“Lawn mower instead of watering can”

The liberal think tank Agenda Austria renewed its demands on Wednesday not only to reduce the tax burden in Austria, but also to reconsider the type of funding. “Austria is not only the world champion in funding in times of crisis. It’s time to put away the watering can and start the lawn mower,” said Agenda Austria economist Marcell Göttert at a press conference.

If subsidies in Austria were reduced to the average level in the EU, that would have relieved the state budget by around 2.2 billion euros in the previous year, said Göttert’s colleague Denes Kucsera. The focus should be on transport, energy, housing and agriculture.

Taxes and levies must be reduced for both employers and employees, said Göttert. In Austria, a full-time employee with a gross monthly income of EUR 3,700 has to pay 60 cents of every euro (employee and employer contributions calculated). Across the EU, the tax burden is only higher in Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands than here.

The political discussion has recently not revolved around tax cuts, but over profits, wealth and inheritance taxes. The think tank advocates making full-time work more attractive and adjusting the statutory retirement age to the increasing life expectancy. A coupling could relieve the federal budget by ten billion annually, said Kucsera.