be for a limited time (a couple of months), the demand is high in summer (except for the ski resorts) and low in winter.

How much tax will you pay?

Austrian income tax goes from 0% up to 50% of the salary, but generally, expats pay 25% on their monthly wage. Along with social insurance contributions, income tax is deducted from employees’ wages or salaries and is transferred to the authority by the employer. Income tax on employment is also called earnings tax (Lohnsteuer). The tax withheld is a prepayment on the annual tax due, which is only finally settled with the annual tax assessment (Arbeitnehmerveranlagung, previously Lohnsteuerausgleich) corresponding to the taxpayer’s declaration. The deadline to declare your earnings is the 30th of April of the following year in which you worked.

Various expenses can be offset against income tax, and lump sums, allowances and special expenses are tax-deductible. Among them:

• sole breadwinner’s allowance
• single parent’s allowance
• children’s allowance
• flat-rate allowance for commuters
• professional expenses (e.g. business travel expenses)
• two households necessitated by work
• extraordinary expenses (e.g. hospital charges)
• from 2009: support costs for children (e.g. afternoon care outside school)
  
  

Refund your income tax!

Here you find all info you need about how to refund your tax in Austria. Try to calculate how much money Austria owes you! This calculator is fast, tested and for FREE.