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A. Schindelegger, L. Mayr:
"A tortuous path towards public value capture in spatial planning - Austrian experiences over the past 50 years";
Vortrag: 14th Conference of PLPR, Usti Nad Labem; 18.02.2020 - 21.02.2020.

The Austrian spatial planning regime was developed in the 1960/70s acknowledging the necessity for a coordinated spatial development within the national territory. Due to the federal principle legislation and executive powers were distributed among the federal state, the nine states as well as the municipalities leaving the latter in charge of zoning. Quickly a discussion on the usefulness of taxing increasing land values emerged but has not led to a comprehensive framework so far but instead to the establishment of independent measures.
From a constitutional point of view land value capture is perceived arguable by experts but exist in the first place only indirectly by property taxing instruments. Firstly, there is a land tax that stays with municipalities. Secondly, there exists an additional land value fee that has to be paid for zoned but undeveloped land. Additionally, the federal state introduced a general tax in case of a property transaction. It taxes 30% of the sale profit flowing into the national budget. So far a taxation connected to zoning decisions or detailed development plans does not exist. Besides the listed fiscal instruments, site specific planning contracts that oblige developers to pay for public infrastructure were recently introduced in Austria.
The contribution aims to explore the Austrian land taxation and value capture framework by discussing existing instruments in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, justice and legitimacy. The research is based on a descriptive desktop research as well as semi-structured expert interviews with participants from universities, the private research sector as well as public administration. The experts ought to assess the instruments they work with regarding the four parameters to identify the need for adaptations or additional instruments.

planning law, planning regulation, fiscal instruments, public value capture, planning increment