Best stock brokers & investing apps in Austria

• 8 stock brokers & investing apps with a verified licence serve residents of Austria: 8 serve under an EU passport.
• Top pick by Coinish Score: Interactive Brokers (71/100, Editor Rating 4.1/5).
• $0 commission on US stocks: Trading 212 and NAGA.
• Lowest minimum deposit: $50 (NAGA).

Ranked by Coinish Score: half the Editor Rating for the entity that serves residents of Austria, half Market Signal. Brokers without enough verified data for a rating are placed by Market Signal and labelled; brokers with neither are listed last. How we rate

Of the 8 stock brokers & investing apps on this list, 5 serve Austria from a CySEC licence in Cyprus (eToro, Trading 212, NAGA and 2 more), 1 serves Austria from a CBI licence in Ireland (Interactive Brokers), 1 serves Austria from a Finantsinspektsioon licence in Estonia (Lightyear) and 1 serves Austria from a BaFin licence in Germany (DEGIRO).

Currency conversion, which you pay on every US share bought from a non-dollar account, costs from 0.25% (DEGIRO) to 0.35% (Lightyear). DEGIRO charges €2 per order for US stocks.

• Search the company name on the FMA (Austria) register (fma.gv.at); for a firm licensed elsewhere, on its home regulator's register too (CySEC, CBI and Finantsinspektsioon for most of this list).
• Check which company your contract is with. Interactive Brokers, for example, onboards residents of Austria through Interactive Brokers Ireland Limited (CBI licence C423427), and the name on the account-opening documents should match the list.

Yes, with a licensed provider. Brokers need MiFID II authorisation from an EEA regulator; firms authorised elsewhere in the EEA may serve residents under the European passport.

Source: bafin.de

By Coinish Score, Interactive Brokers (71/100, Editor Rating 4.1/5), through Interactive Brokers Ireland Limited (CBI licence C423427). eToro (71) and Trading 212 (67) follow. The score rates the company that would serve you in Austria, so the same brand can rank differently in another country.

Every broker here is licensed outside Austria, so none of them takes KESt off your income. You report dividends and sale gains on the E 1kv supplement to your tax return.

The E 1kv nets your Austrian and foreign investment income together, so a loss at one broker can offset a gain at another. Losses go first against income taxed at the special 27.5% rate. If an Austrian bank has already used a loss, you can't count it a second time, and the bank has to confirm the offset it made.

Sources: bmf.gv.at, formulare.bmf.gv.at

Yes. A firm authorised under MiFID II in one EEA country can serve residents of the others once its home regulator has notified them. All 8 on this list reach Austria that way, most from Cyprus (5), Ireland (1) and Estonia (1).

The home regulator supervises the firm and its compensation scheme applies, while FMA (Austria) can still set conduct rules for clients in Austria.

Source: bafin.de

If a broker fails, the compensation scheme of the regulator that licenses it applies, not one chosen by where you live. For this list: Investor Compensation Fund (Cyprus): 90% of covered claims, up to €20,000 for clients of CySEC-licensed investment firms (5 on this list); Investor Compensation Company (ICCL): 90% of the loss, up to €20,000 per investor for clients of CBI-licensed investment firms (1 on this list); Entschädigungseinrichtung der Wertpapierhandelsunternehmen (EdW): 90% of the claim, up to €20,000 per investor for clients of BaFin-licensed investment firms (1 on this list). Compensation covers missing client money and assets after a firm's failure, never trading losses.

Sources: cysec.gov.cy, investorcompensation.ie, e-d-w.de

Dividends paid through an Austrian paying agent have 27.5% KESt deducted, and that settles the tax. Dividends from a foreign paying agent arrive without KESt and go in your return, where foreign withholding tax is credited up to the limit in the double-tax treaty.

Coinish isn't a tax adviser: check your own situation with the tax authority or an accountant.

Source: bmf.gv.at