If your payslip usually shows a chunk of overtime pay coming through tax-free, take a closer look at your September payslip — the rules changed, and most people haven't noticed yet.
What Changed
| Through 2025 | From 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Tax-exempt overtime hours per month | 18 hours | 10 hours |
| Maximum tax-free amount per month | €200 | €120 |
| What's exempt | 50% overtime supplement only | 50% overtime supplement only (unchanged) |
The mechanism itself hasn't changed: it's still only the overtime supplement (Überstundenzuschlag) — typically 50% of your base hourly rate — that gets preferential tax treatment, not the underlying base pay for those hours. What changed is how much of that supplement qualifies.
A Worked Example
Say your base hourly rate is €20 and your overtime supplement is 50% (€10/hour).
- Under the 2025 rules: 18 hours × €10 = €180 in supplements, all under the €200 cap → fully tax-exempt.
- Under the 2026 rules: the exemption stops counting after 10 hours. 10 hours × €10 = €100, still under the €120 cap → tax-exempt. But hours 11–18 (€80 worth of supplement) are now fully taxable, where they weren't before.
For someone regularly doing 15–20 hours of overtime a month, this can mean an extra €200–400 a year in income tax and social security combined, simply because more of the same supplement now falls outside the exemption window.
Who Feels This Most
- Shift workers in healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, and hospitality who routinely clock more than 10 overtime hours a month.
- Anyone whose base pay is on the lower end — the euro impact of losing the exemption is proportionally larger relative to take-home pay.
- Payroll teams and HR departments — if your company's payroll software or Kollektivvertrag calculation template still references "18 hours" or "€200," it needs updating for pay periods from January 2026 onward.
What to Check on Your Payslip
Ask your payroll department to confirm the exemption is being applied using the new 10-hour / €120 limits, not the old figures. If your employer is still using the 2025 parameters, you could be either under-taxed now (creating a surprise bill at annual assessment) or, more commonly, simply not benefiting from a correction you're owed.
For the full mechanics of overtime, night work, and hazard-pay exemptions — including how they stack — see our complete guide: Overtime and Night Work Tax Exemptions in Austria.
Use our income tax calculator to see how the new overtime limits affect your specific take-home pay.