Newspaper cancellation fee

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The newspaper stamp fee was a fee introduced under Joseph II in 1789 and finally abolished in 1899, which had to be paid to the prince for each published copy of an edition. However, the "Wienerische Diarium" (later: Wiener Zeitung ), the "Brünner Zeitung" and the advertising papers were excluded.

purpose

The newspaper stamp fee was the Austrian variant of a newspaper tax , the payment of which was controlled with a newspaper stamp . These taxes were introduced in various countries with the advent of printed newsletters with political content from the beginning of the 17th century in order to increase tax revenues , but also to make it more difficult for the broad masses of the population to access the new source of information. With the implementation of the basic principle of freedom of the press , the tax could no longer be kept and was gradually abolished by the states in the 19th century.

history

Introduced for Austria by decree by Joseph II in 1789, it was levied for all national newspapers and newspapers imported from abroad from 1803 after a temporary suspension. A fee stamp (“Signette”) was stamped on the title page to identify the payment made.

Due to the effects of the March Revolution , the fee for domestic newspapers was temporarily abolished from late 1850 to late 1857. An imperial ordinance (No. 221. RGB of November 14, 1857) reintroduced a fee stamp (“newspaper stamp signette”, also known as the eagle signette ). For foreign newspapers, stamps were also used for the first time from March 1853, the so-called "newspaper stamps". After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise , Hungarian newspaper stamps and newspaper stamps were issued from June 20, 1968.

Up until 1899, domestic newspapers that appeared at least once a week had to be paid the fee of one kreuzer, and foreign newspapers of one or two kreuzers if they were not pure trade journals without advertisements. Then this tax was also abolished in Austria-Hungary, after this step, based on freedom of the press, had already been taken in England (1855), Germany (1874) and France (1881). The "Illustrierte Kronenzeitung", today's Kronen Zeitung , was the first paper to take advantage of the final abolition of the stamp tax at the end of 1899 with its first edition on January 2nd, 1900.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Carsten Mintert: Newspaper stamp fees as Canceller of fiscal stamps. In: ArGe Fiskalphilatelie, volume 42. Arbeitsgemeinschaft Fiskalphilatelie e. V., International Association for Classical and Modern Fiscal Philately, accessed on May 31, 2020 .
  2. ^ The newspaper stamp - also a stamp tax. Wolfgang Morscheck, Baden-Württemberg, archived from the original on February 26, 2008 ; accessed on May 31, 2020 (original website no longer available).
  3. ↑ Karl Peter Elis: Styrian printing history. Year 1900. Druckmuseum, Graz, 1982, accessed on May 31, 2020 .