When your job takes you to a city far from your family home, maintaining two households is genuinely expensive. Austria's doppelte Haushaltsführung (double household) deduction acknowledges this reality by allowing employees and self-employed persons to deduct the rent and running costs of their work-location accommodation — up to €2,200 per month — as a work-related expense. For employees relocated to Vienna or other expensive cities, this is one of the most substantial deductions available.
Who Qualifies?
To claim the double household deduction, two conditions must both be met:
1. Your primary residence is far from your workplace.
"Far" is defined as either:
- More than 120 km from your workplace, or
- A commute that takes more than 2.5 hours each way
If you live in Graz and your new job is in Vienna (about 200 km), you clearly qualify on the distance criterion. If you live in a rural area that's geographically closer but requires 3 hours of travel due to infrastructure, you qualify on the time criterion.
2. You maintain a genuine primary residence elsewhere.
You must have a primary home at your primary residence location — not just be registered there. In practice, this means your family (partner, children) continues to live there, or you maintain your furniture, belongings, and real connection to the location. It can't be a nominal registration to meet a formal requirement while actually living entirely at the work location.
What You Can Deduct
Rent at Work Location: Up to €2,200/Month
The primary deduction is actual rent paid for accommodation near your workplace, up to €2,200 per month (€26,400/year). This cap reflects the reality of renting in Vienna and other Austrian cities — a modest one-bedroom apartment in Vienna typically runs €1,200–1,800/month, so the cap is generous enough to cover most realistic scenarios.
If you rent a room in a shared flat for €800/month, you deduct €800. If you rent a two-bedroom apartment for €2,400/month, you're limited to €2,200. The excess €200 isn't deductible.
Utilities are generally deductible separately to the extent they're necessary costs not included in the rent, though this varies by contract structure.
Home Travel Costs
You're also entitled to deduct the costs of travelling back to your primary residence periodically — effectively a small Pendlerpauschale equivalent for the home trip. The logic is that you're not truly commuting from a local residence but rather making periodic trips home that are necessitated by the work arrangement.
The applicable allowance mirrors the commuter allowance structure for the distance between your work location and your primary home, at the small (kleine) Pendlerpauschale rate. For a Vienna–Graz route (roughly 200 km), this is approximately €306/month assuming one trip home per week.
The 2-Year Limit
Here is the critical limitation: the double household deduction applies for a maximum of 2 years in the same location.
The rationale is that after 2 years, the tax authorities consider that a reasonable person would have either relocated their family to the work location, negotiated a different arrangement, or accepted that the dual household is a personal lifestyle choice rather than a work necessity.
Exceptions to the 2-Year Rule
The clock can effectively reset or the deduction can continue beyond 2 years if circumstances change in a way that keeps the dual household genuinely work-necessitated rather than chosen. Recognised exceptions include:
- Partner's job: Your spouse/partner has a job in the original city that they cannot or reasonably should not give up
- Children's schooling: Your children are enrolled in school in the original city and moving them would cause significant disruption
- Partner owns property in the original location that cannot easily be sold or rented out
- Job ends and new assignment starts: If you change employer or are assigned to a new location, a fresh 2-year period begins
These exceptions must be documented and the justification must be credible. Simply preferring to live in your home city is not sufficient.
Typical Users of This Deduction
Vienna relocation: Austria's economic gravity means a large proportion of high-skilled jobs are in Vienna. An engineer from Innsbruck accepting a 3-year project in Vienna faces exactly this situation — family stays in Innsbruck, they rent an apartment in Vienna, the dual household cost is real and significant.
Cross-city project workers: IT consultants, construction managers, and similar professionals who are placed on multi-year assignments in a city different from their permanent home.
Public sector employees: Civil servants assigned to a central government ministry in Vienna from regional postings frequently use this deduction.
New hires from regional cities: A company hiring a specialist from Linz who can't immediately relocate the family; the employee rents in Vienna temporarily while the family completes the school year.
A Detailed Example
Robert lives with his wife and two children in Salzburg. In January 2025, he accepts a position at a Vienna-based company. The family stays in Salzburg (his wife works there as a teacher; the children are in school). Robert rents a one-bedroom apartment in the 17th district for €1,350/month.
Deductions for 2025:
- Rent: €1,350/month × 12 months = €16,200 (well under the €26,400/year cap)
- Home travel (kleine Pendlerpauschale equivalent, Vienna–Salzburg ~300 km): approximately €2,016/year
- Total deduction: ~€18,216
At Robert's marginal rate of 42%, this saves approximately €7,651 in income tax in 2025.
For 2026 (year two), the same deductions apply. In 2027 (year three), Robert needs to demonstrate a continuing exception — his wife's teaching position in Salzburg is a strong justification for extending beyond 2 years, and the Finanzamt would typically accept this.
How to Claim
The double household deduction is claimed as Werbungskosten on your annual tax return (Arbeitnehmerveranlagung for employees, Einkommensteuererklärung for self-employed). It cannot be applied monthly via employer payroll — you claim the full year's deduction when filing.
Keep the following documentation:
- Rental contract for the work-location apartment, showing rent amount and duration
- Rental receipts or bank transfer records showing actual monthly payments
- Evidence of primary residence (registration certificate, utility bills at home address)
- Documentation of the "far" criterion — employment contract showing workplace address, map distance calculation
- If extending beyond 2 years: evidence of the circumstances requiring continuation (partner's employment contract, school enrolment records)
The Finanzamt may request all of these; having them organised before filing speeds up any potential review.
What If Your Employer Pays?
If your employer reimburses your rent or provides accommodation at the work location, this is generally treated as a taxable Sachbezug on your gross income — unless structured specifically as a tax-free expense reimbursement. For employer-paid housing, the tax treatment depends on how the arrangement is documented. If you pay rent yourself and claim it as Werbungskosten, the deduction path is cleanest.
Use our income tax calculator to model how adding €16,000–26,000 in annual Werbungskosten from double household expenses affects your net tax liability and expected refund.