Living in Nenzing and working in Switzerland: no cross-border regime for Austria

Why there is no cross-border regime

Until 2006, Austria had its own cross-border regime (§15(4) DBA-A, SR 0.672.916.31) with a reduced withholding on income. That regime was abolished (BGBl. III Nr. 22/2007, "aufgehoben"), and since then the ordinary §15(1) rule applies: anyone working in Switzerland, including residents of Nenzing, is taxed at the full cantonal withholding rate in the state of work. There is no defined border zone — the rule applies to any Austrian resident, regardless of distance from the border.

Source: SR 0.672.916.31 (RIS Austria, consolidato); BGBl. III Nr. 22/2007 (abrogazione art. 15 §4); rapporto del Consiglio federale svizzero al Parlamento, 15.11.2013 (Postulato Robbiani 11.3607); accordo quadro UE-EFTA ex art. 16(1) Reg. 883/2004 (telelavoro, AT e CH firmatari dal 2023-07-01).

No reduced cap, no day threshold

Unlike the corridor with Germany, which applies a reduced withholding on gross pay, Austria has no such reduction: the full rate always applies. And unlike the corridors with Germany or Liechtenstein, there is no non-return-day threshold to respect either — there is no cross-border status to lose. Only the general OECD short-stay rule exists (§15(2), a 183-day threshold), which covers occasional short work stays and has nothing to do with regular cross-border commuting.

How double taxation is avoided

Austria avoids double taxation via the credit method (Anrechnungsmethode, Art. 23(2)): tax paid in Switzerland is credited against the Austrian tax due on the same income, instead of the exemption method Austria otherwise uses as its general rule. In place of an individual relief on the Swiss side, Swiss cantons collectively pay Austria's treasury a compensation equal to 12.5% of the withholding-tax revenue collected under §15(1) (Final Protocol, point 4).

Telework: the 49.9% social-security threshold

For those working partly from home, a social-security (not fiscal) threshold applies: exceeding 49.9% of working time performed from your state of residence changes which state is responsible for social-security contributions (EU/EFTA multilateral framework agreement under Art. 16(1) Reg. 883/2004, in force since 2023-07-01 for both Austria and Switzerland). No specific bilateral fiscal telework agreement was found.

The direction of commuting

Unlike the corridor with Liechtenstein — today mostly Switzerland → Liechtenstein — here the flow runs the usual way: from Austria towards the Swiss cantons of employment (St. Gallen and Graubünden).

Useful reading

The calculator implements the Italy-Switzerland cross-border regime (Ticino withholding tax plus Italian IRPEF with its allowance). It does not reproduce the regime described on this page, so its result does not apply to residents here.

Compared with the nearest towns

Within 27 km of Nenzing there are 6 towns with a page on this site: Frastanz, Feldkirch, Koblach, Altach, Hohenems and Lustenau.

Across this group the distance to the border runs from 1 km (Koblach) to 26 km (Nenzing).

Nenzing sits at 26 km: 7 of 7 counting from the lowest.

Straight-line distances computed from the town-centre coordinates in our dataset. Road distance to the nearest crossing and population from the Austrian municipal dataset (Statistik Austria).

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