Industry ad SPÖ summer talk: declaration of war on all top performers in this country

2023-08-28 20:06:41

Age-old tax fantasies damage the business location and punish diligence and performance – reducing working hours in times of a shortage of skilled workers is simply absurd

Vienna (OTS) – As part of today’s ORF summer talks with the new SPÖ chairman, concrete SPÖ plans for inheritance taxes became known. Contrary to previous promises to exclude business assets, according to SPÖ federal chairman Andreas Babler, domestic companies should now be burdened with death taxes. “Especially in the current economic situation with numerous difficulties for companies, these proposals are a declaration of war – not only for the companies, but for all top performers in this country,” said Christoph Neumayer, Secretary General of the Federation of Austrian Industries (IV), who feared additional burdens for companies , as warns the middle class: “It is now also evident what we warned about. The recent proposal to also tax companies in the event of inheritance makes it clear that the original SPÖ model is much more inefficient than previously assumed. So you want to open up more and more sources of income, especially with a retroactive effect of 30 (!) years, because the immense bureaucracy has to be covered.”

The renewed proposal to reduce working hours with full wage compensation is another economic and political aberration. “Everyone in Austria has now noticed that we lack workers and skilled workers everywhere. Under these circumstances, it is downright absurd to propose a reduction in working hours,” says Neumayer. In the coming years, the shortage of skilled workers will continue to increase, also due to demographic developments. According to experts, there will be a gap of around 540,000 employees in Austria alone in the next 10 to 12 years.