WKO: what you pay, what you get

Register a Gewerbe and you're a WKO (Wirtschaftskammer) member automatically — no application, no way around it. Neue Selbständige are not members and pay nothing.

The Grundumlage

The yearly base fee depends on your Fachgruppe (trade group) and province (official rate lists) — there is no single national number. For typical desk-based EPU trades it lands in the low hundreds of euros per year — think €100–300/year, i.e. roughly €10–25/month; some groups charge less, transport or brokerage groups more. Each trade you register adds its own Fachgruppe — and its own Grundumlage, so don't collect trade registrations you don't use.

On top, once your payroll exists (employees), Kammerumlagen 1/2 appear — irrelevant for a solo EPU without staff.

What you actually get

Let's be honest about what this is: a compulsory membership. You didn't apply, you can't leave, and the invoice arrives regardless of whether you ever use anything — a membership you can't refuse, Austrian edition. The WKO calls it "representation of your interests"; day to day, you'll experience it as a yearly bill.

Since you're paying either way, extract the one thing that's actually worth money: the free legal advice hotline — a client who won't pay, a contract you're unsure about, an Abmahnung in the mail. Used once, it can cover years of Grundumlage. The rest (newsletters, export advice, insurance offers) exists; you won't miss it.

Pausing: the Ruhendmeldung

Not trading for a while (parental leave, employment, travel)? Report the trade dormant to your Fachgruppe (online via the WKO e-service): SVS obligation ends (from the reporting date — not retroactively beyond 3 weeks) and parts of the fees stop. Reactivation is one message. Dormant is almost always smarter than deregistering and re-founding.

The Grundumlage invoice arrives once a year and confuses every founder ("what is this for?"). Now you know — and it's a deductible business expense, like your SVS contributions.

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Status: 2026. Amounts and thresholds change (SVS values adjust yearly) — this is careful general information, not individual tax or legal advice. For your specific case, talk to a licensed Steuerberater.