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FREELANCING

EXPLAINED: How freelancers in Austria can pay four times less in social insurance

Self-employed people in Austria are insured by SVS and have to cover 20 percent of treatment costs. that can be reduced to 5 percent. Here's how.

Published: 1 March 2022 10:55 CET
Updated: 5 April 2024 10:13 CEST
Freelancers in Austria may be able to reduce their social insurance contributions. Here's how. Photo by Ewan Robertson on Unsplash
Freelancers in Austria may be able to reduce their social insurance contributions. Here's how. Photo by Ewan Robertson on Unsplash

Austria has a mandatory health and social insurance policy, which means that every resident needs to be insured.

EXPLAINED: What is it like being self-employed in Vienna?

Most people in Austria, 82 percent in total, are insured by ÖGK through their employers.

Self-employed workers, however, have to make their payments themselves with Sozialversicherung der Selbständigen, or SVS. 

Several differences come from this, the main one being that self-employed people need to register and make the payments by themselves, while employed workers will have their contributions automatically taken from salaries and paid for by employers.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about becoming a freelancer in Austria

Another key distinction is that SVS will not cover 100 percent of costs when it comes to health treatments and doctor consults.

Self-employed people need to cover a 20 percent proportion of costs, the so-called Selbstbehalt. That means that if a doctor that works with the SVS insurer charges € 100 for his consultation, SVS will pay €80, and the rest, €20, will come via invoice for the self-employed person to pay for afterwards.

Bills rarely come this high, though. Even so, there is a way to reduce that co-pay rate to 5 percent.

The ‘healthy self-employed program’

SVS has a program to promote health that will let you cut the costs of payment, conditional to achieving specific health goals. 

Insured people can arrange these health goals with their doctors. The targets can be regarding blood pressure, weight, exercise, tobacco and alcohol consumption, according to SVS.

READ MORE: Top co-working spaces in Austria for freelancers and entrepreneurs

After six months, you can arrange another consultation with the doctor to check on those goals. If you have met them, the doctor can sign off on reducing copayment costs from 20 percent to 10 percent.

After two to three years, another evaluation is necessary, and people who kept their achievements can co-payments to 5 percent. 

The rates can also be achieved by “fit” people as there can be “maintenance” goals.

Self-employed people can make an appointment at the SVS Health Centre in Vienna to agree on goals or go straight to their own family doctor. 

The My SVS website (you have to be logged in to access) has a PDF form with all the possible goals that can be agreed together with the doctor, including columns for the “current values”, a separate column for goals (including things such as “continue to be a non-smoker”), and a third column for the “after” evaluation. 

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about health insurance for freelancers in Austria

Useful links

SEA – The self-employed in Austria group supports self-employed individuals by delivering information in the form of guidebooks and free articles in English. 

SVS – The social insurance organisation for self-employed people in Austria.

WKO – The Austrian Chamber of Commerce is a useful source of information for self-employed people.

Useful vocabulary

Sozialversicherung – social insurance

Selbständigen – self-employed

Neue Selbständige – new self-employed

Steuer – tax

Gesundheitsversicherung – health insurance

Pensionsvorsorge  – pension provision

Unfallversicherung – accident insurance

Verwaltungskosten – administration costs

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COST OF LIVING

How to make sure you get Austria’s Klimabonus payout early this year

There are two ways of receiving Austria's Klimabonus payout: via wire transfer or by post and one of them is much faster than the other.

Published: 2 April 2024 11:15 CEST
How to make sure you get Austria's Klimabonus payout early this year

The Klimabonus (climate bonus) is a part of Austria’s eco-social tax reform, a set of measures to promote climate protection. One such action includes a tax on CO2 emissions, increasing fuel prices and affecting Austrian drivers. The annual Klimabonus aims to offset this expense. 

The concept is that individuals who rely more on public transportation and choose eco-friendly transportation options will have a more significant portion of the bonus remaining at the end of the month.

CO2 tax rising

Last year, Austrian residents received between €110 and €220 via the Klimabonus. The amount depended on the person’s primary residence and the local infrastructure. As explained above, those living in cities with more extensive public transport networks would receive less money, as they had more opportunities to make climate-conscious decisions. 

Now, the federal government said it would determine the amount “in early summer”, though Chancellor Karl Nehammer had already confirmed to Austrian media that the payout would take place for the third time in 2024. 

READ ALSO: What you can do if you still haven’t received Austria’s 2023 Klimabonus

Since the Klimabonus is linked to the CO2 taxes, which have seen a 38 percent increase, there have been calls for the payout to rise accordingly. That would make the payment between €150 and €300. 

Update your bank information

The Klimabonus is paid automatically to all eligible people. If your bank details are up to date with FinanzOnline, they will be wired directly to your account, making the process much easier and faster.

Those whose bank accounts are not stated on the government website still receive the payout as a voucher sent via secure letter. This means you must be at home to sign for it. You will then have to exchange the voucher for cash and, in some cases, might have to wait even weeks to receive the letter—after the government makes the wires.

All you need to do is have your bank details on FinanzOnline to receive your payout sooner. 

Once logged in to the website, you can change your personal information, including bank data, as a private person by clicking the “persönlichen Daten” link on the homepage. You can find that under “Weitere Services – Anträge – Grunddaten”, it is registered as a freelancer or company.

It’s worth pointing out that even though you need an IBAN, your bank account does not necessarily need to be an Austrian account. You can receive the payment straight in your SEPA bank account – including online banks such as N26 and Wise. 

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