Payroll in Austria: a restricted activity

A member of both the European Union and the European Economic Area, Austria applies EU social security coordination without reservation, and salaries there are paid in euros. German is the language of contracts, payslips and all dealings with the administration; a document produced in English will be accepted in commercial exchanges but never removes the need for the German version.

What truly sets Austria apart is the status of payroll itself. It is one of the few European states where preparing payroll on behalf of a third party is a regulated profession in the strict sense. Practice requires a professional authorisation obtained by examination: Personalverrechner, licensed payroll specialist, or Bilanzbuchhalter under the Bilanzbuchhaltungsgesetz of 2014, or Steuerberater, tax adviser, under the WTBG of 2017. An administrative or IT provider cannot lawfully carry out this work, whatever its technical competence.

A second structural feature is the very broad coverage of the economy by sector collective agreements, the Kollektivverträge, negotiated under the auspices of the economic chamber.

Registration of the employee with the Österreichische Gesundheitskasse (ÖGK, the Austrian health insurance fund) must take place before work actually starts: the Anmeldung is prior, not simultaneous, and this point ranks first among labour inspection checks.

The applicable Kollektivvertrag is determined next. Austria sets no statutory minimum wage; the minimum comes from the sector agreement, which also fixes job grading and the additional payments made during the year. Applying the wrong agreement distorts payroll from the outset and has to be corrected retroactively.

The presence question is settled before hiring: subsidiary, branch entered in the Firmenbuch, or registration of a foreign employer with the health insurance fund. The last option is workable, but requires clarity on whether the employer or the employee will carry the reporting obligations.

Validity does not hinge on a written contract, but the employer must nonetheless issue a Dienstzettel, a written statement of employment terms, drawn up in German. Payslips are likewise mandatory.

Wage tax, Lohnsteuer, is withheld at source and paid to the Finanzamt; contributions are reported monthly to the ÖGK; the municipality of establishment levies a charge on the payroll. Three recipients, three timetables, one payroll.

The severance regime, funded for contracts concluded since the reform through a dedicated provident fund, closes the file and deserves careful review.

The regulation of payroll itself comes first among Austrian features: entry to the activity runs through an authorisation granted after examination and supervised by the Bilanzbuchhaltungsbehörde attached to the Wirtschaftskammer Österreich. This narrows the pool of partners but raises the average standard of the market.

Corporate existence and the right to practise are, moreover, separate matters. The Firmenbuchauszug proves the company exists; the GISA-Auszug, an extract from the register of regulated trades, proves it is entitled to carry out the activity it advertises. Both are needed and neither substitutes for the other.

A vocabulary trap awaits at the end. The Unbedenklichkeitsbescheinigung, or letter of no objection, is the social security document issued by the ÖGK. On the tax side the equivalent has another name, the Rückstandsbescheinigung from the Finanzamt. Asking twice for the first yields only half a file.