A Value-Added Based Contribution as an Alternative to a Wage-Bill Based Employers' Contribution to the Family Allowance Fund

In a study commissioned by the Federal Chamber of Labor, the Austrian Institute of Economic Research analyzed the effects of changing the employers' contribution to the Family Allowance Fund from a levy that is based on the wage bill to one that is based on value added. (In addition to wages and salaries, value added comprises mainly profits and depreciation.) This report is based on the assumption that such a change is implemented in a tax-revenue invariant fashion, i.e., that the tax burden on businesses remains the same. According to the present financing mode of the Family Allowance Fund (and of the whole social security system), firms which are labor intensive and have a high wage bill are at a disadvantage, while firms which are capital intensive and earn high profits are at an advantage. Thus, the most direct and dramatic result of such a change to a value-added based contribution would be a significant change in the tax burden carried by enterprises and sectors vis-à-vis the status quo: a tax-revenue invariant change would lower labor costs (indirect labor costs) and raise capital costs to the same extent. Labor intensive enterprises would benefit from such a change, while capital intensive and profitable enterprises would suffer.