History of the National Treasury
The Landeskasse can claim to be the oldest office of the Liechtenstein national administration. The term Rentmeister or Rentamt appears in the sources since the 17th century. The Rentmeister was the manorial financial official who had to take care of all monetary and accounting transactions and keep records of them. Even though he was subordinate to the bailiff, care was taken to keep the financial administration separate from the political and judicial administration. The accounts submitted annually by the Rentmeister were checked and "found fault with" by the princely central accounting department in Butschowitz.
From 1807, the Rentamt was also responsible for the apportionment and collection of state taxes, although the execution of this task was transferred to the municipalities. A clear separation of the state accounts from the princely revenues and expenditures did not occur until the course of the 19th century. Since 1844, the county (=state) books of account were kept separately from the princely rent office accounts. in 1854 the Rentamt was renamed Landeskasse and the Rentmeister Landeskassenverwalter. The importance of this office is also evident from the fact that its duties are outlined both in the old service instructions and in the various constitutions. According to the Constitution and the Office Instruction of 1862, the National Treasury not only had to manage the national assets and the various public funds, but was also (co-)responsible for the proper administration of the orphans' assets. It was newly placed under the control of the Diet. in 1864, the Landeskasse was also entrusted with the administration of the newly established Sparkassa. For this activity, the Landeskasse administrator received 10% of the profits of the Landschaftliche Spar- und Leihkasse.
After the entry into force of the 1921 Constitution, a thorough review of the organization and accounting took place. The verdict of the consulted (Swiss) experts on the old (Austrian) bureaucratic methods was scathing. As a result, the bookkeeping was modernized. Auditing by the princely accounting department was abandoned and external auditors from Switzerland were brought in instead. in 1923, a tax administration separate from the State Treasury was created. Similarly, the separation of the savings bank from the Landeskasse was initiated, as the savings bank customers should not get the impression that the tax authorities had insight into the bank records. Complete separation did not occur until the Landesbank was established in 1929.
In the following decades, relatively little changed in the basic tasks of the Landeskasse, but the scope of the tasks grew constantly and the working methods had to be modernized again and again (e.g. through the introduction of a contemporary chart of accounts or EDP, which revolutionized accounting).
By Paul Vogt, former national archivist