Tax Preferences, Partisanship and Perceptions of Society: Evidence from Austria

This article systematically investigates the attitudes of voters towards capital taxation and
further topics in the realm of the welfare state. We revisit various streams of literature and explore
which views, beliefs and perceptions are connected to tax preferences and how these perceptions
differ between various voting groups. Special weight is attached to questions of the distribution
of income, wealth and opportunities. Inference relies on the outcomes of two large scale online
surveys conducted in Austria. Our results suggest that, among others, opinions on fairness in
the economic system in general as well as perceptions of inequality are strong predictors of tax
preferences in Austria. In addition, these beliefs vary heavily across parties and are thus promising
candidates to explain the variation in tax preferences between different voting groups.