Working in Austria, living in Germany: Grenzgänger or not
Since 2024 the German–Austrian tax treaty has a new frontier-worker rule: if your main residence and your workplace are both in municipalities lying within 30 km of the border, only Germany taxes your salary. You do not have to return home every day, and home-office days inside the zone do not matter, but you may work at most 45 days a year (at most 20 % of working days if you work only part of the year) outside the zone, business trips included.
As a Grenzgänger, Austria withholds no wage tax; Germany taxes the whole salary, including the 13th and 14th monthly salaries, and deducts the Austrian contributions as Vorsorgeaufwendungen. Otherwise Austria taxes the pay for days worked in Austria — as a non-resident without Familienbonus Plus, normally with the § 1 (4) option that treats you like a resident — and Germany taxes the days worked at home and applies Progressionsvorbehalt to the rest.
Austrian social insurance applies in both cases, with health cover through the ÖGK and, with the S1 form, a German health insurer. The calculator does not check the municipality lists: keep the zone option on only if both places are listed. The comparison shows the net of an Austrian resident with the same gross.