Big fact check

SPÖ has “spent” its wealth tax several times

The SPÖ calculation does not add up.

(Bild: Stock Adobe)

Wealth taxes are the dream of social democracy. They are demanded at regular intervals and are used for various good deeds. If you add up all the things that the SPÖ has wanted to finance with wealth taxes in recent years, it has actually already spent them umpteen times.

The "Krone" looked at the past five years. Every time the SPÖ makes expensive demands, it immediately calls for wealth taxes. The current red model for wealth taxes envisages revenues of 5.5 to 6 billion euros.

The SPÖ wants to spend it on various things: for example, party leader Philip Kucher believes that it could be used to hire around 30,000 additional nursing staff and just as many elementary school teachers and that there would still be some left over to reduce taxes on labor. 

SPÖ leader Andreas Babler

(Bild: APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER)

SPÖ leader Andreas Babler also has ideas on how to spend the "basket money" from the "rich". His "heart-and-brain" plan envisages spending on offensive measures such as childcare, healthcare, a transformation fund (20 billion), a reduction in wage and income tax (4 billion) and a temporary reduction in VAT on basic foodstuffs (0.7 billion) of around 13 billion euros. Part of this - 7.8 billion - is to be financed with "fair taxes" (millionaires, reallocations, reversal of the reduction in corporation tax).

Top candidate Schieder dreams of a wealth tax throughout Europe
But that's not all: EU lead candidate Andreas Schieder has a "Europe -first" package as a central point in his election program. The Union is to invest in the production of strategic goods, green jobs and key technologies. Almost half of this (150 of 275 billion) is to be financed by a European net wealth tax of 1 to 1.5 percent for the richest part of the population. However, this is not an additional tax, but the idea that the wealth tax should be introduced throughout Europe.

The facts

The SPÖ wealth tax model: Anyone who owns a home worth up to 1.5 million euros - and actually lives in it as their main residence - is exempt from the millionaire's tax. After that, an allowance of 1 million euros applies. Assets between 1 and 10 million euros are taxed at 0.5 percent, from 10 to 50 million euros at 1 percent. Assets of 50 million euros or more are taxed at 2 percent. This will generate 5 to 6 billion euros per year.

The SPÖ inheritance tax model: The owner-occupied home also remains tax-free under the inheritance and gift tax - up to a luxury limit of EUR 1.5 million. The rest of the assets are subject to an allowance of 1 million euros. Once these two exemption limits are exceeded, 25 percent is payable, 30 percent from EUR 5 million, 35 percent from EUR 10 million and 50 percent from EUR 50 million. This brings in 500 to 800 million euros per year.

The Chamber of Labor is calling for wealth taxes to safeguard the welfare state. President Renate Anderl: "Employees currently bear the lion's share of the financing of state services such as education, security and health. Heirs receive an average of 15 billion euros a year without making any effort of their own, without contributing to the financing of the common good. We need 4 to 6 billion euros per year in the coming years for the expansion of social care alone. A tax on millionaires could raise 5 billion euros per year."

The AK is also calling for an increase in unemployment benefit to 70 percent, a reform of social welfare and an increase in the equalization allowance reference rate to the at-risk-of-poverty threshold.

Revenues were planned in many ways in times of inflation
In May 2023, at the peak of inflation, Babler called for a temporary reduction in VAT on everyday goods, an energy price cap, free public transport for commuters, an increase in unemployment benefits and 800 euros in basic security for children. To counter-finance his measures, he proposed a wealth tax (EUR 5 billion), an inheritance tax (EUR 650 million) and the reversal of the reduction in corporation tax (EUR 1.9 billion).

Six months earlier, in November 2022, the Burgenland SPÖ proposed the introduction of a minimum wage of EUR 1,700 net in all sectors, which would be financed by a wealth tax. "Many people are suffering extremely from the high inflation rate and no longer know how they are supposed to cover their living costs each month. Wealth taxes at EU level would raise up to an additional 10 billion euros," calculated Roland Fürst, Managing Director of the state.

Money is also needed to fight poverty
In October 2022, the SPÖ women campaigned for the fight against poverty and against the exclusion of people affected by poverty on the occasion of International Girls' Day. Women in old age and single parents are particularly affected in Austria, especially children. Wealth taxes are needed, demanded SPÖ Women's Chair Eva-Maria Holzleitner. In summer 2022, the SPÖ women want a maintenance guarantee, a freeze on standard rents, higher unemployment benefits and property taxes to finance these benefits.

Money must be made available, but not at the expense of employees, but at the expense of those who can afford it.

ÖGB-Präsident Wolfgang Katzian

Bild: TOBIAS STEINMAURER

The call for taxes on the rich also came in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was to pay for the rapidly rising national debt. The corona crisis has caused some shaking. "There is only one solution to correct this imbalance: a wealth tax. Money must be made available, but not at the expense of employees, but at the expense of those who can afford it," said ÖGB President Wolfgang Katzian.

"The rich" should also pay the costs of the climate crisis
In the summer of 2019, which was dominated by the climate crisis, the SPÖ wanted to pass the climate costs on to the rich. "Instead of shifting the climate crisis to the private sector and making people responsible for it because they buy meat or drive a car, those who cause it must be held accountable. We need an EU-wide CO2 tax for companies as well as an inheritance and wealth tax," said the SPÖ Lower Austria, for example.