Pink relief? – NEOS promise significantly more net than gross

Meinl-Reisinger has founded his own party’s “Relief Reform Group”, which includes NEOS people and some, mostly economically liberal, economists. The biggest problems are the tax burden, the growing debt and a lack of efficiency in health care and education.

The ÖVP, FPÖ, SPÖ and the Greens have never brought this up, but after the elections it is time to do so. Then it would work net ten percent more of the gross, says the opposition politician.

NEOS builds on efficiency
This does not mean cutting back on key services, but rather increasing efficiency in all areas of administration, Meinl-Reisinger told journalists in Vienna on Wednesday.

You can watch the press conference here:

“Whatever the costs, it cannot continue,” Meinl-Reisinger said. “The next government must be frugal with taxpayers’ money. The tax rate must fall to 40 percent.” This must be achieved, among other things, through greater efficiency and an end to the double financing structures. “We need a brake on expenditure and costs and, above all, room for emergency aid.”

NEOS boss criticizes government
The share of indirect labour costs from the family burden equalisation fund should be transferred to the normal state budget. Given the high inflation, this would have been appropriate to prevent wage costs for employers in Austria from escalating so sharply, which would now lead to jobs being relocated to low-wage countries.

But as so often, the federal government has buried its head in the sand and left the difficult wage issue solely to the social partners, says Meinl-Reisinger.

But as it was, ‘self-made’ people lost much of their competitiveness. “A smart finance minister, a smart chancellor should have created space here,” said the pink woman in the direction of Karl Nehammer and Finance Minister Magnus Brunner (both ÖVP), who is leaving for Brussels. The latter is also declining “very gently” in view of the enormous increase in debt.

Criticism from employee associations
The Chamber of Labor (AK) and the Federation of Trade Unions (ÖGB) criticized Meinl-Reisinger’s idea regarding additional wage costs. “A reduction in indirect labor costs is a Trojan horse for working people. “They pay double, while employers profit,” says Ines Stilling of the AK. “Gaps” in the social system are to be expected.

The NEOS do not want to accept the criticism:

ÖGB economist Miriam Fuhrmann explained: “The false claim that a reduction in indirect labor costs increases gross or net wages does not become more correct by repetition.”

Meinl-Reisinger, however, promises that the cuts will be felt most on the working-class stock market. People are already feeling the pinch of how much they pay in taxes and fees for education and health care, while it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to get a doctor’s appointment – or to worry about whether their children will be well looked after at a public school.

Other countries are catching up
“People have understood that things cannot continue like this, but politicians have not,” she said in the direction of her political competitors. The “permanent excuse” with Brussels does not work either; comparable states are also in the EU and are in a much better position.

Labor taxes are relatively high in Austria:

Austria would not necessarily get worse, but other countries were catching up at a tremendous speed. These are countries that care about financial stability, efficiency in health and education, optimal use of resources and continuous structural reforms, “which Austria has not done,” the NEOS boss said.