Get your finances right before you land in Austria.
The decisions that cost expats the most are made before arrival: which broker you keep, when residency starts, what you sell in your old country. A few weeks of planning is worth more than years of repair.
Before the Move
Tax residency
- Establish the exact date your Austrian tax residency begins — registration of a home usually triggers it.
- Check the double tax treaty between Austria and your departure country for the tie-breaker rules.
- Consider realising gains or restructuring holdings before residency starts, where legal and sensible.
- Ask your current employer how relocation packages, bonuses and equity vest across the move.
Investments and accounts
- Check whether your broker reports Austrian tax data — non-reporting funds are taxed punitively here.
- Verify that your provider accepts Austrian-resident clients at all; several US brokers do not.
- Document cost basis for every holding before you transfer or move anything.
- Plan currency exposure if your income switches to euro.
Pensions and protection
- Request statements for every pension entitlement you hold, in every country.
- Do not transfer a UK, Swiss or US scheme in a hurry — a move is exactly the wrong moment to decide.
- Check which insurance policies remain valid once you are resident abroad.
- Review health cover for the gap between arrival and Austrian social insurance starting.
The expensive mistakes.
Keeping a non-reporting fund portfolio
Funds that do not report to Oesterreichische Kontrollbank are taxed on a lump-sum basis of at least 90% of the annual value increase. Restructuring afterwards can be far more expensive than doing it before arrival.
Moving in the middle of a tax year without planning
Split-year treatment, exit taxes in your old country and the start of Austrian worldwide taxation can overlap. The arrival date is a lever, not a fixed fact.
Transferring a pension because someone suggested it
Once transferred, most decisions cannot be reversed. Pension transfers should follow a settled plan, not a relocation deadline.
Free calculators built on current Austrian rules.
Questions we get asked.
Where are you in the journey?
Fifteen minutes with a senior advisor. We will tell you honestly whether we can help.