In German-speaking countries, Hauptwohnsitz () denotes the primary place of residence. In

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, the concept of Hauptwohnsitz has special legal ramifications, primarily involving

tax A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...

. In

the Hauptwohnsitzhelp.gv.at - ''Hauptwohnsitz''
(German language), accessed 10 August 2009. has an important meaning in the context of

financial Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

adjustment between the

federation A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

and the local

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

. On the basis of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

determined number of inhabitants with Hauptwohnsitz, the municipality receives its budget from the federal government. Hauptwohnsitze count themselves for a municipality in two regards: By the direct payment per head, and an increase in premiums after exceeding certain thresholds for the number of inhabitants. This leads to frequent censuses to match the budget of a municipality to its number of inhabitants. In fact, many municipalities are negatively affected by this system. The city of

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

, Austria's second largest city, counts about 300,000 registered Hauptwohnsitze, however, almost 340,000 people do have their main residence there, as there are many students still having their Hauptwohnsitz registered in their hometowns. Since those are not taken into account concerning fiscal distribution, Graz faces serious economic problems. Currently there are campaigns trying to motivate students having their Hauptwohnsitz registered there. The Hauptwohnsitz in

is based on the main center of ones' interest (''Lebensmittelpunkt'').''Melderechtsrahmengesetz''
(German language), § 12 (2) The Hauptwohnsitz is also the place in which one exercises the right to

vote Voting is the process of choosing officials or policies by casting a ballot, a document used by people to formally express their preferences. Republics and representative democracies are governments where the population chooses representative ...

, and where the municipal administration issues a citizen's

ID card ID or its variants may refer to: * Identity document, a document used to verify a person's identity * Identifier, a symbol which uniquely identifies an object or record People * I. D. Ffraid (1814–1875), Welsh poet and Calvinistic Methodist mi ...

and

passport A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that certifies a person's identity and nationality for international travel. A passport allows its bearer to enter and temporarily reside in a foreign country, access local aid ...

. The income tax revenue is split between the federal government, the

Land Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of Earth not submerged by the ocean or another body of water. It makes up 29.2% of Earth's surface and includes all continents and islands. Earth's land sur ...

government and the municipality where the respective taxpayer has their ''Hauptwohnsitz''. Apart from the ''Hauptwohnsitz'' a person can establish multiple secondary places of residence (''Nebenwohnsitze'', sg. ''Nebenwohnsitz'') where they are also registered as residents but do not have a right to vote. A number of German municipalities impose a secondary-residence tax (''Zweitwohnungssteuer'') on persons having such a secondary residence, the rationale for that being that they have to provide services to these persons but do not share in their income tax. On the other hand, the cost of a secondary residence (including the secondary-residence tax) for employment purposes is tax decuctible.{{cite web , last1=Schmidt , first1=Theresa , title=Zweitwohnungssteuer und doppelte Haushaltsführung {{! Steuern {{! Haufe , url=https://www.haufe.de/steuern/kanzlei-co/zweitwohnungssteuer-und-doppelte-haushaltsfuehrung_170_560024.html , website=Haufe.de News und Fachwissen , access-date=31 March 2023 , language=de , date=2022-02-24

References

Law of Germany Real property law

See also

References