If your company is about to order a new fleet vehicle, or you're choosing a company car for yourself, the emissions bar to qualify for the lower tax rate just moved again.
What Changed
| Year of first registration | CO2 threshold for 1.5% Sachbezug rate |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 129 g/km |
| 2025 | 126 g/km |
This is a continuation of a multi-year trend: Austria lowers the qualifying CO2 threshold for the preferential company car benefit-in-kind rate every year, pushing the market toward lower-emission vehicles. A car that would have qualified for the cheaper rate in 2024 might not qualify if it's newly registered in 2025 with the same emissions figure.
How the Sachbezug Actually Works
If your employer provides a car you can also use privately, Austrian tax law treats a portion of the car's value as part of your taxable salary — the Sachbezug (benefit-in-kind). The rate applied depends on the car's CO2 emissions and its first registration year:
- At or below the threshold: 1.5% of the vehicle's list price per month is added to your taxable income (capped at €960/month).
- Above the threshold: 2% of the list price per month is added instead (capped at €1,280/month).
- Zero-emission vehicles (fully electric): 0% — no benefit-in-kind at all for private use.
A Worked Example
Say your employer registers a new company car in 2025 with a list price of €40,000 and CO2 emissions of 128 g/km.
- Under the 2024 threshold (129 g/km): this car would have qualified for the 1.5% rate → €600/month added to taxable income.
- Under the 2025 threshold (126 g/km): this same car now falls above the threshold → 2% rate applies → €800/month added to taxable income instead.
That's an extra €200 a month in taxable benefit-in-kind, purely because the qualifying threshold moved, not because the car itself changed.
What This Means When Choosing a Company Car
If you or your employer are selecting a new vehicle, check the CO2 figure against the current year's threshold, not last year's. A model that comfortably cleared the bar in 2024 might now sit just above it. This is particularly relevant for combustion and hybrid vehicles in the 120–135 g/km range, where a small emissions difference can now mean a meaningfully different monthly tax cost.
Fully electric vehicles remain the only category unaffected by this annual tightening — they stay at 0% regardless of how the combustion-engine thresholds move.
For the full picture of how company car taxation works, including the caps and how it interacts with your payslip, see our guide: Company Car Tax in Austria (Sachbezug).