What Does It Cost to Start a Business in Austria?

Complete Cost Breakdown

What Is Really Free

• Registration itself: No government fees whatsoever (§339 GewO)
• Qualification exams: Master exam and qualification exam fees have been covered by the federal government since July 2023
• GISA registration: Online registration via the GISA portal is free
• Room hire at the exam: Facility costs are no longer charged to candidates either, on a first or second attempt

If You Paid an Exam Fee in 2023, You Can Claim It Back

This is the part most cost overviews leave out, and it is real money. The legal basis for the fee exemption applies from 1 January 2024, retroactively to 1 July 2023. Anyone who sat an exam in that gap paid a fee they turned out not to owe.

The exemption applies uniformly to the Meisterprüfung (master exam for the skilled crafts), the Befähigungsprüfung (qualification exam for all other regulated trades) and the Unternehmerprüfung (entrepreneur exam) — there is no separate start date for the master exam. It applies to the first and second attempt; from the third attempt the fee applies again. Legal basis: BGBl. I Nr. 152/2023.

What Costs Money (But Is Not Part of Registration)

• Exam preparation courses (WIFI): €500–2,500 depending on trade and duration. Not mandatory but highly recommended.
• Social insurance (SVS): Mandatory for all self-employed, and it starts immediately whether or not you earned anything. The minimum is €482.43 per quarter — €1,929.72 a year (WKO contribution table 2026). Above the minimum basis it is income-dependent, and the first three years are billed provisionally and reassessed later, so plan for a back-payment. Set aside roughly 30 percent of your profit for the SVS alone, with income tax on top: the SVS adds the health- and pension-insurance contributions charged to you during the year back onto your profit (§ 25 Abs 2 Z 2 GSVG), because your tax assessment already deducted them as a business expense — so the contribution basis always exceeds the profit, and the real burden lands around 28 to 31 percent rather than the nominal rate of 26.83 percent.
• The deadline almost nobody knows — 31 March: the back-payment can be spread over twelve instalments instead of four, but only on application, only for the reassessment of your first three insured years, and only until 31 March of the year following the assessment (§35 Abs 3 GSVG). And the catch when you stop: if the compulsory insurance ends — because you hand back the licence, for instance — the deferred contributions fall due at the end of the month following that ending. The instalment relief is gone.
• WKO membership: Mandatory chamber of commerce membership. €100–500/year depending on trade group.
• Business premises approval: Required for workshops, restaurants, etc. Costs vary by municipality.
• Insurance: Liability insurance is optional but strongly recommended. €200–1,000/year.

Fixed Costs in Year One (2026)

Realistic Startup Budget