TAX CULTURE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY AUSTRIA

The reform of direct taxes in 1896 in Australia ultimately aimed at reducing widespread tax evasion. The focus of this paper is the tax-cultural dimension of that reform to show that it is rightly regarded as one of the most ingenious tax reforms in the history of Austria. Having defined a notion of tax culture, the political setting and the tax system in Austria are briefly characterized. Subsequently, some key elements of the Austrian tax culture at the end of the 19th century are sketched out. The analysis of tax reform within the tax-cultural context shows that the success of the reform was substantially due to the fact that it implicitly took tax-cultural aspects into consideration. The big tax reform of 1986 is interpreted as a successful attempt to initiate a long-run change of the Austrian tax system and tax culture.