Vienna, April 14, 2026
The Austrian Pensioners' Association has launched a petition campaign advocating for new taxes on wealth and artificial intelligence (AI) to address budget shortfalls, arguing that corporations have benefited from excessive relief while pensioners face financial strain.
Birgit Gerstorfer, president of the association, emphasized that funding solutions should target wealth-related taxes, including a proposed "AI tax" to mitigate job losses caused by automation. "The counterfinancing is, from our perspective, to be found in the area of wealth-related taxes," Gerstorfer stated. "This involves questions of millionaire taxes, inheritance taxes, corporate taxes, bank levies, and, quite new, an AI tax, which indeed puts many jobs at risk."
Wealth Taxes and Corporate Relief
Gerstorfer criticized recent corporate tax cuts, arguing that large companies have enjoyed significant relief while continuing to complain about high labor costs. "Dadurch seien Konzerne in den vergangenen Jahren in den Genuss einer 'riesigen Entlastung' gekommen, gleichzeitig werden sie aber nicht müde, 'Lieder von zu hohen Lohnnebenkosten zu singen'," she said.
The association also called for a broader discussion on wealth taxation to avoid pitting low-income groups against each other. "Auch werde man nicht darum umhinkommen, eine Diskussion um die Besteuerung von Vermögen zu führen, 'statt die Armen gegen die Armen auszuspielen'," Gerstorfer added. She stressed that the wealthiest should not be exempt from contributing to fiscal solutions.