In mid-2021 he returned to his home state with his wife Agnes Beier. He wants to leave again at the end of October.
The country also demanded the mandatory tourist tax from him. The playwright apparently objected to this: “The author of the ‘Piefke saga’ cannot pay a tourist tax.” Tourism should pay something to art, not the other way around.
“Tyrolean solution” rejected
According to the “Tiroler Tageszeitung” (Wednesday edition), he had previously sought contact with Governor Günther Platter and asked for mediation from State Councilor for Culture Beate Palfrader (both ÖVP). A “Tyrolean solution” apparently promised by the provincial governor – according to reports it was said that the fee could be reimbursed – was rejected middle away. “It’s not about the money, I’m about the principle,” says the 74-year-old writer, who wanted to spend “the rest of his life” in the district capital of Schwaz. “It doesn’t matter whether the fee is 100 euros or 30 cents – I will not pay it,” he said.
The mail from the tourism department of the state of Tyrol reached the playwright in March. He was asked to state his sales since 2019 – and to estimate those for 2022. On the basis of this information, the “mandatory contributions under the Tyrolean Tourism Act” should be collected middle have to pay.
Gerhard Föger, head of the state’s tourism department, told the Tyrol edition of the “Kronen Zeitung” (Wednesday edition), middle let it be known in writing that the sales in question had been achieved entirely outside of Tyrol. He was then informed that the years mentioned were non-contributory and that no prescription would be made. So the matter was settled positively.
According to media reports middle and Beier have already canceled their apartment in Schwaz. Where they will move to is still unclear. The two could probably end up in Lower or Upper Austria – near their two daughters.
Strangely enough, “Piefke-Saga” became the Tirol advertisement
The “Piefke Sage”, a satirical television series about the shallows of tourist activity in Tyrol, made middle Known far beyond national borders in the early 1990s. Although the work was harsh on the profit-oriented hospitality in the local hotel strongholds, it developed into priceless advertising for the Tyrol. “At the time I got letters from all over Germany asking about the location of the fictitious village of Lahnenberg,” recalled middle and underlined: “I’ve probably done enough advertising for Tyrol with my complete work.”
Felix middle is not the first Tyrolean cultural worker to be bothered by the mandatory tourist tax. The composer Werner Pirchner, for example, had also resisted the compulsory contribution that had been levied since 1927. Ultimately, an intervention by the then governor Wendelin Weingartner prevented enforcement in this case over 30 years ago.
Mitterers On Wednesday, NEOS state spokesman Dominik Oberhofer, who is campaigning as the pink top candidate a few weeks before the state elections on September 25, also called out migration. He called for an end to the tourist tax. This is “long since outdated and cannot be set up fairly,” he argues. “While even cultural workers are burdened with the levy, the main beneficiaries of Tyrolean tourism such as booking.com, airbnb or Expedia don’t pay a cent,” said Oberhofer.
The governing party, the Greens – in the person of culture and tourism spokesman Georg Kaltschmid – took issue with Platter’s announcement regarding a “Tyrolean solution”. Kaltschmid rejected a possible “preferential treatment”: The tourist tax must “apply to everyone or to no one,” said the member of parliament. Instead of an abolition, as demanded by the NEOS, his party advocated a “greening” of it. “An ecological earmarking of the funds and an incentive system by reducing the amount of contributions for sustainable businesses would be high time. A levy should have a steering effect. It is not currently doing so,” Kaltschmid explained the reasons.
The opposition list Fritz showed understanding for middle. He was “right if he doesn’t want to pay the tourist tax,” said club chairman Markus Sint. “Like him, there are many entrepreneurs in the country who do not benefit directly from tourism, but who have to finance it. For us at Liste Fritz, it is therefore clear that the tourism tax needs to be reformed. The country’s tourism tax has become completely independent since it was introduced in 1927 and is now highly anti-social and unfair,” Sint said in a broadcast. Only those sectors that “really benefit directly and immediately from tourism” should have to pay the levy.
The IG authors also spoke up about the cause. It is high time to turn the tourist tax from artists into a tourist tax for artists, explained IG boss Gerhard Ruiss. Perhaps the simplest way is that the tourism tax is earmarked for art and culture. “That with Felix middle even the author who, with his ‘Piefke-Saga’ denounced the excesses of tourism financed by the tourist tax, is supposed to contribute something to the tourist tax, can no longer be surpassed in terms of absurdity,” Ruiss said in amazement.
Source: Nachrichten
