Roof tax

The roof tax was a form of wealth tax known , for example, from ancient Rome , the Habsburg Danube monarchy and Ireland . This form of tax was introduced several times in Austria, around the end of the 18th century by Emperor Joseph II . The amount of the tax was calculated on the basis of the roof area . Another variant was the smoke catch money introduced in 1572 to finance the Turkish wars .

In Austria, many castles and other less intensively used buildings were therefore covered and abandoned in order to save money. This was the case, for example, with the Rauhenstein castle ruins near Baden near Vienna , the Glanegg castle ruins in Carinthia , the Altschielleiten ruins , Klaus Castle and the former Zagging Castle . The copper roof of Burg Gallenstein was also covered and sold to a coppersmith .

Individual evidence

1. ^ In particular the 4 percent roof tax for senators See Karl Hönn: Augustus und seine Zeit. 4th, improved edition. Seidel, Vienna 1953, p. 30.
2. ^ Roman Sandgruber : Economy and Politics. Austrian economic history from the Middle Ages to the present (= Herwig Wolfram : Austrian history. ). Ueberreuter, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-8000-3531-6 , p. 224: "The consequence of the ill-considered roof tax was that the owners of buildings that were no longer needed simply had the roofs removed and numerous extensive aristocratic castles turned into ruins."

See also

List of no longer levied tax types