The European Equivalent of a 401k and Roth IRA: What Austria and Germany Actually Have
There is no Roth IRA or 401k in Austria or Germany. Those accounts are US tax law, and US tax law stops at the US border. Here is the real path instead.
There is no Roth IRA or 401k in Austria or Germany. Those accounts are US tax law, and US tax law stops at the US border. If you live in the DACH region, you do not open a Roth IRA. You build a normal brokerage account, run a monthly Sparplan into a fund like VWCE, and plan around local capital gains tax (KESt). That is the real path.
I moved to Vienna from Ukraine at 17 with €50 in my pocket. When I started reading about money, every video told me to "max out my Roth" and "buy VOO." None of it worked here. So let me save you the months I lost figuring it out.
Is there a Roth IRA or 401k in Europe?
No. A Roth IRA and a 401k are accounts created by US law for US taxpayers. They give a US-only tax break that no European government has to honor. You cannot open either one as a resident of Austria or Germany. The closest real option is a standard broker account plus a monthly ETF plan.
People search for this every day. "European equivalent of a Roth IRA." "EU 401k equivalent." "401k for foreigners in Germany." The honest answer is that you are looking for a thing that does not cross the ocean. The account is gone, but the goal behind it (long-term, low-cost investing) is very much alive here. You reach it a different way.
Why the US accounts do not exist here
A 401k is tied to a US employer plan. A Roth IRA is tied to the US tax code. Both are built on rules that the Austrian Finanzamt and the German Finanzamt never signed up for. There is no agency here that will give you the same deal. Following that advice does not make you ahead of the curve. It points you at a door that is not in your country.
"Just buy VOO" does not work in the EU either
You will see thousands of US posts telling you to buy VOO or SPY. Try it through a European broker and you will hit a wall. EU rules (PRIIPs and MiFID II) require a short local disclosure document, called a KID, for retail products. Most big US ETFs never produced one. So EU brokers stopped letting retail investors buy them. A 2021 question in the European Parliament noted that since 2018 ordinary EU retail investors can no longer invest in US ETFs, because those funds do not file the required disclosure document (Source: European Parliament, 2021).
This is not your broker being difficult. It is the law. The fix is not to fight it. The fix is to buy the European version of the same idea: a UCITS fund.
What UCITS means in plain terms
UCITS is the EU standard for funds sold to regular people here. A UCITS fund follows EU rules, files the KID, and trades freely on European brokers. So instead of VOO, you buy a UCITS fund that tracks the same market. The most common all-in-one pick in the DACH community is VWCE, a single fund that holds thousands of companies across the whole world. One fund, broad coverage, made for this market.
What about taxes? Doesn't a Roth grow tax-free?
This is the part most US advice gets wrong for you. The whole appeal of a Roth IRA is tax-free growth. Germany does not care that an account was a "Roth" back in the States. If you are a German tax resident, your gains can be taxed here under German rules anyway. German tax guidance is that only the contributions stay tax-free, while the growth on a US Roth is taxed in Germany on payout (Source: Winheller, 2025).
The tax-free magic is the reason people love the Roth, and for a resident here that magic can disappear. Austria and Germany both tax investment gains through capital gains tax. In Austria and Germany this is KESt. It is a flat rate on profits and dividends. So your real plan is not "find a tax-free US account." Your real plan is to invest in a normal way and handle KESt the local way.
The local tax tools you actually use
In Germany, there is a yearly tax-free allowance on investment income. You tell your broker to apply it with a form called a Freistellungsauftrag, so that part of your gains is not taxed at source. Austria has its own KESt handling, where the broker often deducts the tax for you automatically. These are the levers that matter here. Not a Roth.
What the US account was really doing
Strip away the names, and a Roth IRA or 401k is just three jobs working together. Once you see the three jobs, you can rebuild each one with a local tool. None of them need a US account.
The fund
A US account often holds a broad fund like VOO. Here you use a UCITS fund such as VWCE.
The habit
The account buys the same amount on autopilot. Here a Sparplan does the same monthly buy.
The tax part
The Roth handles tax in the US. Here you handle KESt and the Freistellungsauftrag the local way.
The real DACH path, step by step
Here is what young people in Austria and Germany actually do. It is boring, and boring is the point.
- Open a broker that serves the DACH region. Common names are Trade Republic, Scalable Capital, and Flatex.
- Set up a Sparplan. That is an automatic monthly buy, for example a fixed amount every month, so you never have to remember.
- Buy a broad UCITS fund like VWCE inside that Sparplan.
- Handle tax the local way: file a Freistellungsauftrag in Germany, and let KESt be handled per your country's rules.
- Build a Safety Net of cash first, then keep the Sparplan running for years.
That is the whole machine. No Roth. No 401k. A low-cost fund, a monthly plan, and the local tax rules.
A note on the 2027 retirement account
Germany has now passed a new state-backed retirement investing account to replace the old Riester system. It is called the Altersvorsorgedepot (retirement savings account), and the Bundestag approved the reform law on 27 March 2026, with the new account set to start on 1 January 2027 (Source: Deutscher Bundestag, 2026). It is built to be a low-cost, ETF-friendly account aimed at normal earners, with the state adding a share on top of what you save (Source: German Finance Ministry (BMF), 2025). It could become the closest thing the DACH region has to a tax-advantaged retirement account, but it does not open until 2027.
I used to feel stupid that none of the US advice fit. It does not fit because it was never built for you. Once I stopped trying to force a Roth into a country that does not have one, the local plan got simple. A broker, a Sparplan, a UCITS fund, and the local tax rules. That is it. That is exactly why I built DolFin. Before you invest a single euro, you need to know what you can actually spare each month, because most of us have no idea where the salary goes. You upload your bank statement as a PDF or CSV, with no bank login, and it shows where your money is quietly leaking. Once you can see the leaks, you free up the cash to feed a Sparplan.
See what you can spare each month
Upload one bank statement. No bank login. DolFin shows where your money is leaking, so you can free up cash to feed a Sparplan.
Download DolFin on the App StoreFAQ
Is there a Roth IRA in Europe?
No. The Roth IRA is a US account under US tax law. You cannot open one as a resident of Austria or Germany. The local path is a normal broker plus a monthly Sparplan into a UCITS fund.
What is the EU equivalent of a 401k?
There is no direct one. A 401k is a US employer plan. In the DACH region you use your state pension plus your own investing through a Sparplan. Germany has also passed a new retirement investing account to replace Riester, the Altersvorsorgedepot, set to start on 1 January 2027 (Source: Deutscher Bundestag, 2026).
Can I open a 401k as a foreigner in Germany?
No. A 401k only exists in the US system. As a resident in Germany you invest through a German or EU broker and follow German tax rules, including KESt and the Freistellungsauftrag allowance.
Why can't I buy VOO or SPY in the EU?
EU rules (PRIIPs and MiFID II) require a short local disclosure document for retail products. Many US ETFs never filed one, so EU brokers blocked them for retail buyers. You buy a UCITS fund like VWCE instead.
Does Germany tax a Roth IRA?
If you are a German tax resident, your gains can be taxed under German rules, even on an account that was a Roth in the US. German tax guidance is that the growth on a US Roth is taxed in Germany on payout, while only the already-taxed contributions stay tax-free (Source: Winheller, 2025). That removes the tax-free benefit that made the Roth worth it in the first place.