How to pay for a bootcamp in Austria
Austria is one of the few markets where public money genuinely reaches a foreign online provider, and the reason plans still go wrong here is that the three routes pay for three different things. One can cover the fee, one lowers what the fee finally costs you, and one pays you rather than the invoice. Sort out which of those you actually need first, because the answer is often more than one of them.
Three pots, and they do not pay for the same thing
Most funding pages ask which scheme you qualify for. In Austria the more useful first question is which problem you are solving, because the routes here do not compete so much as cover different ground. The AMS can pay a documented course fee, up to the whole of it, and support your living costs on top. The Werbungskosten deduction pays nothing at the time and instead gives you back a share of what you spent when you file. Weiterbildungsbeihilfe, the allowance that replaced Bildungskarenz, buys you time rather than training: it replaces your income during an agreed education leave and leaves the invoice exactly where it was. Reading them as three versions of the same offer is how people end up with an approved leave and an unpaid course fee. The other thing worth knowing before you start is that none of these three prescribes provider accreditation, which is unusual in Austria and is what makes them reachable at all.
The AMS can pay the course fee itself, and this is the only route that does. The Beihilfe zu den Kurskosten can cover up to 100% of a documented fee, with separate allowances for incidental costs and for your living costs while you train. It is for people registered with the AMS, the decision is discretionary rather than an entitlement, and one rule governs everything: the written approval has to come before you enrol or pay. If you are registered, start here and start early. AMS course-cost funding
The tax deduction lowers what the course finally costs you, and it is the most broadly available route. Retraining is deductible as Werbungskosten, so what comes back is your marginal rate on the fee, roughly 20% to 55%. There is no application, no deadline before the course and nothing that turns on the provider, which makes it the one route almost any Austrian taxpayer can use. What it does not do is pay the invoice this month: it reduces the final cost rather than the immediate bill. Deducting the fee from your Austrian tax
Weiterbildungsbeihilfe pays you, not the school. The allowance that replaced Bildungskarenz is worth EUR 40.40 to 67.94 per day at 2026 rates for an agreed leave of two to twelve months, and it exists so you can stop working while you study. The course fee stays with you in full. It needs twelve months of continuous employment with your current employer and their signature on the leave agreement, so it is the route with the most preconditions and the one that most often fails inside the company rather than at the AMS. Education leave and the allowance that replaced Bildungskarenz
They combine, and in Austria that is usually the plan rather than a bonus. Because the three cover different ground, the sensible arrangement is often two of them at once: an agreed leave that replaces your income while the tax deduction takes a share off the fee, or AMS money against the fee with its living-cost allowance alongside. The one rule to carry into that arithmetic is that a subsidy you received tax-free comes off what you deduct, so only your own net contribution goes into the return.
Frequently asked questions
I am employed. Can the AMS pay for my course?
The standard route for the individual course-cost allowance is being registered with the AMS as arbeitsuchend, and in exceptional cases the allowances can also reach people who are employed on a low income. So it is worth asking rather than assuming, but it is not the route to build a plan on while you are in a job. As an employee your two realistic options are the Werbungskosten deduction, which needs nobody's agreement, and an agreed Weiterbildungszeit with the allowance, which needs your employer's signature and twelve months of continuous service with them.
Can I use more than one of these at the same time?
Yes, and because they pay for different things that is usually the sensible arrangement rather than an edge case. An agreed education leave replaces your income while the tax deduction takes a share off the fee, or AMS money covers the fee itself with its living-cost allowance alongside it. The one piece of arithmetic to get right is that a subsidy received tax-free is subtracted before you deduct: if the AMS or an employer covers part of the fee, only your own net contribution goes into your return.
I have already enrolled and paid a deposit. Have I lost the AMS route?
For that course, in effect yes, and it is the one mistake on this page that cannot be repaired afterwards. The funding decision is made before the training starts and there is no retroactive reimbursement, so a payment made ahead of the written approval puts the fee outside the scheme. What is still open is the tax deduction, which is not gated on approval beforehand and can be filed for earlier years, so the sensible next step is to make sure the paperwork for that is in order and to talk to us before committing to any further payments.
Does it matter that Code Labs Academy is a German provider teaching live online?
Not for the three routes at the top of this page. None of them prescribes provider accreditation: the AMS funds online formats and requires no Austrian accreditation for the individual course-cost allowance, the tax deduction turns on the nature of the training rather than the school, and the education-leave allowance assesses your specific course for labour-market relevance rather than assessing the institution. Where the question does decide the answer is the regional Land subsidies, which are scoped to Ö-Cert or a recognised Austrian provider.
Does Bildungskarenz still exist?
No. It was abolished and the last Weiterbildungsgeld payments ran out on 31 March 2025, which is why so much of what you find when searching for it is out of date. What exists now is Weiterbildungszeit, the full leave from work, and Weiterbildungsteilzeit for reduced hours, with the AMS Weiterbildungsbeihilfe as the money attached to them. The important difference from a planning point of view is not the name: the allowance replaces your income while you study and does not pay the course fee.
I have little or no Austrian taxable income this year. Is the deduction worth anything?
Not much in that year, and it is better to know before you plan around it. Werbungskosten reduce income you would otherwise be taxed on, so with no such income there is nothing to reduce, and an employee generally cannot carry an unused surplus forward into a better year. If you are registered with the AMS, that is the route to try first, since it can cover the fee itself rather than a share of it. If you are self-employed the position is different, because the same costs are Betriebsausgaben and business losses can be carried forward, which is worth raising with your Steuerberater.
Get Personalised Advice
Not sure which financing route makes the most sense in Austria? Book a one-on-one consultation with our education specialists. We can help you compare instalments, discounts, employer sponsorship, and Austria-relevant public funding routes (such as AMS programmes or Vienna’s waff). You’ll leave with clear next steps that match your goals and circumstances.
