The Reichsabgabe was a tax on the postal traffic, levied in the German Empire during the First World War.
The tax was announced in the ‘Tariff Law’ (Gebührengesetz) of 21 June 1916 and became effective with the new postal rates of 1 August 1916.
In practice the Reichsabgabe meant a raising of the postal rates, the revenues of which streamed into the treasury of the State instead of the treasury of the Deutsche Reichspost, the German postal service.
The increase of the postal rates was confined to domestic letters and postcards; international mail and printed matters were excepted.
The Reichsabgabe was ended on 1 October 1919 in conformance to a law of 8 September 1919.