Tightening of the fight against fraud by fake companies has been sealed
Vienna (PK) – €920 million for municipalities is being launched. Against the National Council’s decision for a new one Community aid package in the previous week they raised Federal Councilors at their meeting today no objection. There was still criticism. For the SPÖ and FPÖ, this is not a sustainable solution to improve the sometimes desolate municipal finances.
A change in Housing and Heating Subsidy Actwhich means that the states can now use uncollected funds to support citizens for other areas, passed the Bundesrat without the SPÖ’s consent.
However, there was unanimous approval for the Anti-Fraud Act 2024 (Part 1 and Part 2), which is intended to take stricter action against fake companies. Initiatives for Increasing cybersecurity in the financial market as well as for the implementation of EU law to increase cybersecurity and regulate crypto markets were discussed and approved. It was also confirmed that the annual Account message for company employee pension plans will be transmitted electronically as standard in the future.
ÖVP and Greens welcome new municipal investment program
In order to improve the liquidity of the 2,093 Austrian municipalities and to enable investments and digital support measures for citizens, the government factions in the National Council launched a new aid package; it was approved by all parties in the Federal Council.
It is the fourth package since 2020. Specifically, the federal government will transfer an amount of €300 million to the municipalities in January 2025. In addition, €500 million will be made available for a new municipal investment program (KIP 2025). A particular focus of the new program is the promotion of the digital transition, for which €120 million alone will be distributed. So that the outstanding €400 million from the current program can also be collected, the application deadline is to be extended by two years until December 2026. Margit Göll (ÖVP/N) found the innovation in KIP 2025 “pleasing” in particular: municipalities would only have to cover a 20% share of the costs and the majority of the expenses for a project would be covered by the federal government. Previously it was 50%. The mayor emphasized that the aid packages had already enabled many projects to be realized in the past and that the infrastructure in the communities had been improved. Although efforts are being made to operate and work efficiently, fixed costs are increasing dramatically, while income is stagnating. That’s precisely why it’s “gratifying” that we’ve managed to put together an aid package again.
While Göll thanked the Ministry of Finance and the Lower Austrian Association of Municipalities for the “excellent negotiations”, she criticized FPÖ Federal Councilor Isabella Theuermann (FPÖ/K). Using the example of her hometown, the municipality of Wolfsberg, she made it clear that the resources would not be enough. “We already have a loss of €6 million in the supplementary estimate, Wolfsberg will receive €2.4 million from the municipal investment support package, the municipality will receive €868,000 as a one-off financial allocation and €1.4 million will be spread over four years and then still tied to investments. That means we have €350,000 available annually from the KIP,” says Theuermann. You basically need this sum every year to maintain ongoing operations. And Wolfsberg is not an isolated case: the first municipal insolvencies in Carinthia are already foreseeable in the third quarter – which is why the Federal Councilor called for a “sustainable solution” instead of “aid packages that are not”. The municipalities receive far too little from the federal government’s “bubbly tax revenues”. “We urgently need a renegotiation of the financial equalization.”
Federal Councilor Bettina Lancaster (SPÖ/Upper Austria) also spoke of the lack of sustainable solutions. Although one would of course welcome any measure that mitigates the “inability of the municipalities to act”, these are one-off payments. The vice-president of the association of municipalities was convinced that the municipalities would be kept on a tightrope, and how long that would be depends on the federal states and levies. In Upper Austria, for example, a budget proposal must be presented to the state government and approved before it is discussed in the local council. “The tight financial situation means that the voting results are available before the relevant local council meeting because the budget has to be decided as it was approved,” explained Lancaster. For this reason, she introduced a motion for a resolution in the Federal Council, calling on the Finance Minister to enter into discussions with community representatives about a community package worth €700 million as emergency aid without conditions for communities and cities – especially in structurally weak regions. for 2024 and 2025. The SPÖ also criticizes the KIP: because of the co-financing portion, structurally weak communities cannot afford to collect these funds at all.
The Styrian Green Party Federal Councilor Maria Huber, on the other hand, particularly welcomed the new KIP’s fact that half of the funds were reserved for projects in the areas of climate protection and climate change adaptation. She herself is a local councilor in Deutschlandsberg, where KIP funds have been used in the past to implement PV systems on community-owned buildings – a contribution to the environment and to reduce costs -, to expand street lighting using LEDs and to build a new fire station with modern sanitary facilities .
The SPÖ’s motion for a resolution did not receive approval in the Bundesrat. No objection was raised by the parties in the Federal Council to the resolution of the municipal aid package in the National Council.
Funds from unused housing and heating subsidies can now also be used for other purposes
Last year, the federal government granted the states a special-purpose grant totaling €675 million to help people meet increased housing and heating costs. Through an amendment to the Housing and Heating Subsidy Act, the National Council decided to allow the states to use unused funds for other additional aid in the areas of social affairs, assistance for the disabled, care and housing subsidies until the end of 2024. In the Federal Council, only the SPÖ raised objections to the decision. Barbara Lancester explained that when the special purpose grant was approved, there was criticism that it would not be easy to implement the law. Now the current amendment would say: “Regardless of whether you have paid it out or not, you can keep the money.” One cannot agree to this “lax handling” of tax money, emphasized Lancester.
Federal Council seals measures against fake companies with new anti-fraud law
As in the National Council, the legislative package to combat tax fraud by shell companies received unanimous approval in the Federal Council.
According to calculations by the Anti-Fraud Office, an unexplained outflow of cash amounting to €800 million per year is assumed via fake companies. Two government proposals for the Anti-Fraud Act 2024 (BBKG) regulate how fake companies and fake invoices should be combated. This is expected to generate around €60 million in additional duties and €30 million of this in taxes. Procedures should be accelerated and criminal liability with fictitious and cover invoices should be made more severe. (Federal Council conclusion) map
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