13th and 14th pension
Definition
With the pension in April and in October comes one special payment each, the 13th and 14th pension (§ 105 ASVG). It equals that month's pension, including any Ausgleichszulage, and is paid with it; since pensions are paid in arrears on the first of the following month (§ 104 (2) ASVG), it arrives in early May or early November. Since 2011 the first special payment after retirement is smaller: for each month without a pension in the six months up to April or October, one sixth is dropped (§ 105 (3a) ASVG). Health insurance is deducted from both as from the monthly pension; wage tax, however, is reduced, because they count as other payments within the annual sixth (§ 67 (1) EStG): €620 stays tax-free, the rest after health insurance is taxed at 6 %, and if both together do not exceed €2,615 gross, no wage tax is due at all.
Example 2026: the median pension
An ASVG pension of €2,199.00 gross a month (middle pension 2026, forecast), single, no children. The 13th pension comes with the April pension, the 14th with the October pension. Computed as in the pension calculator.
Civil-service pension: four special payments
A federal civil servant's Ruhebezug has no 13th and 14th pension but four special payments of 50 % each on 1 March, 1 June, 1 September and 1 December (§ 28 Pensionsgesetz 1965). Over the year this gives the same total. Health insurance under the B-KUVG and the Pensionssicherungsbeitrag are deducted from them.
Sources: § 105 und § 73 ASVG, § 28 Pensionsgesetz 1965, § 67 Abs 1 EStG 1988 (RIS); Statistik Austria, Jahreseinkommen der Pensionist:innen, für die mittlere Pension.