Parliamentary Budget Office

Key analyses

A selection of recent work is provided below. The analyses are available only in German.

Compared to the result 2024 expenditures will rise by 2.1% to 123.1 billion Euros in 2025. Revenues will increase by 3.5% to 105.1 billion Euros. In 2026 expenditures will further increase by 2.1% to 125.9 billion Euros and revenues by 2.3% to 107.6 billion Euros

Budget analysis 2025 and 2026

The current drafts for the 2025 and 2026 federal finance acts envisage a moderate consolidation path. The budget deficit is expected to fall to 4.2% of GDP in 2026 and to 2.8% by 2029.

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The graph shows the redistributive effect of pensions, transfers, and taxes in Austria in 2024. Taking these income components into account reduces the Gini coefficient gradually from 0.49 by 47% to 0.26, and the S80/S20 ratio falls by 57% from 9.21 to 3.93

Income redistribution and development 2019 to 2024

At the request of Member of Parliament Andreas Hanger (ÖVP), the redistributive effect of the tax and transfer system and the income development from 2019 to 2024 are analysed.

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Expenditures from January to December 2024 amounted to 120.7 billion Euros and were therefore 10.5 % higher than in the same period of the previous year. At 101.6 billion Euros, revenues were 0.3 % higher

Budget implementation January to December 2024

The deficit of the federal government amounted to 19.1 billion Euros in 2024 and was therefore 11.1 billion Euros higher than in 2023 but 1.7 billion Euros lower than budgeted.

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The tax-to-GDP ratio according to Indicator IV fluctuated between 41.8 % and 45.6 % of GDP in the period from 1995 to 2023, while the long-term average was 43.5 %. The tax-to-GDP ratio, according to Indicator II, is slightly lower and developed largely in parallel with Indicator IV

Tax ratio in Austria and in international comparison

At the request of Member of Parliament Hubert Fuchs (FPÖ), the Budget Office examined the tax ratio and the burden on the labor factor in Austria and also made international comparisons.

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Compensation for the bracket creep in 2025

The analysis explains the measures to compensate for the bracket creep in 2025 and describes their financial impact and distributional effects.

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Of the 119 impact targets contained in the Federal Finance Act 2023, 24.4 % were achieved above budget, 37.0 % were achieved in full, 26.9 % were mostly achieved, 10.1 % were partially achieved and 1.7 % were not achieved

Report on impact orientation 2023

The report includes the results of the internal evaluations of the impact orientation contained in the 2023 budget.

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All key analyses

The analyses are available only in German.

Budget
The Budget Office prepares analyses of the annual budget, the federal financial framework, budget execution, the long-term budget forecast, and of items submitted within the European Semester.

Analyses upon request
The Budget Office prepares analyses upon request of Members of the Budget Committee.

Analyses of legislative proposals
The Budget Office analyses legislative proposals of budgetary significance and their impact assessments.

Performance and gender budgeting
The Budget Office conducts analyses of performance budgeting and its implementation, with a focus on gender budgeting.

About us

The Budget Office supports the National Council in its control function vis‑à‑vis the government by providing independent expertise on issues of public finance. It advises the Budget Committee with analyses of the budget and (legislative) proposals as well as of fiscal policy, economic, and budgetary issues.

All analyses conducted by the Budget Office are publicly available on the Parliament's website. Fiscal transparency helps to reduce information asymmetries between Parliament and Government in budgetary issues and contributes to greater accountability in public finances.

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Budget visualization

The interactive budget visualization provides a quick and transparent overview of the details of the current budget and developments in previous years. The charts and tables help users to understand the relationships between budget allocations or to explore the revenues from individual taxes. A separate interactive visualization highlights where the budget outcomes deviated most significantly from the plan. Other graphs provide monthly updates on budget execution and display important macroeconomic and government finance data and forecasts. The budget visualization is available only in German.

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Publications

Selected publications by employees of the Budget Office:

Johann Seiwald, Petra Gschiel (2023): "Digital Transformation – Lessons from Austrian Budget Practices", IMF Public Financial Management (PFA) Blog.
Tobias Polzer, Johann Seiwald (2022): "Debate: The role of intermediaries between demand and supply of performance information. The missing link?", Public Money & Management.
Julia Bachtrögler-Unger, Julia Bock-Schappelwein, Paul Eckerstorfer, Peter Huber, Christine Mayrhuber, Mark Sommer, Gerhard Streicher (2020): "The economic impact of increasing equality between women and men", WIFO-Monatsberichte, Vol. 93 (12), S. 899‑908. The publication is available only in German.
Marian Fink, Jitka Janová, Danuše Nerudová, Jan Pavel, Margit Schratzenstaller, Friedrich Sindermann, Martin Spielauer (2019): "(Gender-differentiated) Effects of Changes in Personal Income Taxation", Intereconomics, Vol. 54, S. 146‑154.
Marian Fink, Jitka Janová, Danuše Nerudová, Jan Pavel, Margit Schratzenstaller, Friedrich Sindermann, Martin Spielauer (2019): "Policy Recommendations on the Gender Effects of Changes in Tax Bases, Rates, and Units: Results of Microsimulation Analyses for Six Selected EU Member States", FairTax Working Paper Series No. 24.