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How to (legally) avoid paying the ORF TV and radio fee in Austria?

Austria is instituting an 'ORF fee' to support the public broadcaster that every household will have to pay from 2024. But is there any way to avoid the payment?

Published: 2 May 2023 15:43 CEST
TV remote
Austrian public broadcaster ORF has argued that the online availability of its programming means everyone should have to pay the TV licence fee. Photo by Chris DELMAS / AFP

Starting in 2024, every household in Austria will need to pay €15.30 for the ORF fee, replacing the current “GIS fee”, which was only applicable to homes with a television or radio device.

However, this new fee will be increased by province-level taxes, except in Lower Austria, Upper Austria, and Vorarlberg, where regional governments have announced that they will waive the tax. Salzburg is also reportedly considering the possibility of waiving the fee.

You can check out more about how much the fee will cost in each province HERE.

The changes are coming after a Constitutional Court decision on the previous GIS fee. Currently, only homes that have a TV or radio device have to pay for it. However, anyone who has internet access can find and watch content produced by the public broadcaster online. Austria’s highest court decided that this was unconstitutional – unfair to those who pay the fee – and told the country’s politicians to devise a solution by 2024.

READ ALSO: What is the new ORF TV licence fee every household in Austria will have to pay?

Several ideas were debated, but the Austrian government finally agreed on a common (lower) household fee that every single home in the country would have to pay. Instead of the GIS tariff, people would have to pay for the ORF fee regardless of whether or not they have a television or radio set.

With a few exceptions.

Can I avoid paying the ORF fee?

The ORF fee is just as controversial as the GIS, with many people in Austria voicing that they’d rather not pay for a service they don’t use. Previously, those people had the choice of not buying a television (instead watching streaming services on a laptop, monitor or projector). They could also pay for a specialised service that removes the reception device on a TV, allowing it to access ORF broadcast.

Now, all of that is off the table.

The only exceptions are those that already existed with the GIS. So, a net household income for one person that does not exceed € 1,243.49 (2023 numbers) or net income up to € 1,961.75 for two persons in a household and € 191.87 per additional person would be exempt.

With the appropriate proof, the unemployed, the deaf or recipients of childcare allowance subsidies are also exempt.

BACKGROUND: Austria set to make TV and radio fees mandatory for everyone

Also exempt, according to the GIS, are “recipients of benefits from other public funds due to need for social assistance,” including recipients of basic benefits, those doing community service or those exempt from prescription charges.

In addition, recipients of minimum income support, long-term care benefits, student or pupil benefits and pensioners are also exempt – if they do not exceed the income mentioned above.

Other exemptions are to secondary homes, as the new fee will only apply to primary residences.

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TAXES

‘Leerstandsabgabe’: Everything about Austria’s vacancy tax explained

In Austria, there is a housing shortage and rents are rising. Some experts believe that can be offset by imposing a so-called vacancy tax (Leerstandsabgabe) on properties that are available for rent or sale but are unoccupied.

Published: 21 June 2024 12:59 CEST
Updated: 24 June 2024 17:10 CEST
'Leerstandsabgabe': Everything about Austria's vacancy tax explained

Some experts argue that a vacancy tax forces owners to rent out or sell their properties and thus reintegrate them into the housing market, bringing down rental costs. It also makes speculation more difficult by discouraging investors from buying properties only to hold on to them as they hope for future price increases. 

Finally, it helps prevent soil sealing since it encourages the utilisation of the existing stock and reduces the pressure to develop new areas.

Vienna had a vacancy tax in the early 1980s, but it was abolished later in the decade because the Constitutional Court found it was a matter for the federal government rather than the individual states. However, on April 24th this year, the Federal Council passed a constitutional amendment, transferring “the levying of public charges to prevent the non-utilisation or under-utilisation” to the states’ jurisdiction. In other words, the states now have more room for manoeuvre regarding taxing vacant properties.

READ ALSO: Why buying property in Austria remains unaffordable for most

How high is the vacancy tax?

As is often the case with regulations, the states show little uniformity: rates vary considerably.

In Styria, you pay a maximum of €10/m2 per month, while in Salzburg, the amount depends on how old the property is, and it ranges between €10 to 20/m2 per month for housing units built before and after 1953, respectively. 

The law is even more specific in Tyrol, where the levy is determined based on the total usable floor area and the location of the property, as well as the housing pressure in the particular region. For example, if you own a flat smaller than 30 m2, you might have to pay €10-25/m2 per month. The amount doubles if your property is in a so-called “Vorbehaltsgemeinde”, where housing and building land are reserved for those who live there all year round. 

In Vorarlberg, the rate is defined based on the proportion of vacancies in any given municipality. It’s between €8.20 and 18.50/m2 per month but cannot exceed €2,775 per year.

However, in these four states, where a vacancy tax is currently in effect, property owners aren’t in a hurry to register to pay despite fines that can be as high as €50,000.

READ ALSO: Why are people in Austria paying more taxes despite federal reforms?

In Tyrol, where the tax is payable if a property is left empty for longer than six months with no legitimate reason, authorities only received 900 vacancy notifications by the April 30th deadline – a relatively small number, given that there are roughly 7,000 flats in the state that weren’t registered either as a main or as a secondary residence for over half a year in 2023.

Municipalities in Tyrol and elsewhere are urging flat owners to sign up and pay, but regulations aren’t rigorously enforced, and many exceptions exist. For instance, in Salzburg and Styria, so-called investment apartments (“Vorsorgewohnungen”) intended for rental rather than personal use are exempt from taxation.

How effective is the vacancy tax?

In a fact sheet published in mid-April, Greenpeace estimated that there are around 230,000 empty flats and 567,000 rarely used secondary residences in Austria. The organisation calculated that the vacancy tax could generate annual revenues of up to €1.7 billion for the federal states if all nine of them were to impose it.

According to Momentum Institut, the rates in Styria, Salzburg, Tyrol, and Vorarlberg are much too low to have a significant impact. The Vienna-based think tank argues that property owners – whether they’re companies or individuals – will not choose to rent or sell their vacant flats unless the tax “hurts financially”. The institute recommends a levy of at least €200/m2 per month – a far cry from the current rates. (Only as the owner of a property in Tyrol that is bigger than 250 m2 do you have to pay so much.)

Regardless of the rates, the vacancy tax, much like any other tax, is a political instrument and, as such, a bone of contention. 

READ ALSO: Germany or Austria: Where’s the best place for foreigners to buy property?

While it has been shown—in France, for example—to reduce the pressure on housing supply and address housing affordability, opponents say it violates the right of property ownership.

How effective it will be in Austria depends on regional circumstances and implementation. Should it fail to have the desired effect, the states where it is in force might even decide to abolish it. Conversely, if it turns out to be a success story, it may eventually become the law of the land.

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