[Wortmeldung zur Enquete über die Reform der Gebäudesteuer: 1. Dezember 1903]

Friedrich von Wieser: Intervention on Building-Tax Reform

Published in 1904, this brief hearing intervention records Wieser’s question during the ninth session, held on 1 December 1903. Responding to another expert’s account of declining house-property values in Salzburg, Wieser asks whether the decline is specific to housing or extends to other assets, and whether taxation alone explains it.

Wenn es erlaubt ist, daß ich in so vorgerückter Stunde an den Herrn Experten eine Frage richte, so möchte ich anknüpfend an die höchst interessante Mitteilung desselben über die fortschreitende Entwertung der Hausrealitäten in Salzburg an ihn die Frage stellen, ob diese Entwertung lediglich bei den Hausrealitäten stattfindet, oder ob vielleicht die Entwertung auch bei den übrigen Vermögensobjekten, beim Grundbesitz oder bei Anlagepapieren stattfindet und ob der Herr Experte meint, daß dies lediglich auf die hohe Steuerlast und Steuerumlagen zurückzuführen ist.

English translation: If I may address a question to the expert at so late an hour, I should like, following his highly interesting communication about the progressive depreciation of house properties in Salzburg, to ask him whether this depreciation occurs only in house properties, or whether depreciation perhaps also occurs in other assets, in landed property or in investment securities, and whether the expert believes that this is attributable solely to the heavy tax burden and tax surcharges.

Wieser’s conceptual move is comparative: a claim about the effects of building taxation needs to distinguish a housing-specific decline from a wider depreciation of assets. His final question separately tests the exclusivity of the proposed fiscal explanation. The intervention offers neither a demonstrated causal conclusion nor a reform programme; its significance lies in identifying what further evidence the hearing needs. No answer is included in this extract.