Question 1

What are the steps to work with PSTax?

Accepted Answer

1. Fit Check: Use our online tool to ensure we are the right match for your needs.
2. Free Consultation: We meet online, discuss your situation and answer first questions on the call. 
3. We send you a summary of our call and our offer via email. 
4. Digital Onboarding: A seamless, 100% digital process to get you set up.
5. We start working together with year-round support: We manage your deadlines, filings, and optimizations.

Question 2

How does the cooperation during the year work?

Accepted Answer

We operate fully remote and primarily communicate via email. Basic email support is included in all our packages. We exchange documents through via E-Mail, Google Drive or our client portal. We do not meet in person or exchange physical folders/papers.

Question 3

What is included in the annual packages?

Accepted Answer

Our packages are designed to cover everything you need as self-employed person during a regular year: annual tax filings, tax office correspondence, payment reminders, initial tax office registrations (indluing the VAT ID request), proactive tax & SVS optimization, and ongoing email support.

Question 4

What does "basic email support" mean?

Accepted Answer

We view this as a "fair use" policy. We encourage all our clients to reach out with your questions anytime! Please stop using ChatGPT to answer your tax question, if you work with us! As long as you aren’t sending us an A4 page of questions every week, we won’t charge extra. If a request requires significant research, we will always discuss this with you beforehand.

Question 5

What is not included in the packages?

Accepted Answer

Certain complex topics are excluded: foreign capital investments, rental properties, and official written confirmations for third parties (like landlords or MA35). Additional calls are also not included in our packages. We value transparency: any out-of-scope work is quoted and approved by you before we start.

Question 6

What is the fee for out-of-scope services?

Accepted Answer

For services not covered by our fixed packages, our current hourly rate is € 270 gross (€ 225 net).

Question 7

Do you offer bookkeeping services?

Accepted Answer

We focus on annual filing, optimization and support. Data-entry into spreadsheets is therefore not our main strength and we do not offer bookkeeping as such. We provide templates for you to track your own income and expenses, which we then optimize. This process will soon be even smoother with our new client portal featuring automatic invoice recognition.

Question 8

Can I switch to PSTax during the year?

Accepted Answer

Yes, switching is possible at any time. We can take over from your previous advisor or help you catch up on everything from the start of the current tax year.

Question 9

Can I choose any package?

Accepted Answer

The packages are designed to match your current situation: if you earn below the SVS threshold, then you are in the Starter Package. If you are in SVS, but not claiming input VAT, the Standard Package is the one for you. And if you are in SVS and also claiming input VAT, the Pro Package applies. Therefore choosing a package is as such not intended.

Question 10

How do I register as self-employed?

Accepted Answer

Being self-employed in Austria generally requires three steps:
1. Registering a business license (if your profession requires one)
2. Registration with the SVS (social security institution for the self-employed)
3. Registration with the tax office (Finanzamt) — included in all PSTax packages! We guide you through each step.

Question 11

Do I need a business license?

Accepted Answer

Austria is a bit old-fashioned when it comes to self-employment. Most people will need a business license. This is especially true if you work in IT, marketing, social media, consulting, video production, or content creation. Certain professions are exempt, such as physiotherapists, psychotherapists, other health professionals, teachers, and artists. This group is called Newly Self Employed or "Neue Selbständige".

Question 12

How do I register a business license?

Accepted Answer

If your profession falls under a free business license, you can simply register it via the GISA Portal.

Please note that you will most likely need an ID Austria for this process.

If you need a regulated business license, I highly recommend reaching out to Miglena Hofer, a business consultant with extensive experience helping people get registered and set up in Austria.

Question 13

How do I register at the SVS?

Accepted Answer

This process depends on your status as a business license holder.

If you have a business license, the registration with the SVS is fairly simple. PSTax takes care of this for you and it is included in all PSTax packages at no extra charge.

If you are registered as a “Neuer Selbstständiger”, the registration process is more complex. Austria is very strict when it comes to bogus self-employment and wants to ensure that you are genuinely self-employed and should not actually qualify as an employee. Therefore, you usually need to complete a 27-page questionnaire.

Since this requires significantly more work, we generally charge one additional hour if you would like our support with this process.

In both cases, you will also need to decide whether you want additional voluntary insurance options from the SVS. Generally speaking, 99% of self-employed people do not choose these options because the SVS is already expensive enough as it is — but you can check them out here: SVS Voluntary Insurance Options.

Question 14

How do I register with the tax office?

Accepted Answer

The tax office registration should generally be completed within 30 days of starting your business activities. Austrian law requires all self-employed business activities to be registered with the tax office within this timeframe.

PSTax takes care of this process in all of our packages. The registration usually involves providing the tax office with a rough estimate of your expected revenue and profit for the current and following year.

In most cases, we recommend using lower or very conservative estimates in the beginning, as these numbers may trigger income tax prepayments. In our experience, it is quite unfortunate to make tax prepayments on income that you have not actually earned yet.

Question 15

What is a GISA entry?

Accepted Answer

GISA is the Austrian Business License Information System. Many activities in Austria require a formal trade license which is registered in GISA before you can legally operate.

Question 16

Do I need a separate business bank account?

Accepted Answer

While not strictly mandatory for sole traders, we usually recommended it. It keeps your business and personal finances separate, making digital bookkeeping much faster and cleaner.

Question 17

Do I need a tax advisor?

Accepted Answer

There is no legal requirement to have a tax advisor in Austria — you can handle everything yourself if you prefer. However, if you want to make sure your business is set up correctly and in a tax-efficient way from the beginning, it is highly recommended to speak with a tax advisor before starting your activities.

This helps ensure that you do not miss important tax or SVS registration deadlines and that your setup is optimized from day one. Of course, it also saves you the time and stress of dealing with Austrian tax bureaucracy yourself.

Question 18

What is the tax-free threshold in Austria?

Accepted Answer

For self-employed individuals, roughly the first € 13.000 – 14.000 of annual profit is tax-free. Above this amount, progressive income tax rates apply starting at 20%.

This tax threshold applies to all types of income combined. For example, if you have income from self-employment, employment, or rental income, all of these are added together for income tax purposes.

Question 19

How are business expenses calculated?

Accepted Answer

You can either deduct your actual business-related expenses (based on receipts and invoices) or use a flat-rate deduction (“Pauschale”).

The flat-rate deduction is generally 20% of your revenue up to € 55.000 per year and 15% above this threshold. In certain rare industries, other flat-rate percentages may apply.

Question 20

When does the flat-rate deduction make sense?

Accepted Answer

In general, the flat-rate deduction works best if you have relatively low actual business expenses.

It allows you to deduct a fixed percentage of your revenue as a business expense without having to collect receipts for every small purchase. On top of the flat-rate deduction, you can still deduct SVS contributions, a work-from-home allowance, and 50% of your annual public transport ticket.

In our experience, this works particularly well for professions that mainly work from home with a laptop, such as IT, marketing, consulting, social media, or content creation.

Question 21

What is considered a business expense?

Accepted Answer

In general, anything you purchase for your business can potentially qualify as a business expense. However, the tax office wants to ensure that private and business expenses are not mixed.

Typical business expenses include internet costs, laptops and equipment, office rent, software subscriptions, advertising costs, travel expenses (if clearly business-related), goods and materials, payments to freelancers, and larger assets such as cameras or other work equipment.

Question 22

Do I need to keep invoices and receipts?

Accepted Answer

If you decide to deduct your actual business expenses, you should keep all invoices and receipts available in case the tax office requests them.

When working with PSTax, you generally do not need to proactively send us every receipt. We will request documents if something is unclear, and we expect you to have the receipts ready in case of a tax office review or audit — although in practice, it does not happen to often.

Question 23

When are tax payments due?

Accepted Answer

After the end of the year, your taxes are recalculated based on your actual annual profit. Once you receive your tax assessment (“Steuerbescheid”), the payment is generally due within one month.

The result of this assessment will also update your tax prepayments for the following year, meaning higher profits may lead to higher quarterly prepayments in the future. Prepayments are due quarterly on February 15, May 15, August 15, and November 15.

Question 24

What is the deadline for filing taxes?

Accepted Answer

If you file your taxes yourself, you generally have until June 30th of the following year to submit them via FinanzOnline.

If you work with a tax advisor, you usually receive an automatic extension and effectively have up to one full additional year to file your taxes.

Question 25

What is SVS?

Accepted Answer

SVS is the Austrian social security institution for self-employed individuals.

If you are fully self-employed, you will generally have health, pension, and accident insurance through the SVS.

If you are only self-employed part-time and still have a regular employment as your main job, you might — depending on your business license status — only have to pay accident insurance (roughly € 13 per month) instead of the full insurance contributions.

Question 26

How much are SVS contributions?

Accepted Answer

SVS contributions are roughly 27% of your profit and include health, pension, and accident insurance.

As a rule of thumb for service-based industries, this usually works out to around 20% of your revenue, assuming you use the flat-rate expense deduction (“Pauschale”).

You can use our SVS and Tax Calculator to estimate your own contributions.

Question 27

What are the SVS rates during the first three years?

Accepted Answer

It is important to understand that the SVS charging system works a little differently than most people expect.

During the first three years of self-employment, you are generally initially charged reduced preliminary contributions of slightly below € 500 per quarter for full insurance coverage (health, pension, and accident insurance).

However, these are only preliminary payments. Later on, the SVS recalculates your actual contributions based on the real profit you earned during that year.

This means that SVS effectively works on a prepayment system, similar to the tax office. If your actual annual profit exceeds roughly € 6.600, you will usually receive an additional top-up payment later on.

Question 28

Is there a reduced SVS rate in the first years?

Accepted Answer

There is a reduced health insurance rate for business license holders (“Gewerbetreibende”) during the first two years of self-employment.

However, this is not the same thing as the reduced contribution basis that applies during the first three years. Also, this reduced health insurance rate does not apply to “Neue Selbstständige”.

Question 29

What is the SVS minimum contribution?

Accepted Answer

Even with little or no profit, there is generally a minimum contribution for health and pension insurance unless you qualify for an exemption.

An exemption is usually only possible if your annual profit is below roughly € 6.600 and you already have another form of insurance coverage available, meaning you do not actually need full SVS insurance.

Question 30

How to avoid SVS back payments?

Accepted Answer

At PSTax we have a very strong focus on SVS: We monitor your current revenue and expenses to forecast your expected SVS liability.

At the end of the year we contact all our clients to make sure they are aware of their actual SVS liability and often it will make sense to do a voluntary prepayment to the SVS.

This helps avoid unpleasant surprises and large back-payments several years later plus it serves as a very important tax deduction. If you prepay for example an extra € 5.000 to the SVS you might be saving € 2.000 on next years tax bill (depending on you income).

Question 31

Can I opt out of SVS?

Accepted Answer

If your revenue and profit are below certain thresholds, you can apply for an exemption from health and pension insurance and remain covered only by accident insurance - but other requirements have to be met as well!

Question 32

What is the small business threshold?

Accepted Answer

If your annual revenue is below € 55.000, you are considered a "Kleinunternehmer" and don't have to charge VAT, but you also can't deduct input VAT on your own purchases. The € 55.000 threshold applies to your Austrian revenue. International B2B revenue does not count against this threshold!

Question 33

Do I need a VAT ID number (UID number)?

Accepted Answer

There are generally only three situations in which you need a VAT ID number (“UID number”) in Austria:

1. Your Austrian revenue exceeds € 55.000 per year, meaning you are required to charge VAT to your clients.

2. You do business with other EU businesses. In this case, you usually need a VAT ID number and must report this revenue quarterly via the EU recapitulative statement (“Zusammenfassende Meldung”).

3. You voluntarily opt into the VAT system because you want to benefit from input VAT deduction (“Vorsteuerabzug”).

Question 34

How do I get a VAT ID (UID) number?

Accepted Answer

You apply for a VAT Number (UID) at the tax office. It is essential if you work with B2B clients in other EU countries. PSTax takes care of this for you in all packages at no extra charge!

Question 35

Is there a difference between having a VAT ID and being “in VAT”?

Accepted Answer

Having a VAT ID does not automatically mean you are fully into VAT. If your Austrian revenue is below € 55.000 you are still considered a small entrepreneur, and are not entitled to input VAT deduction (Vorsteuerabzug). This would require you to opt into the VAT system.

Question 36

Opting into the VAT system

Accepted Answer

Having a VAT ID number does not automatically mean that you are fully part of the VAT system.

If your Austrian revenue is below € 55.000 per year, you are generally still considered a small entrepreneur (“Kleinunternehmer”) and are therefore not entitled to input VAT deduction (“Vorsteuerabzug”). To reclaim VAT from the tax office, you would need to voluntarily opt into the VAT system.

Opting into VAT can make sense if you mainly work with B2B clients and have a significant amount of input VAT that you can deduct (meaning VAT that you can reclaim from the tax office).

However, we usually do not recommend opting into VAT unless you expect at least around € 500 of deductible input VAT per year. This is because opting into VAT creates additional administrative work:

- Quarterly VAT filings
- Quarterly bookkeeping reporting
- An annual VAT return
- More ongoing compliance and administration

For many beginners, this additional overhead is simply not worth it.

It is also important to understand that voluntarily opting into the VAT system generally binds you for five years — even if you later change industries or business models.

For example, if you later decide to open a bakery and sell to private consumers, you would still need to charge VAT during this period.

Question 37

What is Reverse Charge?

Accepted Answer

Reverse Charge means the B2B client in another EU country pays the VAT in their own country. It simplifies cross-border billing for self-employed professionals. You need to put the note "This invoice is subject to Reverse Charge" on your invoices in that case.

Question 38

When do I need to file VAT returns?

Accepted Answer

Depending on your previous year's revenue, VAT returns (UVA) are filed either quarterly (standard) or monthly (if last years revenue is greater than € 55.000) via FinanzOnline.

Question 39

Is VAT filing included in PSTax packages?

Accepted Answer

We generally do not include quarterly VAT filings (“UVA” reports) in our standard packages, as many clients prefer to handle the reporting themselves.

Therefore, VAT reporting is offered as a separate service for € 50 per quarterly filing.

Depending on your previous year’s revenue, VAT returns are filed either quarterly (standard case) or monthly if your previous year’s revenue exceeded € 100.000.

Question 40

What must a valid invoice contain?

Accepted Answer

An invoice must include your details, client details, a unique invoice number (pro tip: include the year in the invoice number: e.g. "2026-001"), date, description of services, the net amount, VAT rate/amount, and your UID number (if you have one).

Question 41

How long must I keep records?

Accepted Answer

In Austria, you must keep all business-related records, receipts, and invoices for at least 7 years. Digital storage is legal and preferred.

Question 42

Do I need special software?

Accepted Answer

No. While cloud tools are helpful, we provide custom Excel/Google Sheets templates specifically designed for the needs of solo service businesses in Austria. You simply add 1 line per income/expense and choose a category. If you need help you just tag us in a comment and we get an email and can assist you.

Question 43

Do I need to send invoices and receipts to PSTax?

Accepted Answer

If you decide to deduct your actual business expenses, you should keep all invoices and receipts available in case the tax office requests them.

When working with PSTax, you generally do not need to proactively send us every receipt. We will request documents if something is unclear, and we expect you to have the receipts ready in case of a tax office review or audit — although in practice, it does not happen to often.

Question 44

Are digital receipts allowed?

Accepted Answer

Yes! The tax office accepts digital versions of receipts as long as they are authentic, unchanged, and readable throughout the 7-year retention period.

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