Guide to Real Estate Taxes in Austria

Nonresidents are generally subject to Austrian income tax on Austrian-source income, including income derived from Austrian real estate. Individuals are taxed separately. Income subject to the ordinary income tax regime is taxed at progressive rates.

Income Tax Rates 2026

Non-residents are required to pay income tax on income earned from Austrian sources at the standard rates.

Rental Income

Rental income from Austrian real estate is generally taxable in Austria at the progressive individual income tax rates after deduction of qualifying expenses.

For individuals subject to limited (nonresident) tax liability, €11,076 is generally added to the taxable assessment base for purposes of calculating income tax in 2026. Because the ordinary 0% bracket extends to €13,539, this effectively leaves only approximately €2,463 of income tax-free for a nonresident under the standard limited-tax-liability regime.

Qualifying expenses associated with generating rental income may generally be deducted. These can include depreciation of the building, financing costs attributable to the rental property, repairs, maintenance, management expenses and other qualifying expenses, subject to Austrian tax rules.

For comparison purposes, annual gross rental income of €18,000, €72,000 and €144,000 is assumed to incur deductible expenses equal to 30% of gross rental income. This leaves net rental income of €12,600, €50,400 and €100,800, respectively.

For a nonresident individual subject to limited Austrian tax liability, the applicable nonresident adjustment is taken into account before applying Austria's progressive 2026 income-tax rates.

The resulting estimated annual income tax is approximately €2,196, €16,038 and €39,659, respectively. This corresponds to effective income-tax burdens of approximately 12.2%, 22.3% and 27.5% of gross rental income.

Capital Gains

Gains from the disposal of Austrian real estate are generally subject to the special 30% real estate income tax (Immobilienertragsteuer).

Properties Acquired After 31 March 2002

For property generally treated as “new property,” taxable gain is broadly calculated as the sale proceeds less the property's acquisition cost and qualifying adjustments and expenses. The resulting taxable gain is generally subject to the 30% special tax rate.

Properties Acquired Before 31 March 2002

Special rules generally apply to older properties that were no longer tax-entangled on 31 March 2012.

In the standard case, acquisition costs may generally be deemed to equal 86% of the sale proceeds, resulting in taxable income equal to 14% of the sale price. Applying the 30% special tax rate produces an effective tax of approximately 4.2% of the gross sale price.

Different treatment can apply to certain older properties where the land was subsequently redesignated or rezoned as building land. In such cases, acquisition costs may generally be deemed to equal 40% of the sale proceeds, producing taxable income of 60% of the sale proceeds and an effective tax burden of approximately 18% of the gross sale price.

Exemptions may apply in certain circumstances, particularly for qualifying principal residences and certain self-constructed buildings.

Corporate Taxation

The standard Austrian corporate income tax rate is 23% of taxable income.

Austrian resident companies—generally companies with their registered office or place of management in Austria—are subject to corporate income tax on their worldwide income, subject to applicable double-tax treaties and other relief provisions.

Foreign companies without their registered office or place of management in Austria are generally subject to limited corporate income tax liability on specified Austrian-source income.

Rental income derived by a company from Austrian real estate is generally included in taxable corporate income, with qualifying business expenses deductible in determining taxable profit.

The 23% corporate income tax rate applies irrespective of the amount of taxable income.

Buying and Selling Taxes and Costs

Property Holding Taxes

Real Estate Tax

Austria levies an annual real estate tax (Grundsteuer) on domestic real property. The tax is collected by the municipality and is generally payable by the property owner.

The tax is based on the property's official assessed value (Einheitswert), which can be substantially below its current market value. A federal assessment rate (Steuermesszahl) is applied to this value to determine the basic tax amount. The applicable assessment rates are graduated according to the type and value of the property and generally reach up to 0.2%.

The municipality then applies its own multiplier (Hebesatz) to the resulting basic tax amount. The municipal multiplier may be as high as 500%.

Consequently, the effective annual tax cannot reliably be expressed as a single percentage of the property's current market value.