2023-12-22 03:04:43
For the fifth consecutive year, the Treasury is on its way to breaking a new record for tax collection at the end of the year. The State coffers will receive the historic figure of 255,463 million euros – according to the latest National Accounting data -, which is 14.4% more than what was collected last year and 32,000 million more than in the previous year. But this revenue record has a catch: it has not been due, as expected, to the improvement in consumption – which should have triggered VAT revenues thanks to inflation – nor to business momentum – with a significant take-off in collection by Companies. –, not even because of the new taxes –on banking, energy companies, large fortunes or plastics, among other tax figures–. The reality is that the bulk of this record achieved by the Treasury must be targeted at the pockets of the middle class and their contribution through personal income tax.
The income bracket that goes from 15,000 – from which you are obliged to make the declaration – and up to 60,000 euros per year are those that have contributed 95% of that income. That is, the middle class has been the one that has borne most of the growing tax pressure since Pedro Sánchez first entered the nation’s Government in 2018. Specifically, the bulk of taxpayers that make up this middle class are in the brackets of 21,000 to 60,000 euros per year, which total almost eight million people, to which a portion of incomes less than 21,000 euros would have to be added.
Tax revenue T. GallardoLa Razón
The figures are clear: in October 2018, personal income tax income reached 70,378 million euros, while in October 2023 the figure has risen to 101,586 million, a difference of 31,208 million charged to the pockets of class households. average, 44% more, while in the two other large income sections, Companies and VAT, the increases are clearly lower. Thus, the 62,835 million collected by VAT in 2018 are 21% from the 76,030 million in 2023. In the same sense, the 22,697 million paid by companies in 2018 grew to 30,350 million in October of this year, 7,653 million and a 25% more, but that is almost half of what Spanish households have contributed more in five years.
If the comparison is made with the last year, the dynamics are very similar. The 101,586 million collected by Personal Income Tax until October of this year separate them by 8,869 million from the 92,717 million in 2022, while for Companies the year-on-year increase has been 1,038 million and in VAT, 7,015 million. This means that families have supported 75% of the increase in collection, which between the three concepts totals more than 11.7 billion.
Although the component of improved income and employment should be taken into account in the composition of these figures, their growth figures are well below the level reached by personal income tax collection, especially due to the accumulated loss of purchasing power. , both due to growing inflationary pressure and due to the Executive’s refusal to deflate personal income tax. Likewise, excluding incomes of 60,000 euros or more per year, the bulk of the income of the middle-grade taxpayer segment has therefore assumed almost 75% of the extraordinary effort in the absence of tax benefits, such as the aforementioned deflation.
Collection has also benefited from the 3,528 million received from the new taxes on banking, energy companies and large fortunes, and from the 364 million from the new tax on Non-Reusable Plastic (IEEPNR). That is to say, within non-financial resources, these new tax figures have allowed a joint collection of 3,892 million to date.
But this record of income has not helped the Executive to reduce the deficit and debt in the same proportion, which although it has been reduced in percentage terms, continues to set historical records month after month. The Bank of Spain published this week that the debt of all public administrations was reduced in the third quarter of the year to 109.9% of GDP, 1.3 points less compared to the previous quarter and 4.1 points lower than that of a year ago, but it marked a new record amount of 1.57 billion euros.
Faced with this situation, the Deputy Secretary of Economy of the PP, Juan Bravo, warned yesterday that the Government will have to “raise taxes worth 24,000 million, which will come out of the effort and pockets of the Spanish people. The numbers show that those who are paying for the spending spree are the middle and low incomes with personal income tax. “It cannot be that the same people always lose and the Government wins.”
By 2024, the Executive estimates that the collection of all taxes will continue to grow and reach 382,755 million in 2024, 7.5% more, after projecting that the total income of all Public Administrations will represent 42% of the GDP in 2024 , up to 648,660 million euros in National Accounting terms. Taxes on Income and Wealth will once again experience the greatest growth, estimated to reach 202,162 million, which implies an increase of 8.8%. Specifically, the figure forecast for personal income tax has a forecast growth of 5.4%. For corporate tax, they also plan an increase, but in this case it will be at lower rates than in other years and, of course, than in personal income tax.
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