Return of the cold progression: 360 million euros more for taxpayers!

Return of the cold progression: 360 million euros more for taxpayers!

The return of the cold progression whirls headlines in Austria and hits taxpayers hard: they have to pay around 360 million euros more every year from 2026. According to the current decision of the new government coalition, the cold progression, which has already been abolished, is partially reintroduced, which means that users have to get into higher tax classes unnoticed by inflation and thus have to make more taxes. This reports Vol.at .

The controversy around the cold progression cause bitter debates, especially since the environment suffers from inflation due to the insufficient adaptation of the tax levels. In 2022, it was decided to adapt the tax levels only to two thirds to inflation, whereby the remaining third for 2026 should be retained for renovating budgets. This is a sharp pitfall for taxpayers, since experts such as Dénes Kucsera from Agenda Austria warn in an inflation of 2.7 percent from July 2024 to June 2025 that each percentage point endangers 400 million euros in purchasing power. kosmo.at emphasizes that the essential burdens primarily affect higher incomes. The annual additional burden for a median income of around 2,560 euros net is 47 euros, while highly earning taxpayers are even more affected.

decision is controversial

Critics of the measure fear that the government is taking more money through this “creeping” change without guaranteeing transparency. While initially there was hope for tax reliefs, the government is now exposed to responsibility towards the citizens who are again asked to checkout. Kucsera therefore calls for the full abolition of the cold progression to ensure a fair tax policy and argues that Austria does not have any revenue problem, but the state expenditure is incorrectly prioritized.