FAQs

What does this statistic contribute?

This new statistic presents the consolidated annual accounts for corporate income tax with the aim of obtaining a comprehensive view of the tax from a liquidation perspective. This statistic connects the tax settlement of the Group Consolidation Regime (form 220) with the individual information provided by the parent and subsidiary companies that comprise it in form 200. This information, together with the information provided in Form 200 for non-group companies, allows us to determine the consolidated net tax rate, which is the appropriate measure of the contribution to the State's tax revenue of all companies.

What is the profit rate and what does it represent?

A company's profit is the reference magnitude equivalent to the entity's income or value generation, constituting the relevant element for applying it to results, remunerating its shareholders through dividends, offsetting accounting losses from other periods, and allocating voluntary or statutory reserves. The effective rate on profit is defined as the net tax rate divided by the profit and represents the percentage of profits the company contributes directly to the state's tax revenue.

What is the tax base rate and what does it represent?

The taxable base is the amount of tax on which the legal rates are applied, resulting in the full amount. The difference between this tax base and the profits obtained by the company are the corrections to the accounting results contemplated by law. These corrections vary widely. Some are technical in nature (differences between accounting and tax regulations), others constitute tax benefits, and others, such as adjustments or reductions for double taxation, are based on decisions regarding the treatment of certain income. The effective rate on the tax base is defined as the net tax divided by the tax base. The differences between this effective rate and the legal rate are due to the bonuses and deductions that separate the full rate from the net rate.

What is better to use: the rate on profit or the rate on the taxable base?

Either type of data can be obtained from the published data, and each user can consider one or the other depending on the objectives of their analysis.

 The advantages of the effective rate on profits are three: One, its calculation method is similar to that used in other taxes (for example, in Personal Income Tax a similar rate is calculated by dividing the accrued tax by the gross income of taxpayers) and in international comparisons (to avoid differences in the legislation of each country); Two, it allows the evolution of the tax burden to be monitored independently of regulatory changes, which affect the tax base, but not profits; and three, it facilitates comparison between different groups of taxpayers with different levels of use of tax benefits (which in Corporate Income Tax can be reflected either in adjustments to the accounting result or in deductions from the total amount) or with different methods of calculating the tax (individual versus consolidated declaration).

How important are adjustments to accounting results in determining the Consolidated Tax Base?

The structure of adjustments to the accounting result includes all the modifications or corrections that must be made to the result until the Consolidated Tax Base is obtained. From a qualitative point of view, there are two types of adjustments: those included in the individual accounts (form 200) and consolidation adjustments (form 220). In the case of groups, net adjustments represent a higher percentage of profit than in non-groups. It's important to review the results by accounting result sign because it can be seen that adjustments are also very significant in loss-making companies.

Where does the number of employees come from?

The number of employees used for classification by size is obtained in all cases from the information provided in Form 200, such that in the groups it is obtained by accumulating the sum of employees of all the companies in the group. In this tax source, the company provides the average number of permanent salaried and non-salaried staff based on monthly information on the employed workforce. It should be noted that this employment measure differs from those presented in the labor market statistics published by the AEAT, whose source of information is Form 190, given the limitations of this source in determining the period during which employees have actually worked.

How are large groups assigned to their business sectors, and what is the difference between entity type and business sector?

Determining a group's sector of activity, especially if it comprises a significant number of companies, is complicated and not without certain conventions. For this statistic, the business figures of the participants have been accumulated at the level of 10 CNAE groups, choosing the one with the largest amount. Subsequently, for publication purposes, the tables show 5 large sectors of activity whose correspondence with the CNAE classification is presented in the methodology. Regarding the type of entity, this classification is linked to the accounting regulations to which the taxpayer must adhere: If it is the general accounting regulations, it is included in Non-financial Companies; If it complies with Circular 5/2014 of the Bank of Spain, it is classified within Credit Institutions; and if Royal Decree 1317/2008 (amended by Royal Decree 1736/2010) applies to it, it will be part of the Insurance Entities. These last two, along with companies that carry out financial or insurance activities and follow general accounting regulations, make up the financial sector within the classification of activities.

What is the difference between the rates obtained in this statistic and others calculated from information from the CNMV or information provided by companies?

All tax rates have the same purpose (to measure the tax burden to which the taxpayer is subject) and the same structure (tax divided by an economic or tax variable). The differences arise when choosing the variables to be used in the numerator and denominator. In the case of the rates used in these statistics and, in general, in the statistics published by the AEAT, the numerator is always the tax actually paid by the taxpayer to the State. However, when calculating rates with sources other than tax, the variable chosen for the numerator is usually not that. The most common thing is that in these types the tax on profits that appears in the company accounting is used as an approximation to the tax paid, and that is not a concept comparable to the result of models 200 and 220; either a measure that includes taxes paid abroad and therefore does not affect state revenues; either a variable that incorrectly includes other taxes paid by the taxpayer in its mere intermediary function (for example, when the VAT paid by the company is added to the tax paid by the company).

How is it possible for groups to make profits if the accounting result is negative?

In groups, the accounting result is the sum of the results, whether profits or losses, of all the companies belonging to the group and, therefore, is the result corresponding to the group as a whole. In tables that classify according to accounting result, it may be the case that the accounting result is negative, but a positive amount appears in the profit variable. This result is explained because, although a group as a whole has losses, some of its members may individually have benefits.