Net holiday pay and Christmas pay in Austria
The calculator walks through your year month by month and shows how much of each extra salary actually reaches your account.
On a gross salary of €3,000 a month, the June holiday pay (Urlaubszuschuss) leaves you €2,375.83 net in 2026 and the November Christmas pay (Weihnachtsremuneration) €2,338.63. These two special payments (Sonderzahlungen), often called the 13th and 14th salary, are taxed far more lightly than regular pay. The gap between them comes from a yearly tax-free amount of €620 that the first special payment of the year uses up; after that, each euro is taxed at 6 % once health, pension and unemployment insurance have been deducted. The chamber levy and housing levy do not apply. That simple picture only holds if your salary stays the same all year. Join in September, leave before Christmas, receive a December bonus or a raise in autumn, and the split between the flat rate and the normal scale shifts. A €2,000 bonus in December on top of two full special payments, for instance, leaves only €1,089.69. The calculator models each month separately and runs the year-end control calculation under section 77(4a) of the Income Tax Act.
Special payments net for the year
€4,714
from €6,000 gross · annual sixth €6,000
| Special payments gross | €6,000.00 |
|---|---|
| Social insurance (no AK, no WF) | − €1,024.20 |
| Fixed rates (€620 free, then 6 %) | − €261.34 |
| Scale tax on the part above the sixth | − €0.00 |
| Net | €4,714.46 |
| Total annual net | €30,740 |
The sixth is one sixth of the regular pay received up to the payment month, extrapolated to a year. Anything above it is taxed on the scale like a monthly salary.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Calculation method
What you enter
The calculator asks for your monthly gross salary, any raise and the month it starts, the months you joined and left, the amount and month of holiday pay and Christmas pay, a bonus and regular overtime. It then builds twelve monthly payslips. For each special payment you see how much fits within the annual sixth (Jahressechstel), what lies above it, which social insurance applies (without the chamber and housing levies) and the tax. You type in the amounts yourself, because their size and any pro-rata share come from your collective agreement, not from tax law.
A normal year as the baseline
| Payment | Gross | Social insurance | Wage tax | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Holiday pay, June | €3,000 | €512.10 | €112.07 | €2,375.83 |
| Christmas pay, November | €3,000 | €512.10 | €149.27 | €2,338.63 |
Both payments sit entirely within the sixth and follow the fixed rates of section 67(1) of the Income Tax Act: €620 free, then 6.0 %. The annual sixth page explains how the ceiling itself is built; this page is about the years that do not run smoothly.
Joining in the autumn
If you start on 1 September, by November you have received three salaries. The sixth is still scaled up to a full year and stands at €6,000, so the Christmas pay fits. The reckoning comes in December: the control sixth only counts the four salaries actually paid, €2,000.
| Christmas pay | Gross | Net in November | Extra tax in December |
|---|---|---|---|
| pro rata | €1,000 | €844.47 | €0.00 |
| full | €3,000 | €2,375.83 | €222.84 |
A generous full Christmas pay after a short employment is therefore worth less than the November payslip suggests. Joining is not one of the exceptions in section 77(4a); leaving is.
Leaving before Christmas
When you leave at the end of September, the pro-rata Christmas pay comes with the final payslip, €2,250 in the example. It fits into the scaled-up September sixth and costs €114.59 of wage tax. The control sixth based on nine salaries would be smaller, but because the employment ends the law waives the €154.48 of extra tax. If you rejoin the same employer or group in the same year, the exception falls away. The severance calculator covers the rest of a final settlement.
A bonus in December
A performance or year-end bonus on top of two full special payments no longer fits into the sixth. The €2,000 are taxed in December on the normal scale, costing €627.91 of wage tax, around 36.6 % of the amount after social insurance. The 2026 employee bonus works differently: up to €500 paid between July and December under a collective or works agreement is tax-free and does not use up the sixth (section 124b). If your employer can choose how to pay you, that route is worth asking about.
Raises and overtime
A raise in autumn makes the sixth lag behind, so Christmas pay at the new salary may not fit entirely, and the December control calculation returns most of the extra tax. Regular overtime works the other way: it enlarges the sixth and leaves room for a bonus. Enter both in the calculator. The pay rise page shows the effect of a raise over the whole year, and the guide to the 13th and 14th salary explains what your contract should say.