The Austrian Tax System – Reform Perspectives

A key objective of a reform of the Austrian tax system should be the improvement of the tax structure. This includes a shift in the revenue composition away from certain tax bases towards other bases, implying their higher taxation. The latter should not only compensate revenue losses from reductions in other taxes in the short run. The guiding principle of forward-looking tax policy should rather be, starting from a long-term vision of a "tax system 2025", to re-structure in a series of steps the entire tax burden. The essence of such reform should be a reduction of the high tax burden on labour, in particular for small and medium earnings, to be offset by hikes in environmental and certain property-related taxes, within the framework of a comprehensive socio-ecological reform design, supplemented by the abolition of tax exemptions notably in income tax and VAT. Independently from the issue of the tax structure, the overall tax burden can be lowered all the more, the more savings on the expenditure side can be achieved in parallel with the reduction in labour taxes.