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Glossar · Tax
SVS (Social Insurance for the Self-Employed)
Austria's social insurance institution for self-employed professionals, business owners and freelancers. Mandatory for pension, health and accident insurance with profit-based contributions.
What the SVS covers
The SVS (Sozialversicherungsanstalt der Selbständigen — Social Insurance Institution for the Self-Employed) is Austria's social-insurance carrier for around 800,000 commercial sole traders, new self-employed (neue Selbstständige), freelance contractors and farmers. It was created in 2020 by merging the previous SVA (for tradespeople) and SVB (for farmers), and today sits alongside the ÖGK (employees) and the BVAEB (public sector) as one of Austria's three mandatory social-insurance carriers.
The legal basis is the GSVG (Gewerbliches Sozialversicherungsgesetz) for commercial self-employed workers and the BSVG (Bauern-Sozialversicherungsgesetz) for the agricultural and forestry branch. Unlike the ÖGK, which charges fixed-rate contributions on gross salary, the SVS calculates its contributions mainly on profit, anchored to the income-tax assessment — typically with a two- to three-year lag, which can produce sizeable back-payments when income fluctuates.
The SVS covers three branches of insurance: pension, health and accident. Unemployment insurance, by contrast, is voluntary for the self-employed (opt-in scheme since 2009).
2025 contribution structure
For commercial self-employed workers under the GSVG, the headline rates are:
- Pension insurance: 18.5% of the contribution base
- Health insurance: 6.8%
- Accident insurance: €134.40 flat annual contribution (2025)
- Self-employed retirement provision: 1.53% (the equivalent of the "Abfertigung Neu" severance system for the self-employed)
Total ongoing burden: around 26.83% plus flat fees. The 2025 contribution ceiling is €7,770 per month (€93,240 per year), with a minimum contribution base of around €6,613 per year for health insurance. A reduced minimum base applies in the first two years of self-employment.
A worked example
A Vienna-based IT freelancer posts taxable profit of €75,000 in 2025. SVS contributions for the year are provisionally assessed on the 2022 income (then €45,000), producing a provisional quarterly bill of around €3,020. When the 2025 tax assessment lands in 2027, the SVS recalculates on the €75,000 figure. The back-payment comes to around €8,000 in one go — a classic liquidity risk that freelancers cushion with a dedicated "SVS reserve".
Related terms
In and around the SVS, the same vocabulary keeps coming up: GSVG, BSVG, ASVG, ÖGK, BVAEB, contribution base, contribution ceiling, mandatory insurance, self-employed retirement provision and voluntary unemployment insurance.
Common questions
What happens if I do some self-employed work on the side while compulsorily insured under the ÖGK? A secondary self-employment below the insurance threshold (2025: €6,613.20 in annual profit) is exempt from mandatory SVS insurance, although a voluntary opt-in is possible. Above that threshold, dual insurance applies, with contributions split pro rata.