Arbeitnehmerveranlagung

Definition

In the Arbeitnehmerveranlagung (employee tax assessment) the tax office recalculates a whole year's wage tax after the year ends (§ 41 EStG). Each month the employer withholds wage tax for its own pay only. The assessment counts the whole income of the year, with everything the payslip does not know: work expenses, special expenses, extraordinary burdens, a second income. The result is a refund or a back payment.

Three kinds

• On application (Antragsveranlagung, § 41 (2)): voluntary, when there is no obligation. You can file it for five years, for 2025 until the end of 2030. It almost always pays, e.g. with the Pendlerpauschale, donations, church contributions, a job for part of the year only or the Negativsteuer.
• Automatic (antragslose Veranlagung, § 41 (2a)): if you have not filed by the end of June, have only wage-taxed income and a refund of at least €5 results, the tax office assesses you by itself. A return of your own within the five years replaces that notice.
• Mandatory (Pflichtveranlagung, § 41 (1)): you must file a return, among other cases when you
  • had two or more incomes at the same time taxed separately, e.g. two jobs, or a job and a pension (no. 2),
  • had other income above €730 a year, e.g. from self-employment or letting (no. 1),
  • used a Freibetragsbescheid in payroll (no. 8),
  • your employer applied the Pendlerpauschale, Familienbonus Plus or the single-earner or single-parent credit although they did not apply (no. 12).

Why two incomes often mean a back payment

Each employer and each pension payer withholds wage tax as if its pay were your only income. So each one uses the tax-free band and the low brackets of the tariff on its own. The assessment adds them up, and the part beyond each single income falls into higher brackets. The tax office asks for the difference with the notice. Knowing this, you can put it aside over the year.

Deadlines

• Mandatory assessment: the 2025 return by 30 April 2026 on paper, by 30 June 2026 via FinanzOnline (§ 134 BAO). A deadline on a weekend moves to the next working day.
• On application: five years from the end of the year.
• Interest: a back payment bears interest from 1 October of the following year (§ 205 BAO). A payment on account before then avoids it.
• Prepayments: after a mandatory assessment for two incomes or other income, the tax office can set prepayments, a quarter each on 15 February, 15 May, 15 August and 15 November (§ 45 EStG). Up to €300 a year there are none.

See also

• Wage tax (Lohnsteuer), what the employer withholds every month.
• Negativsteuer, only comes through the Arbeitnehmerveranlagung.
• Income tax tariff, the brackets all incomes are taxed by together.