Tax transactions at Palais Liechtenstein are checked
The ÖVP U-Committee will examine tax transactions relating to investments by the Liechtenstein Princely Family in the Vienna City Palace. Chats brought up by Thomas Schmid and Gabriela Spiegelfeld during the survey of ex-Finance Minister Hans Jörg Schelling (ÖVP) raise the question of interventions for tax classification.
The Greens, with the consent of all parliamentary groups, have requested appropriate files from the Ministry of Finance, the Mittagsjournal reported yesterday. The Ministry of Finance will collect and deliver the documents within the three-week period.
In July 2017, Spiegelfeld – entrepreneur and advisor to ex-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) – wrote to Schmid, Secretary General in the Ministry of Finance, that the “Prince of Liechtenstein was upset” because his investments in Bankgasse were to be affected as a hobby. As Greens parliamentary group leader Nina Tomaselli explained, this would have required a substantial additional tax payment.
“Oh god, I’ll take care of it”
“Oh God, I’ll take care of it,” Schmid answered – and Spiegelfeld was satisfied: “Perfect, we’ll need the Liechtensteins.” Schelling, when asked in the U-Committee, could not remember such a tax case.
According to “Standard” (weekend edition), the matter is about the renovation of the city palace in Vienna’s Bankgasse in the 1st district, which will last until 2013. The costs for this amounted to around 100 million euros – if investments do not pay off economically, they can be affected by finance as a “hobby” and the 20 percent sales tax deducted in advance can be made due at once.
According to the Liechtenstein group, there was then a large-scale audit that lasted six years. Among other things, it was a question of whether the renovation had not been uneconomical and whether the palace had been used privately rather than for business purposes.
Liechtenstein Group: letter to Kurz, Löger and Blümel
The Liechtenstein Group argues that the palace was rented out all the time and that in recent years the proceeds were even higher than expected. Prince’s son Constantin Liechtenstein therefore wrote in 2019 (i.e. two years after the chats between Schmid and Spiegelfeld, note) to the founded Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Finance Minister Hartwig Löger and Chancellery Minister Gernot Blümel (all ÖVP). However, the letter remained unanswered. The Liechtenstein Group did not want to answer how the tax case ended.