Redistribution by the State in Austria 2015 – Overview of the Results

Taxes, social contributions as well as monetary and in-kind public transfers considerably modify the economic situation of different households to varying degrees: before redistribution the average income of the top 10 percent households in Austria was 30 times that of the bottom 10 percent households. After redistribution the relation fell to 5,5. Redistribution resulted in a reallocation of income from the households in the upper third to those in the lower third of the distribution of primary income (market incomes, old-age pensions and net imputed rents). In-kind public benefits contributed most to this income equalising effect (41 percent of the redistribution is attributable to them), followed by income-related taxes and contributions (36 percent). 31 percent of the redistributive effect was due to the impact of public cash transfers (excluding pensions). The regressive structure of indirect taxes lowered the degree of redistribution by 8 percent. Between 2000 and 2010 the distribution of primary and secondary incomes (primary incomes plus monetary and in-kind public transfers, net of all direct and indirect taxes) became more unequal. This development reversed between 2010 and 2015: the inequality of primary income as measured by the Gini coefficient decreased slightly from 0.393 auf 0.382. During this time, the extent of income redistribution also increased leading to an even larger decline in the dispersion of secondary incomes (the Gini coefficient of secondary incomes decreased from 0.265 to 0.249).