MilometryAustria pays 50 cents a kilometre, and it pays for the passengers too
One flat rate for a car up to 30,000 kilometres a year, a 15 cent supplement for each person you carry, and a bicycle rate that went up and came back down within six months.
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Austria's official business mileage rate, the amtliches Kilometergeld, is 50 cents a kilometre for a car. It has been since 1 January 2025, when it rose from 42 cents, and the Bundesministerium für Finanzen (BMF) sets it in the Kilometergeldverordnung rather than in a yearly announcement.
That makes it one of the higher per kilometre figures among the systems Milometry covers. Germany pays 30 cents for a business kilometre. The UK's 55p a mile works out at roughly 34p a kilometre. Austria's rate is not just a number, though: the way it is structured is what sets it apart.
One band, then a ceiling
There is no first band and second band as in Britain. Every business kilometre in a car is worth the same 50 cents, up to 30,000 kilometres in a calendar year. That is the most an employer can pay at the official rate free of tax in one year.
The UK does it the other way round. The approved rate drops from 55p to 25p after the first 10,000 business miles in a tax year, but there is no ceiling: the 25p keeps running. Austria pays the full rate for longer, then stops.
The year is the calendar year, as in Germany, not the UK tax year that starts on 6 April. A record kept for one system has to be totalled differently for the other.
What the 50 cents has to cover
The BMF is explicit that the Kilometergeld is meant to cover the whole cost of using your own car, not just the fuel. Its list includes:
- depreciation and loss of value
- fuel and oil
- servicing and repairs from normal use
- extras such as winter tyres and snow chains
- parking, tolls and the motorway vignette
- every kind of insurance, including comprehensive cover
- motoring club membership
- finance and leasing costs
Parking, tolls and the vignette are the ones worth noticing. They are costs of the journey rather than of owning the car, and plenty of systems treat them separately. In Austria they are deemed to be inside the 50 cents.
Passengers earn their own rate
Austria pays a supplement of 15 cents a kilometre for each passenger carried on a business journey. That rose from 5 cents at the start of 2025, so it trebled overnight.
Britain has a passenger payment too, but it is 5p a mile, it only covers fellow employees travelling for work, and it is optional for the employer. We have written about how unusual the British version is in the passenger rate, a British peculiarity. Austria's is three times the size and sits in the same regulation as the main rate.
The two wheeled U-turn
The most unusual part of the recent history is what happened to motorcycles and bicycles. From 1 January 2025 both went up to the same 50 cents as a car. From 1 July 2025 both came back down to 25 cents a kilometre. Before 2025 they had been 24 cents and 38 cents respectively.
So for the first half of 2025 a business kilometre on a bicycle was worth as much as one in a car, and anyone checking a 2025 claim needs to know which side of 30 June each journey fell. It is a good example of why a log needs dates, not just totals.
The UK, by comparison, has one approved rate for each all year: 20p a mile for a bicycle and 24p a mile for a motorcycle.
What the record needs to show
The BMF sets out the conditions for paying the rate tax free. There must be a genuine business trip (a Dienstreise), the employee must be paying to run the vehicle themselves, and the business kilometres must be proved, by a Fahrtenbuch (a logbook) or other documents.
There is one trade-off to note. An employee who takes the official rate cannot also claim their higher actual costs on top. If the real cost of running the car is higher and can be shown, for example from a Fahrtenbuch, the difference can be claimed through the annual Arbeitnehmerveranlagung instead.
Commuting is a separate matter. Austria handles the journey to work through the Pendlerpauschale, a commuter allowance with its own rules, and it is not the same thing as the Kilometergeld.
The short version
| Austria | UK | |
|---|---|---|
| Car rate | 50 cents a km | 55p a mile, then 25p |
| Band change | None | After 10,000 miles |
| Annual ceiling | 30,000 km | None |
| Passenger | 15 cents a km each | 5p a mile, employees only |
| Bicycle | 25 cents a km | 20p a mile |
| Year | Calendar year | 6 April to 5 April |
General information for drivers in Austria and the UK, not legal or tax advice. Rates change: check the current figure with the authority you are filing under.
