Tax advice for Lower Austrians: Millions remain unused!

Tax advice for Lower Austrians: Millions remain unused!

Zwentendorf an der Donau, Österreich - In 2024, over 32,000 members of the Lower Austria Chamber of Lower Austria (AKNÖ) took advantage of tax consultations. According to Aknö President Markus Wieser, however, a lot of unused money remains with the finance minister, which is extremely problematic for employees in Lower Austria. Wieser emphasizes that the current tax and tax burdens are strongly distributed to the disadvantage of the employees, since they contribute around 80% of the total tax revenue of social security contributions to sales and wage taxes, although they only receive about 60% of gross added value. This must change to ensure a fairer distribution of the tax burden, such as ots reported .

In order to counteract these grievances, the Aknö has been offering tax savings advisors for over 23 years. These are now available all year round, no longer just in the form of special “tax-saving weeks”. Last year, the Aknö advisors were able to get a total of more than 20 million euros back from the tax office, which corresponds to a record plus of 1.7 million euros compared to the previous year. According to the director Bettina Heise, it is important to make it easier for members access to these consultations. More and more members are also using the tax webinars offered to clarify their concerns online, so orf .

Financial relief request

In addition, the AKNÖ calls for more tax reliefs for preventive measures related to natural disasters and disease costs. Moments such as floods and hail that cause great damage should be tax deductible. This could offer companies and private individuals incentives to invest in prevention measures, which would help the state in the long term to reduce the costs of any subsidies to remedy damage. The Aknö hopes for a fairer distribution of the tax burden and better access to tax advantages in order to reduce financial burdens for employees.