Germany vs Austria.
Two countries' verified rules for an early retiree, side by side. There is no winner here — a lower cost, a wealth tax and an exit tax pull in different directions, and which ones matter is yours to weigh.
At a glance.
Price it in your money
Tell me where you live now and what you spend a month, and every cost here becomes your number — the same life, priced country by country, in your own currency.
A guide, not a quote. I move your monthly spend by each country’s official price level (Eurostat and the World Bank, whole-economy, EU-27 = 100) — no exchange rates, so it stays in your own currency. But averages hide rent and the city you pick, and changing country is rarely a straight swap. Read these as the right ballpark, then price the real thing.
| Measure | Germany | Austria |
|---|---|---|
| Cost of living | 108 | 113 |
| A €2,500-a-month life | €2,710/mo | €2,830/mo |
| The ×30 number it implies | €976,000 | €1,019,000 |
| Housing — to buy | €4,800/m² | €5,053/m² |
| Housing — to rent | €18.4/m² · Berlin | €10.8/m² · Vienna |
| Housing vs the EU | +13% | +13% |
| Getting in | ||
| The route in | No passive-income route | The rentier settlement permit |
| Golden visa | Never had one | Never had one |
| Years to a passport | 5 yrs | 10 yrs |
| The patterns each carries | ||
| Lower tax if you hold | no | no |
| Yearly tax on holdings | no | no |
| Taxes unsold gains | yes | yes |
| Exit tax | yes | yes |
| Deals for new residents | no | no |
| No wealth tax | yes | yes |
A “yes” is not a point scored: “no wealth tax” and “exit tax on leaving” pull opposite ways. Read the column against your own plan, not as a score.
The rules that matter, in full.
Germany
Accumulating funds don't hide here.
Gains are taxed at roughly 26%, with only a small annual tax-free allowance on investment income.
Germany levies an annual advance lump sum — the Vorabpauschale — on accumulating funds whether you sell or not. The tax-deferral advantage the rest of Europe gets from accumulating share classes largely disappears.
Since 2025 the exit tax reaches ordinary funds and ETFs, not just company stakes: broadly, it can bite when your stake in a single fund cost €500,000 or more, taxing gains you haven't realised, with deferral options. That's the simplified shape, not legal detail.
None currently levied.
The exit-tax extension to funds is young and already drawing EU-law criticism — re-check it before any move abroad.
Austria
Paper income taxed yearly — and paper gains billed at the border.
Gains, dividends and fund income are taxed at a flat 27.5%, however long you've held — there is no holding-period relief.
Austria taxes accumulating funds every year on income you never received: the fund's internal income and part of its internal gains are deemed distributed and taxed at 27.5% (what's taxed is added to your cost basis, so it isn't taxed twice at sale). 'Accumulating means tax-deferred' is false here — budget for the annual drag.
Leaving is a taxable event: moving your tax residence away is treated as selling your portfolio, with unrealised gains taxed at 27.5% — and there's no minimum threshold. Moves within the EU/EEA can defer the bill on request; from July 2026, larger deferred gains need an annual proof filing to keep that deferral alive.
No ISA-style account: the one subsidised retirement product is small and insurance-shaped, not a FIRE vehicle.
A tax-free-after-holding-period depot keeps being proposed and keeps not passing, and wealth-tax debates recur with every coalition. As of mid-2026, neither is law.
None of this is tax or investment advice — it's education, kept deliberately at the level that survives fact-checking. Rules shift with every budget round; the specifics of your situation belong with a licensed adviser in your country. I'm happily not one.
Germany verified 8 July 2026 · Austria verified 8 July 2026. What's changed on the map
Bring me a challenge.
The Exit Audit, then ninety minutes: a straight verdict, real alternatives with their pros and cons, and your first move. If you want someone to nod along, I’m the wrong person to pay.
Ninety minutes, online, €600 — the Exit Audit included.