6. Other taxes
In 2018 tax revenues from figures other than the four main amounted to 10,284 million, with an increase of 4.8% compared to the previous year (in 2017 the growth was 3.9%).
The Non-Resident Income Tax closed the year with a total revenue of 2,665 million, 17.2% more than in 2017. This is the fourth year in which annual growth has exceeded 15%, which has allowed this figure to recover some of the weight it had years ago (in 2018, this income accounted for 1.3% of total tax revenue, compared to 1.6% in 2009 and 2010). Three-quarters of the growth was due to the increase in withholdings and payments on account, growth linked to the positive development of dividends and other capital income. The rest of the growth came from the annual declaration, which returned to positive territory in 2018.
The environmental taxes , which include direct environmental taxation and the indirect Tax on Fluorinated Gases, amounted to a total of 1,981 million (1,872 direct and 110 indirect), 2.8% more than in 2017. Within these figures, the one that brings in the most revenue is the Tax on the Value of Electrical Production. In 2018, its revenues amounted to 1,586 million, with an increase of 5% compared to 2017. It should be noted that the evolution of these revenues is irregular as it depends on the price of electricity production in the wholesale markets and this has led to sharp falls in some years and subsequent recoveries. Excluding the year of implementation and 2016 (with an exceptional drop in prices), the average revenue is 1.54 billion, a figure close to that recorded this year. A notable difference in 2018 is the considerable difference between the tax accrued and the income. The reason is the elimination of the tax in the fourth quarter of 2018 and the first of 2019 within the measures contained in Royal Decree-Law 15/2018, of urgent measures for the energy transition and consumer protection. The tax accrued in the fourth quarter would have been paid in 2019, so it did not affect the 2018 collection, although it did affect the measurement of income in terms of accrual.
In Chapter II of indirect taxes, the other figures different from VAT and Special Taxes with the greatest weight in income are the Common Foreign Traffic Tax (Table 6.3) and the Tax on Insurance Premiums (Table 6.4). The former's 2018 revenues fell by 1.1% to €1.906 billion. The evolution is consistent with the slowdown observed in imports (Table 1.1). The tax on insurance premiums raised 1,504 million euros, 3.8% more than in 2017. In this case, as in others seen throughout the report, the last four years of continued growth have led this tax to exceed the maximum previously recorded, specifically in 2008.
Collection from Fees and other revenues of Chapter III decreased slightly (0.3%) (Table 1.6), although the result is the product of two very different behaviors that almost offset each other: Rates fell by 11% (84 million less than in 2017), while other income increased by 6.4% (78 million more). The reason for the decrease in rates (Table 6.5) was the fall in income from the Fee for the use of inland waters for the production of electric energy (-43.9%, 86 million), affected by the drought of 2017 (a year that was settled in 2018) and despite the increase in the rate that came into force in 2018. As for other revenues, they recovered slightly from the fall they recorded in 2017 after the peak reached in 2016, but, in any case, the importance of these revenues within the total collection remained in 2018 below their historical percentages.