Industry: Green push for wealth taxes ill-considered

2023-04-29 13:37:05

New taxes harm people and location – wealth tax attacks small and medium-sized businesses – 72 percent against an annual wealth tax on private property

Vienna (OTS) – Vice-Chancellor Kogler’s renewed call for a wealth tax is imprudent, especially in times of high inflation and persistently high energy costs, and clearly misses the point. In a country with the highest taxation like Austria, it is more than incomprehensible to burden the surviving dependents with an additional tax on assets that have already been taxed several times. The introduction of a wealth tax would also have a direct impact on Austrian medium-sized companies. Small family businesses with 50 employees would be just as affected by this as, for example, retirees who have worked hard to earn their own home, criticizes the industrialists’ association of the probably ill-considered proposal.

In challenging times, Austria does not need anti-growth and counterproductive taxes, but rather a debate about incentives for working people in this country. Wealth accumulation must be made easier by lowering the high tax and contribution ratio. The tax ratio in Austria is currently already 43.3 percent and is thus the fourth highest in the EU comparison, so there is no need for further ideology-driven death or property taxes. This is also confirmed by a survey conducted by pollster Peter Hajek in 2022, in which 72 percent of the Austrians surveyed spoke out against an annual wealth tax on private property such as houses, apartments, jewelry, etc.