The Austrian tax authorities have seized a luxury villa belonging to real estate investor René Benko, who has been affected by bankruptcies.
As can be seen from the land register, the tax office in Vienna has registered a lien worth around 12 million euros for the property in the Igls district of Innsbruck, as the authority believes that sales taxes of this amount are outstanding. The villa belongs to a company that in turn is owned by a Benko family foundation. The foundation informed the German Press Agency on Tuesday that the taxes had been refunded by the tax office in the past and were now being claimed wrongly. Austrian media had previously reported on the seizure.
However, the Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday that such refunded taxes will become open tax debts again if the tax office comes to the conclusion that a property is not used commercially. The villa is considered one of Benko’s residences. The lien, which is now in the land register similar to a bank mortgage, serves to secure outstanding claims. This does not necessarily mean that the villa will be auctioned by the state.
The most important parts of the Signa real estate and trading group built by Benko are insolvent. Last week, the luxury real estate unit Signa Prime (KaDeWE, Elbtower) and the real estate development company Signa Development filed for bankruptcy. Benko’s company network, which also includes the Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof department store group, is faltering due to increased interest rates, construction costs and energy prices.