Minister Blümel presents the first balance sheet on the Austrian tax office
An initial balance sheet by the Austrian Tax Office (FAÖ), which started in January 2021, is positive, despite the additional challenges that had to be overcome due to the corona pandemic.
“With this reform, we have increased the service character in the financial administration and optimized the processes. For the citizens this brings improved processes and an acceleration of the procedures. The economy benefits from more efficient testing and control processes as well as more targeted action against black sheep, ”says ÖVP finance minister Gernot Blümel.
Five million calls
The success story of the Austrian Spiegel tax office is also broader in terms of numbers: in 2021, a little more than five million calls have been made to the tax authorities’ hotlines (including the Corona hotline), which has doubled compared to the 2000s and an increase of around 20 percent 2019 corresponds. Almost 90 percent of the citizens’ concerns could be clarified directly at the first contact.
Digital services are booming
When it comes to digital services, the financial administration has been a pioneer in the e-government sector with “FinanzOnline” for years, also at an international level. FinanzOnline 2021, which was introduced in 2003, carried out a comprehensive relaunch and has become even more modern.
The online service is not only used intensively by the younger generation. After all, more than 620,000 users are older than 65.
Citizen-oriented administration
“A citizen-friendly and service-oriented administration is important to me, which is why I am of course all the more pleased with the success story of FinanzOnline. We will continue to work on reducing bureaucracy and improving our online services, ”said Blümel.
Companies also benefit from the FAÖ service: a total of more than 2.1 million corporate assessments were made for large companies.