SVS Austrian Public Health Insurance for self-employed individuals (PhD students with taxable stipends)

SVS Austrian Public Health Insurance for self-employed individuals (PhD students with taxable stipends) 

For tax purposes, PhD students receiving taxable stipends, are considered as new self-employed individuals in Austria. In line with this they have to: 

• file their own taxes AND  
• need to register at the national SVS insurance provider within 4 weeks of receiving taxable stipend from CEU 

 General information about SVS registration:  

1. Whenever a student starts receiving taxable stipend in Austria they are considered as a “Neue Selbstständige/New self-employed” individual and registration for SVS insurance is mandatory once the student earns over EUR 6,010.92 (2023) per calendar year.  
2. Registration needs to be done by the student within 4 weeks of the self-employment activity (September for new/incoming students). 
3. The student must fill in a SVS registration document including reporting the income activity, the total amount of the expected income. Please see the application process below. 
4. Once a “new self-employed” individual is registered at the SVS, the student has access to the SVS OnlinePortal and receives a payment request from the SVS each quarter (February 28/May 31/August 31/November 30) which is a percentage (approx. 28%) based on the net income/tax assessment notice of the past year (if any). 

Costs:

Please calculate your SVS contribution as follows (specific calculation could be found here):

SVS Contribution = net basis amount*18.5% + net basis amount*6.8% + net basis amount*1.53% + 10.64EUR/month

Detailed information about the SVS insurance can be found here: 

• Versicherungsschutz für Neue Selbstständige und Freiberufler (original document in german, you can find an English version translated with www.deepl.com/translator here).
• Krankenversicherung im Überblick (original document in german, you can find an English version translated with www.deepl.com/translator for each section below).
• General information on health insurance
• The individual services in detail
• Health insurance cover for temporary stays abroad/residence abroad
• Co-insurance of dependents and continued insurance
• Service notes

Application process: 

1. Go to the website of the AT Social Security body (SVS). Even though the website is in German only you can easily translate it to English by right-clicking with your mouse in the browser. 
2. Versicherungsanmeldung für Gewerbetreibende, Neue Selbstständige und Freiberufler - click Online Antrag (online application).  
3. If you have a social security number, use it for the SVS registration. If you do not have one click “Ich habe noch keine österreichische Sozialversicherungsnummer” (I do not yet have an Austrian social security number), it will be created at the point of SVS registration. 
4. A confirmation of your successful SVS registration can be downloaded from the SVS OnlinePortal by following the steps below:
1. Go to "Meine Beiträge"
2. Click on "Zur Vorschreibung" (at the end there are documents to download)
3. Click on "Versicherungsbestätigung erzeugen" (insurance confirmation issuance)

For questions, please contact the SVS directly at (+43) 050 808 808.