Business travel generates real costs, and Austria provides a well-defined system for reimbursing or deducting them. Whether you're an employee claiming unreimbursed travel on your tax return, a self-employed person calculating deductible business costs, or an employer setting reimbursement policy, the same official rates apply. The good news: the rates increased significantly in 2025 and remain in force for 2026.
The Mileage Rate: €0.50 per Kilometre
From 2025, the official car mileage rate (Kilometergeld) is €0.50 per kilometre, up from the previous €0.42/km. This rate applies when you use your own private vehicle for business travel.
The annual cap is 30,000 km, meaning the maximum deductible mileage cost per year is €15,000 (30,000 × €0.50). Beyond that, no further mileage deduction is available, though you can still claim actual documented costs for excess kilometres if you keep receipts.
What Does €0.50/km Actually Cover?
The lump-sum rate is designed to cover everything: fuel, wear and tear, insurance, and depreciation. You don't need to separate out individual cost categories. Keep a logbook or trip records and the rate does the rest.
A Worked Example: Sales Representative
Anna drives her own car for her job visiting clients around Vienna and Lower Austria. In a typical year she logs 22,000 business kilometres.
Mileage deduction: 22,000 km × €0.50 = €11,000
If Anna's employer doesn't reimburse her mileage at all, she claims this as a Werbungskosten (work expense) deduction on her annual tax return. At a 35% marginal rate, she saves roughly €3,850 in income tax — a substantial return for keeping a logbook.
If her employer reimburses at €0.30/km, she receives €6,600 from her employer (tax-free up to the official rate) and can claim the remaining €0.20/km difference (€4,400) as an unreimbursed expense.
Bicycle Mileage: Also €0.50/km
Austria now applies the same €0.50/km rate to bicycle trips used for business purposes. The cap is 3,000 km per year (increased from 1,500 km in 2025), giving a maximum annual deduction of €1,500.
This applies to journeys made on a personal bicycle or e-bike for business purposes — visiting a client, travelling to a meeting site, or similar. Cycling to and from your regular workplace doesn't count here (that's covered by the Pendlerpauschale or commuting rules). The bicycle mileage rate covers travel away from the normal workplace.
Per-Diem Rates: Domestic Austria
When a business trip keeps you away from your regular workplace for a significant part of the day, you're entitled to a per-diem subsistence allowance (Tagegeld). For trips within Austria:
| Duration | Per-diem (from 2025) |
|---|---|
| 3 to 12 hours away | €15.00 |
| 12 hours or more away | €30.00 |
| Under 3 hours | No per-diem |
The previous rates (€13.20 and €26.40) applied until the 2025 update. For 2026 returns, use the current figures.
The 25km Rule
A business trip generally must take you at least 25 km from your regular workplace or home to qualify for the per-diem. A trip to a supplier in the next district clearly qualifies; a meeting at a client whose office is 8 km away almost certainly does not. The intent is to compensate for genuine displacement, not for ordinary local business movement.
Practical Example: Consultant on Assignment
Stefan is an IT consultant based in Graz. He travels to Vienna for client meetings twice a month. Each trip involves departing at 8:00, arriving at 10:00, working, and returning home by 21:00. Total time away from home: 13 hours.
Each trip earns a €30 per-diem (over 12 hours). That's €60/month, or €720/year in deductible per-diems, assuming he takes two days per month for 12 months. His employer reimburses him €30 per trip tax-free; since the reimbursement equals the official rate, there's nothing extra to claim on his return. If his employer paid nothing, the full €720 would be a deductible Werbungskosten.
Overnight Allowance
If a business trip requires staying overnight, you can claim an overnight lump sum of €15 per night — or actual documented costs if higher. Receipts from hotels and similar accommodation are fully deductible at actual cost with no upper cap, as long as the travel is genuinely business-related and reasonable.
Foreign Travel: Country-Specific Rates
When business takes you abroad, per-diems are higher — and country-specific. The Austrian Finance Ministry (BMF) publishes an annual table with rates for each country. A few examples of full-day rates:
- Germany: €35.80
- Switzerland: €52.30
- USA: €58.80
- UK: €49.40
These rates reflect the higher cost of living in those destinations. As with domestic per-diems, they're either reimbursed tax-free by employers up to the BMF rate, or deducted by self-employed persons and employees with unreimbursed travel.
What Records Do You Need?
For employees claiming unreimbursed travel on their tax return, and for the self-employed:
- For mileage: A contemporaneous logbook showing date, starting point, destination, purpose, and kilometres. A spreadsheet works; so does a mileage app. The key is that it was recorded at the time, not reconstructed from memory.
- For per-diems: The logbook entries themselves establish entitlement if they show departure/return times. No additional receipts are required for the lump-sum amount.
- For actual accommodation costs: Keep receipts (Hotelrechnung) showing your name, dates, and the hotel's UID number.
- For actual meal costs: Receipts are only necessary if you're claiming amounts above the lump-sum per-diem, which is uncommon for employees.
Employees vs. Self-Employed
Employees claim unreimbursed travel as Werbungskosten on Form L 1 (Arbeitnehmerveranlagung). Employer reimbursements up to the official rates are tax-free and don't appear on the Lohnzettel.
Self-employed persons (Einzelunternehmer, freelancers) deduct all qualifying travel as Betriebsausgaben (business expenses) on Form E 1. The same rates apply, but the deduction comes off business profit rather than employment income.
A note for the self-employed: You cannot claim both a vehicle depreciation deduction and the flat mileage rate for the same vehicle. Choose one method for the year and apply it consistently.
Use our income tax calculator to see how Werbungskosten from business travel — mileage, per-diems, and overnight costs — reduce your annual tax bill.