Per diems for Austria and Germany 2026: amounts and rules

From 1 January 2026 the Slovenian government set €66 a day for Austria and for Germany. The amount is in the Regulation on the reimbursement of costs for official trips abroad (Uredba o povračilu stroškov za službena potovanja v tujino, Official Gazette 102/2025). The regulation applies directly to the public sector. It matters to private employers because the Slovenian tax regulation ties the tax-free amount to it.

The regulation counts the trip in hours, from departure to return. Every 24 hours gives one full per diem, and the remaining hours give the share in the table. For Croatia, Hungary, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina the amount is €48 a day.

Article 4 of the Slovenian Regulation on the tax treatment of cost reimbursements and other employment income (Uredba o davčni obravnavi povračil stroškov in drugih dohodkov iz delovnega razmerja) sets the limit. A per diem abroad is tax-free in Slovenia up to the government amount. For a full day in Austria or Germany that is €66. Anything above it is added to your taxable income, the same as pay. The same limit applies to social security contributions.

If the price of your room includes breakfast, the tax-free amount goes down. It drops by 10 % for a trip of over 14 up to 24 hours and by 15 % for a trip of over 8 up to 14 hours. For a full day in Austria or Germany with breakfast, €59.40 is tax-free.

The tax regulation sets these limits for a business trip abroad. It has no separate amount for a posting, so ask your employer in writing whether your per diem is paid under these rules.

No. The EU Posting of Workers Directive, as amended by Directive (EU) 2018/957, says that money paid back for travel, food and lodging does not count as the pay you are owed in the country where you work. A per diem that pays back your food costs is that kind of payment.

The same rule covers every posting allowance, including a per diem. If your contract does not say which part of the allowance is pay and which part pays back costs, the whole allowance is treated as paying back costs. In Germany, section 2b of the Posted Workers Act (Arbeitnehmer-Entsendegesetz, AEntG) says so.

An example: Germany's statutory minimum wage is €13.90 gross per hour from 1 January 2026. Your hourly rate must reach it without per diems. What else applies to pay and housing is covered in our guides to working in Austria through an agency and working in Germany with accommodation.

Some employers pay a field allowance (terenski dodatek) instead of a per diem. Under Article 7 of the tax regulation it is tax-free if you work and sleep at least two days in a row away from where you live and away from the employer's seat.

If your employer gives you food and a place to sleep, at most €5.84 a day is tax-free. If it does not, the per diem and lodging limits apply. The gap between €5.84 and €66 is large, so ask which of the two payments you will get.

Before you sign, check five things in writing:

On the payslip, check that the per diem is listed apart from your gross pay. Only then can you see whether the hourly rate alone reaches the legal minimum.

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