Abstract The tax and social contribution ratio in Austria is very high by European standards, taxes on income in particular. This is reflected in a very wide tax wedge between labour costs and net income. The particularly high inflation in Austria in recent years has led to high wage increases and a loss of competitiveness. Based on a model analysis, it is shown that a reduction of taxes on the wage-sum by 1.4 % of GDP dampens the development of wage costs and increases employment by around 0.9 % or 40,000 persons. In addition, the reform reduces the GDP deflator by 0.9 to 0.7 percentage points and implies an increase in the real export volume by 1.4 % in the first three years.