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Vienna. For more than 15 years, the structure of the Austrian tax authorities has not changed. Over the next ten years, more than 600 people will retire in this region, but only one in three will be provided. It was therefore high time to act and fundamentally rebuild and modernize the financial and customs administration, concluded the Minister of Finance, Hartwig Löger (ÖVP).
At a short-term press conference, State Secretary Hubert Fuchs (FPÖ) presented his plans yesterday: Forty tax offices should be merged into one, the "Tax Office in Austria" . This will be responsible as tax and service authority for private companies and small and medium enterprises. In addition, a large corporate office will be responsible for large companies. The nine current customs offices are also reduced to a customs office. In addition, there will also be the anti-fraud office as well as the inspection service for levies and contributions related to wages (see chart).
From authority to branch
The regional contribution offices will remain for the most part, but reduced from 40 to 33. But they do not remain independent authorities, but act as services of the central authority. There will remain 79 slots.
What does Löger want to achieve with this new structure? At the present time, the workload of the different tax offices is very different. As a result, the length of the proceedings also diverges for family allowance claims. And while in the cities, a few full-time employees process up to 9,100 appraisal files a year, there are only about 3600. According to the plans of Löger and Fuchs this imbalance will no longer exist because the work will be centralized and the hierarchies removed. "The taxpayer will certainly be the taxpayer, estimates the Ministry of Finance: the average duration of the procedure should be reduced to 20 days.At present, it takes between 22 and 24 days for the family allowance, as well as for the 20 days are just a guideline.The taxpayer will have no legal right, if a tax office takes longer to make his decision, said Löger.
Nevertheless, the tax authorities have to face the fact that the expectations of Austrians in the digital age are greater than before. Their need for information also seems to have increased: while in 2003, about 2.3 million times taxpayers had taken the phone to inquire at tax bureaus, that 's enough. was already produced in 2017 already 5.1 million times.
The goal of the reform is still very different: the legal interpretation and application should become uniform throughout Austria. "Citizens and businesses rightly expect decisions they can count on," says Fuchs. Until now, it has not been uncommon for tax administrations to interpret tax laws differently, sometimes even contradictory.
Satisfied staff representatives
However, the concept as a whole currently only concerns coarse trains. In the coming months, the details will be settled. According to Fuchs, it is unlikely that she is satisfied with the resistance of the staff representatives. Early in the summer of 2019, Parliament must pbad the amendment to the so – called Tax Administration Act. All organizational requirements for implementation would then be satisfied. By January 1, 2020, the new law is expected to come into force.
("Die Presse", print edition, 28.11.2018)
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