The short version. The Austrian exit tax Dubai movers face treats the move as a deemed disposal of their capital assets. The unrealised gain is taxed at 27.5 percent. Because the UAE sits outside the EU and the EEA, no deferral and no instalment plan is available. The tax is assessed and payable at once, unlike Germany's seven year instalment route.
Current as of 14 August 2026. Legal position: Budgetmassnahmengesetz 2026, in force since 1 July 2026.
Two deadlines, and probably only one of them is yours
Since 1 July 2026 Austria has two dates that matter to people who have left. One is a one off deadline falling on 31 December 2026. The other repeats every 31 December from now on.
Both attach to one group only, and that limit is what most summaries leave out. Both apply to people who hold a Nichtfestsetzung, a non assessment deferral. The tax office calculated the exit tax but did not assess it, so it sits dormant until the assets are sold. That deferral has only ever been available for a move into an EU or EEA state.
Someone who moved straight from Austria to Dubai never had one, so neither deadline applies to them. Their position is worse in a different way. Their tax was due on the day they left.
This article is general information, not tax advice. Your individual case is decided by a Steuerberater, an Austrian tax adviser, working from your real numbers and shareholdings.
Austrian exit tax Dubai rules: what changed on 1 July 2026
Austria's parliament passed the Budgetmassnahmengesetz 2026, the 2026 budget measures act, on 10 June 2026. The parliamentary press release said the reform would create clear evidence obligations for exit taxation. That is what it did.
The act inserted section 27(6)(1)(f) of the Austrian Income Tax Act (Einkommensteuergesetz, or EStG). It obliges anyone holding a deferral to file an annual notification. The duty attaches to every deferral decided in a notice issued after 30 June 2026.
The threshold is EUR 100,000 of income, not of tax
The duty only bites above a certain size. The measure is the income determined at the moment of departure. If that income exceeds EUR 100,000 in total, the annual duty applies.
Read that carefully, because it is widely misreported. The test runs on the income figure, not on the tax calculated from it. At 27.5 percent the difference is large. EUR 100,000 of income produces roughly EUR 27,500 of tax. Test the threshold against the tax number and you will wrongly conclude you are outside it.
The figure is measured cumulatively per assessment notice, not per asset and not per departure. Every asset, derivative and crypto holding inside the same notice is added together.
What has to be filed, and what happens if it is not
The notification goes in writing or through FinanzOnline, Austria's online tax portal. It reports the holdings as at 31 December of the previous year. A broker statement, a commercial register extract or an equivalent document is accepted as proof. The deadline is 31 December of the following year.
The sanction is severe. If the proof is not filed, the deferred tax is assessed for the year the notification was missed. It becomes payable even though nothing was sold. Austrian law provides no cure here. There is no grace period and no fixing it later.
Moving straight to Dubai: assessed at once, no deferral
For the most common case in our practice, a direct move from Austria to the UAE, the law is short and strict.
The UAE is a third country, outside both the EU and the EEA. That closes off the deferral under section 27(6) EStG and the instalment route under section 6(6) EStG alike. Austrian advisory firm TPA put it plainly in July 2026: on a move to a third country there is no postponement of any kind. The liability goes into the tax return, assessment follows immediately, and payment falls due immediately.
The scope is wide. Austria captures all capital assets, with no participation threshold:
- Listed shares and ETFs in a private account
- Shares in a private limited company, however small the stake
- Derivatives
- Cryptocurrency
The rate on the deemed gain is 27.5 percent capital gains tax. The base is the market value on the day of departure, less the original acquisition cost.
The practical sting is this. No money moves. You sell nothing and receive nothing, yet a payment falls due. The cash has to come from elsewhere. That is what derails otherwise well planned departures.
Austria to the UAE
Which route you take, and which tax bill you get
Both paths end in the same 27.5 percent charge. Only the timing changes.
Assessed and payable now
27.5 percent on the unrealised gain, due in the year you leave. Nothing has been sold, so the cash comes from elsewhere.
Section 27(6) EStG
Same tax, arriving later
27.5 percent assessed after the fact for the original departure year, plus a second move, a second set of filings and the annual notification duty in between.
Section 27(6)(1)(b) EStG via section 295a BAO
General information, not tax advice. Your case is decided by an Austrian tax adviser.
Why routing through Cyprus or Malta does not work
A piece of advice circulates in Austrian forums and on several well ranked pages. Move to Cyprus, Malta or Portugal first, claim the deferral there, then move on to Dubai later. It does not work, and the reason sits in the statute.
Section 27(6)(1)(b) EStG governs the onward move. If the person later leaves the EU or EEA state for a third country, that counts as an event triggering assessment. The tax that went unassessed is then assessed retroactively, for the year of the original departure from Austria. Procedurally this runs through section 295a of the Austrian Federal Fiscal Code (Bundesabgabenordnung, or BAO), the provision for retroactive events. Austria's income tax guidelines set out the sequence at margin numbers 6156 and following.
So the same tax falls due that a direct move to Dubai would have triggered. The detour delayed it rather than avoiding it. Added to that: the cost of a second change of residence, a second set of filing obligations, and, since July 2026, the annual notification duty in the meantime.
If you still want the detour, treat it as a decision about timing, not as a saving.
The 31 December 2026 deadline for legacy cases
If you hold a deferral that is still open from an earlier departure, you have a one off notification due by 31 December 2026. It covers deferral notices issued between 31 December 2005 and 30 June 2026 where the income determined at departure exceeded EUR 100,000.
If you never received a deferral, this deadline is not yours. That covers everyone who moved directly from Austria to the UAE.
The filing runs like this:
- Check whether a deferral notice exists at all. Look in your tax file for the year you left, or ask the adviser who handled it. No notice, no duty.
- Check the income figure in that notice. What counts is the income total, not the tax. Threshold: more than EUR 100,000.
- Evidence the holdings as at 31 December of the previous year. A broker statement or a commercial register extract is enough. The assets have to still be yours.
- File through FinanzOnline or in writing with the competent tax office. Both routes are valid. Deadline: 31 December 2026.
- Keep proof of submission. For the annual filings that follow, that proof is the only thing standing between you and an assessment.
Missing the one off filing is a Finanzordnungswidrigkeit, a fiscal administrative offence, carrying a penalty of up to EUR 5,000. On the current position it does not automatically trigger assessment. The annual duty from 2027 is different: there, assessment is the consequence.
Austria, exit tax notification duty
The deadline clock after 1 July 2026
Two obligations: one that happens once, one that repeats every year.
The Budgetmassnahmengesetz 2026 inserts section 27(6)(1)(f) EStG. It catches every deferral decided in a notice issued after 30 June 2026, where the income determined at departure exceeded EUR 100,000. That threshold is measured on the income, not on the tax.
If you hold a deferral from a notice issued between 31 December 2005 and 30 June 2026 above the EUR 100,000 income threshold, this single filing is yours. It goes through FinanzOnline or in writing, evidenced by a broker statement or a commercial register extract.
Miss it: fiscal administrative offence, up to EUR 5,000From here the notification reports the holdings as they stood on 31 December of the previous year, and it is due by 31 December of the year after that.
Miss it: the whole deferred tax is assessed. No cure mechanism.The duty runs for as long as the deferral stays open. Keep proof of every submission: it is the only defence against an assessment you cannot undo.
General information, not tax advice. Your case is decided by an Austrian tax adviser.
Business assets and private assets run on separate tracks
Private capital assets fall under section 27(6) EStG. The relief is the deferral, available for EU and EEA moves only. This is where the 2026 act added the notification duty.
Business assets fall under section 6(6) EStG. The relief there is instalments: five years for fixed assets, two years for current assets. Again EU and EEA only. That split dates from Austria's 2015 tax amendment act and the 2026 package left it untouched.
For a move to Dubai the distinction changes nothing. Neither category gets relief. Both are assessed and payable immediately.
Austria and Germany side by side
Most German language writing on exit tax is written for German readers. Austrians find it through search and apply rules that do not govern them. That is the most expensive avoidable mistake in this topic.
The Austria vs Germany exit tax comparison cuts in both directions. Austria is harsher on scope and on payment. Germany is harsher on treaty protection, on trailing tax liability, and on keeping a home behind. Our analysis of Germany's exit tax under section 6 AStG covers the German side in full.
| Criterion | Austria | Germany |
|---|---|---|
| Legal basis | Section 27(6) EStG (private assets), section 6(6) EStG (business assets) | Section 6 AStG, plus section 19(3) InvStG since 2025 |
| Assets captured | All capital assets: shares, ETFs, private company stakes, derivatives, crypto | Stakes of 1 percent or more; fund units from 1 percent or EUR 500,000 acquisition cost |
| Participation threshold | None | 1 percent |
| Rate on the deemed gain | 27.5 percent capital gains tax | Partial income method on the disposal gain |
| Prior residence as a trigger | No holding period test | 7 of the last 12 years subject to unlimited liability |
| Deferral on a move to Dubai | None. Assessed and payable at once | Seven interest free annual instalments on application, against security |
| Deferral on a move within the EU or EEA | Non assessment on application (private assets) | Also seven instalments; open ended deferral removed by the 2022 ATAD act |
| Annual notification duty | Yes, new since 1 July 2026 above EUR 100,000 of income | Yes, notification duty under section 6 AStG |
| Tax treaty with the UAE | In force: BGBl III No 88/2004, protocol BGBl III No 211/2022 | Lapsed on 31 December 2021, no successor |
| Extended limited tax liability | No equivalent | Section 2 AStG, up to 10 years |
| Keeping a home in the old country | Second home rule: up to 70 days a year is harmless after 5 years | Any available dwelling creates unlimited tax liability |
For the third DACH variant, our piece on how Swiss movers are taxed differently covers the Swiss starting position.
Austria still has a UAE tax treaty. Germany does not.
The Austria UAE double taxation treaty is the biggest advantage of the Austrian starting position, and no page currently ranking on the topic explains it cleanly.
Austria and the UAE have a double taxation treaty, BGBl III No 88/2004, applicable since 1 January 2005. It was revised in 2021, not terminated. The protocol was signed in Dubai on 1 July 2021, ratification instruments were exchanged on 20 December 2022, and it entered into force on 1 March 2023, applying from 1 January 2023. It switched the relief method in Article 24(2) from exemption to the credit method. The treaty is demonstrably alive in 2026: a consultation agreement under it was signed in Dubai on 10 April 2026 and in Vienna on 9 June 2026.
One limit that must not be skipped. The credit method switch reaches only people who remain subject to unlimited Austrian tax liability, meaning they keep a home or their centre of vital interests in Austria while drawing UAE income. Someone who gives up the Austrian home, moves their centre of vital interests to Dubai and lives there is unaffected by the change and is taxed in the UAE. So it is wrong to say Austria now taxes your Dubai income. That is true for the half relocated reader and false for the fully relocated one.
Germany sits differently. Its 1 July 2010 treaty with the UAE ended on 31 December 2021, after Germany notified the UAE on 14 June 2021 that it would not extend. No successor has been signed. We cover what the lapsed German treaty means in practice separately.
In practice: an Austrian in Dubai has a rulebook to point at on residence, withholding tax and mutual agreement procedures. A German has had none since the end of 2021.
The 70 day second home rule Germans do not get
Under Austria's second home regulation (Zweitwohnsitzverordnung, BGBl II No 528/2003), an Austrian dwelling does not create unlimited tax liability in a calendar year if it is used on 70 days or fewer. Two conditions attach. The centre of vital interests must have been abroad for more than five calendar years. And a written log of the days of use has to be kept.
The log is not a formality. Austrian case law treats its absence as a defect in its own right: with no records, unlimited liability revives, even if the 70 days were genuinely respected. Start it on day one, with the date, the reason and the length of each stay.
Germany has no counterpart. There, any dwelling available to you creates unlimited tax liability, with no day count. So an Austrian can keep the flat in Vienna on clear conditions. A German trying the same in Munich loses the departure.
Checklist before you leave
- Have the exit value of your capital assets calculated before the move date. Shares, ETFs, company stakes, derivatives and crypto all belong in it.
- Sort out the cash for the tax. On a move to the UAE it is payable at once, with no sale behind it.
- Check whether business assets are involved. Section 6(6) EStG runs separately and values differently.
- Drop the EU stopover as a saving plan. The onward move triggers assessment retroactively.
- Dig out any old deferral notices. If one is open and above EUR 100,000 of income, 31 December 2026 is your deadline.
- Decide about the Austrian home. Keeping it works only within 70 days, after five years abroad, with a written log.
- Deregister properly and document the shift of your centre of vital interests: lease, school registration, bank accounts, insurance.
- Secure the UAE side first. Without a residence permit and an Emirates ID there is no solid residence position. The general provisions for the residence visa are published on the UAE government portal.
- Apply for the UAE tax residency certificate once the qualifying period has run.
- Build a deadline file. Notifications, notices, proof of submission. Documentation decides how much you pay.
Our piece on the Austrian community in Dubai covers life after the move.
On the UAE side we handle the operational build: licence, visa, office, bank account and ongoing local compliance. The Austrian side belongs with your Steuerberater, before the move rather than after it. For the Dubai build, contact START for a free consultation.
