 Poster: A snowHead
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| Origen wrote: |
| @Hurtle, yes, I rather admire the refusal to pay for any private formal health care (which probably goes along with refusal to pay for private education) but many people who refuse to go private are not doing it out of any sense of equity, but because other expenditure is more important to them (the cost of my husband's triple by pass was about £18K (2002, it would be a lot more now) similar to the cost of a kitchen refurb or a new (not luxury) car. |
Many, including myself struggle to find a good private practice when it comes to some serious surgeries. Private clinics are good when everything goes well but the machines they use are quite expensive and if something goes wrong during surgery you may end up in the public hospital.
Private education is a similar issue to having a small property portfolio, it just creates more inequality. As far as I know Austria has a different approach to real estates and have WAY more affordable houses/flats.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Origen,
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many people who refuse to go private are not doing it out of any sense of equity, but because other expenditure is more important to them
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Yes, I understand this point, you've made it many times!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Property is very expensive in Austria. Perhaps in comparison with London, but I believe there are many parts of the UK where housing costs much less. Austrian residents are more likely to rent their home, more than 50 % do so. In my city of Salzburg, to rent a small family apartment which would be 4 rooms, c. 100 sq m would be around € 1.800,– per month. To buy such an apartment would be from c. €800.000,–. I believe in the UK there is something of pressure to buy a home which is not the case in Austria.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| swskier wrote: |
Tax rates here are higher too:
Income (EUR) Tax rate (%)
12,465 and below 0
12,465 to 20,397 20
20,397 to 34,192 30
34,192 to 66,178 40
66,178 to 99,266 48
99,266 to 1,000,000 50
above 1,000,000 55
Although there seems to be all sorts of random things you can claim back tax against. For example I can reduce my monthly taxable income by €128 for commuting to work.
Public transport is peanuts, I can travel around the entire Tirol unlimited on public transport for €43 a month. |
So you can claim back more tax than the travel card costs?
Also being able claim back tax seems to greatly reduce how much tax is actually paid.
Someone on 20k claiming back 128 a month for commuting is only about 12% tax & not 20%.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Gored wrote: |
| swskier wrote: |
Tax rates here are higher too:
Income (EUR) Tax rate (%)
12,465 and below 0
12,465 to 20,397 20
20,397 to 34,192 30
34,192 to 66,178 40
66,178 to 99,266 48
99,266 to 1,000,000 50
above 1,000,000 55
Although there seems to be all sorts of random things you can claim back tax against. For example I can reduce my monthly taxable income by €128 for commuting to work.
Public transport is peanuts, I can travel around the entire Tirol unlimited on public transport for €43 a month. |
So you can claim back more tax than the travel card costs?
Also being able claim back tax seems to greatly reduce how much tax is actually paid.
Someone on 20k claiming back 128 a month for commuting is only about 12% tax & not 20%. |
There's a commuting allowance you can, but you don't claim back €128 a month, you just reduce your taxable income by that amount. So if you're on €20k, you'd actually only get back 20% of €128 so €25.60.
My allowance is fairly high due to public transport connections not being great for the times I travel to work. A colleague who lives in Innsbruck and a similar distance to work than I am gets a much smaller allowance due to the frequency of public transport available to her.
There's also an allowance added automatically on to your tax reclaim for home working as well. I don't know what the calculations are for that, it just did it automatically and I didn't look in to it.
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| snowyc wrote: |
| As far as I know Austria has a different approach to real estates and have WAY more affordable houses/flats. |
| Mankei wrote: |
| Property is very expensive in Austria. Perhaps in comparison with London, but I believe there are many parts of the UK where housing costs much less. Austrian residents are more likely to rent their home, more than 50 % do so. In my city of Salzburg, to rent a small family apartment which would be 4 rooms, c. 100 sq m would be around € 1.800,– per month. To buy such an apartment would be from c. €800.000,–. I believe in the UK there is something of pressure to buy a home which is not the case in Austria. |
Here in Innsbruck a ~80-100 2 bedroom flat is minimum €1800/month now, usually more like €2k. A friend just bought one on my street for €750k - but needed about €200k work before he could move in. In good condition a similar flat would be more like a million. We feel like we're getting a bargain on our 63 square metre (incl balcony) 1 bedroom flat for 'only' €1200, because our landlords have forgotten to raise the rent since we moved in in 2017!
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@Gored, Yes I thought about doing that and its seems to be an option; however direct email comms (they gave me a little card to contact them) seems to be fine!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Mankei, @clarky999, do people in Austria mostly purchase additional health insurance over and above the compulsory contributions?
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| Origen wrote: |
| @Mankei, @clarky999, do people in Austria mostly purchase additional health insurance over and above the compulsory contributions? |
Lots of people do, yes. Often to have eg a private room in a hospital stay, or being able to choose which doctor to see or facility to go to (which can also make waits shorter), and also to be able to recover the costs of prescriptions and so on.
But not just for health - Austrians often have lots of insurance generally, also ‘Rechtschutz’ (for legal stuff) and various third party things (ie drop your kayak onto a friend’s car haha). Plus accident insurance, which kinda overlaps health insurance but for example if you hurt yourself on the mountain and prefer a specific specialist clinic to the main hospital, as well as paying out €xx/day to one personally. Strangely travel insurance seems to be less common or known about than in the UK, but again is often also overlapped by the above insurances.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| clarky999 wrote: |
| Origen wrote: |
| @Mankei, @clarky999, do people in Austria mostly purchase additional health insurance over and above the compulsory contributions? |
recover the costs of prescriptions and so on. |
Which you can claim back on your tax return I believe!
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| Origen wrote: |
| @Mankei, @clarky999, do people in Austria mostly purchase additional health insurance over and above the compulsory contributions? |
Yes we do. As well as that listed above, ours includes World Wide Medical Insurance (incl the Americas'). The OAMTC does the other kind of travel insurance for bags, delays etc, but we don't bother with that. Flights are covered by Credit Cards and we're not in a rush anymore. 
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| swskier wrote: |
Although there seems to be all sorts of random things you can claim back tax against. For example I can reduce my monthly taxable income by €128 for commuting to work.
On top of that, you can see where you tax money is going, not sure i've come across a pot hole in the 7 months we've lived here. Virtually every village and town has a communal music facility for whatever local music groups to use to practise.
Public transport is peanuts, I can travel around the entire Tirol unlimited on public transport for €43 a month. |
If you work in the industry you can claim tax back on skis, boots, gloves, lift pass contribution etc. Not so sure about ski clothing as ski school normally provides this. Illse what the accountant says about socks, underwear etc when I take my data for last year when the season is over.
As far as potholes etc are concerned I know in the next couple of weeks the federal highway through the valley will be assessed and marked for repair and repairs will be carried out in a timely manner. As you know of course the roads here have a much harder time with frost heave etc than UK roads, it really does make me laugh when UK councils say the harsh winter has damaged the roads.
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You know it makes sense.
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In our part of the UK it's the extraordinary traffic levels which damage the roads. A couple of years ago I drove extensively round mid Wales. What a pleasure! The roads were incomparably better than London and the south east. Much better surfaces and so few vehicles!
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@Origen, I think the "so few vehicles" may be an indicator of the "roads were incomparably better"?
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Poster: A snowHead
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Well yes, that's exactly what I said - it's the volume of traffic which damages the roads in our part of the world.
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FAQ
