Redistribution by the State in Austria

Although the size of the public sector is large in Austria, its redistributive impact from high to low income classes is limited: on the revenue side, income and property taxation is low and only moderately progressive but indirect taxation is high. Thus, the degree of progression of public revenues is only moderate. Although, the expenditure side is dominated by the principle of horizontal equity the redistributive impact of public expenditures is clearly progressive: low-income classes receive proportionately more public benefits than high-income groups.