Accrued taxes and tax revenues
In 2020, taxes accrued decreased by 9.1% (Table 1.4). In the case of the four main groups of taxes, the drop was somewhat smaller, 8.7% (Table 1.3). The rate is similar to that recorded by tax revenues (-8.8%). The conceptual differences that separate these measures were canceled in 2020 (change from accrual to cash in Chart 1.17). It must be taken into account that, with respect to accrual, the variation in cash income was positively affected by the impact of regulatory and management changes (particularly by the extraordinary returns that were made in 2019). , but, negatively, due to the payment of the high refund requests that had been submitted that year and were made in 2020.
As has just been said, one of the reasons why income moved at a different pace from that observed in taxes accrued, and in general from the trajectory followed by activity and consumption indicators, was the impact they had in 2020 regulatory and management changes. These influenced the rate of variation of income for the year as a whole (their effect was estimated at 2,940 million, 1.4 growth points), but above all they affected its distribution within the year given that the most relevant consisted of the payment deferral.
When analyzing regulatory and management measures, the first thing to do is separate two clearly differentiated blocks. On the one hand, measures unrelated to COVID would be included, which were, for the most part, prior to its appearance. The impact of this group of measures was positive, worth almost 4 billion. On the other hand, there would be the different types of measures that have been taken since mid-March, most of them with the aim of limiting the effects of the pandemic on taxpayers' obligations. Together these measures subtracted just over 1,000 million from the collection. The characteristic of these other measures was that in many cases they involved the postponement or delay of payment, so that their impact was very uneven throughout the year, leading to a loss of income in the first months of their entry into force. of more than 4,300 million, the impact progressively moderating in the following months as these deferred obligations were entered.
Regarding the measures unrelated to COVID, a good part are not impacts specific to 2020, but to 2019, but they must be taken into account when affecting the variation rate between both years. This situation includes refunds for maternity benefits in personal income tax, those derived from rulings in Corporate Tax and Inheritance and Donation Tax, and credits for DTA (Deferred Tax Assets) also in Companies. All of them were carried out in an extraordinary way in 2019, negatively altering the comparison with the previous year and the opposite in 2020. Other impacts, although they occurred in 2020, were also a consequence of previous decisions. This was the case of the effect in 2019 on the annual personal income tax payment of the settlement of the tax associated with maternity benefits paid in 2018 (before the ruling) and the expansion of family deductions (started in 2018, but completed in 2019 return filed in 2020); from the increase in income due to the recovery of the Tax on the Value of Electrical Energy Production; the increase in the collection of the Hydrocarbon Tax due to the transfer to 2020 of part of the income derived from the change in the regional rate that took place in 2019; and the losses due to the Lottery Tax when the exemption threshold is raised. In addition, extraordinary income and refunds were recorded in the Corporate Tax due to rulings issued in 2020; In the former, the amount was 1,081 million and in the latter, 406 million (the interest generated by the declaration of unconstitutionality of RDL 2/2016, which modified the way in which installment payments were calculated).
For their part, the measures approved to combat the consequences of COVID can be grouped into three types. First of all, there are measures aimed at facilitating compliance with tax obligations. This group includes the delay in the presentation of self-assessments from April 15 to May 20 for companies with a transaction volume of less than 600 thousand euros (RDL 14/2020); the granting of deferrals to companies with a volume of operations not exceeding 6 million euros and tax debt of less than 30 thousand euros (RDL 7/2020), to those with debts derived from customs declarations (except VAT; RDL 11/2020) and to taxpayers awaiting the granting of the financing included in RDL 8/2020 (RDL 15/2020); and the suspension of deadlines for tax debts (RDL 8/2020 and RDL 15/2020), derived, among others, from the expirations of the deferral and fractionation agreements granted prior to the state of alarm (deadlines that, at the time of strict confinement, with the closure of offices, could be difficult to comply). In all three cases it is a deferral of payments by taxpayers. Therefore, the initial impact that these measures had was diluted as the months went by. The first measure (delay in submitting self-assessments) was, in this sense, an extreme case: The negative impact occurred in April and was fully recovered in May. In the other two (postponements and suspension) the initial impact (2,584 million and 1,629, respectively) was reduced as the deferred amounts were entered, especially in the months of October and November, coinciding with the end of the six-month period granted. . Not all amounts were recovered during the year, so the annual impact was negative.
In this regard, it must be clarified that the figure of deferrals mentioned above (2,584 million) does not strictly correspond to those requested under RDL 7, 11 and 15 (worth 2,511 million) as it also includes other deferrals that, without adjusting Due to the conditions of these RDLs, they were classified as extraordinary in nature with respect to the normal evolution of the series. For practical purposes, the difference between considering one figure or the other is not very important, especially considering that the recovery rate of the two types of deferrals was similar (until the end of the year, approximately 92% of the amounts involved in the deferrals granted were recovered. ).
The second type of measures were those that aimed to reduce installment payments by small businesses. This was done through two means. The first was the possibility of changing the method of settlement of installment payments, an option that was approved in RDL 15/2020. This RDL allowed, on the one hand, to apply the direct estimate in personal income tax in 2020 without preventing the return to the objective estimate in 2021, and, on the other, in the Corporate Tax to be taxed according to the profits actually obtained instead of for the last annual fee presented. In the latter case, in the first payment taxpayers with a transaction volume of less than 600 thousand euros were eligible, and from the second payment also those with a transaction volume of less than 6 million. The second way was the elimination in the objective estimate of the calculation as days of carrying out the activity, of the calendar days in which the state of alarm had been declared (RDL 15/2020).
And the third type of measures were those related to VAT, which were presented in three forms: possibility of changing the method of settlement and eliminating days in a state of alarm for taxpayers covered by the Simplified Regime (RDL 15/2020), similar to taxpayers in objective estimation of personal income tax; application of zero rate on intra-community deliveries, imports and acquisitions of goods necessary to combat the effects of COVID whose recipients were public entities, clinics and hospital centers or private entities of a social nature (RDL 15/2020; initially from April 22 to July 31, although it was later extended); and the reduction of the rate to 4% for digital books, newspapers and magazines (RDL 15/2020). Other VAT rate reductions were also approved (to 4% for surgical masks when the recipient is different from those who benefit from the 0% rate), but due to their approval date (RDL 34/2020, of December 17 November) its effects only began to be noticed in income in 2021.
Detailing by figures the tax accrued and income, in 2020 the personal income tax accrued was practically the same as in 2019 (+0.1%; Table 2.1). The slight fall in family income was offset by the increase in the effective rate, an increase that was due more to changes in the composition of the tax than to the effect of regulatory measures, which, in terms of accrual, had hardly any impact.
Withholdings on income from work and economic activities grew by 1% (Table 2.3). The growth was the same as in salaries, although with a clear difference between private salaries (which fell by 1.8%) and public salaries (which increased by 8.1%, more than in 2019). Also in pensions, the growth in 2020 was higher than that registered in 2019 (5.1% vs. 4.9%). For their part, capital withholdings decreased by 18.1% in 2020 (Table 2.1). Of these, withholdings on movable capital income (linked to the evolution of dividends) decreased by 23.9% and withholdings on leases (mainly premises) fell by 12.1%, while withholdings derived from capital gains obtained in investment funds increased by 14.3%. Finally, installment payments lost 13.3%. These payments were affected by the regulatory measures aimed at entrepreneurs in modules (possibility of changing modality, elimination of the calculation of income for days in a state of alarm, general reduction of 20% and special reduction of 35% for some activities ). Its impact is estimated at 87 million.
Income from personal income tax reached 87,972 million in 2020, 1.2% more than in 2019. Income benefited from the comparison with 2019, in which most of the returns linked to maternity benefits were made. Together, this and other measures contributed almost 1.1 billion (Table 1.5) to the increase in income, so that, without them, the growth in collection would have been close to zero, similar to that of the tax accrued. There were items with good performance such as public withholdings (salaries and pensions), the result of the annual declaration and, although with a marginal contribution, withholdings for investment funds. The rest of the income (withholdings from work in the private sector, installment payments from personal companies, withholdings for income from movable capital and leases) decreased as a consequence of the general situation.
In 2020, the Corporate Tax accrued decreased by 21.6% (Table 3.1). Most of the tax comes from installment payments, which fell by 25.4%. The fall was greater in the consolidated groups (-37.6%) due, on the one hand, to their worse results and, on the other, to the importance that the minimum payment usually has on the profits in these companies. In the rest, the payments of large companies not belonging to groups were reduced by 15.7% and those of SMEs by 5.1%.
Income from Corporate Tax decreased to 15,858 million, 33.2% less than in 2019. A third of the drop in income was a consequence of the management of returns and other elements outside of the evolution of profits. In 2020, the returns for the 2018 financial year were made, very high due to the high installment payments that were made then. Furthermore, in 2019 the rate of returns was lower than usual (Table 3.3). If this negative impact is corrected, along with the positive one provided by some extraordinary income and the one caused by the comparison with the year 2019 in which there were extraordinary returns (Table 1.5), the decrease would be around 23%, more in line with the accrued tax.
The VAT accrued in the period fell by 13.6% in 2020, slightly more than the subject expense, given the slight decrease that occurred in the effective rate (Table 4.1). Gross VAT was reduced by 10.8%, but refund requests fell at a much lower rate (-2.9%), due to the increase in annual refund requests submitted by the group of taxpayers most strongly affected by the crisis caused by the pandemic. The smaller decrease in refunds explains the greater drop in net VAT.
VAT collection decreased by 11.5%, to 63,337 million (Table 4.2). The fall was less intense than in the VAT accrued, due, on the one hand, to the fact that the collection of the first quarter of 2020 and part of that of the second corresponds to accruals that were not yet affected by the COVID crisis and, on the other, to the increase in income associated with the greater deferrals requested.
The Special Taxes accrued were 13.3% lower than in 2019 (Table 5.1). All figures decreased. The Hydrocarbon Tax lost 17% of what it earned a year earlier (Table 5.5). The behavior of each of the main products allows us to see the different degree to which they were affected by the drop in activity and limitations on mobility: -20.9% in gasoline (linked to consumption), -17.2% in automotive diesel (more related to transportation) and +0.8% in subsidized diesel (agricultural and fishing tasks, and heating). The Tax on Tobacco Products decreased by 4.2% (Table 5.6), with the fall concentrating on cigarettes (-5.4%; In the rest of the tasks, the tax grew by 5.5%). The Electricity Tax contracted by 9.7% (Table 5.7). Its evolution was similar to that of hydrocarbons, following the rhythm of the restrictions, but always with more moderate falls, even despite the decrease in prices, due to its greater link with household consumption. In taxes on alcohol the drop was very pronounced: -30.4% in the Tax on Alcohol and Derived Beverages (Table 5.2) and -12% in the Tax on Beer (Table 5.3). The reasons for these decreases are found in the capacity limitations in hotels and restaurants and in the restrictions on mobility that were established, to varying degrees, since the first state of alarm began. The Coal Tax was reduced again, this time by 57.5%, although its fall had nothing to do with the situation caused by the pandemic, but, as already happened in 2019, with the abandonment of coal as a raw material in the generation of electricity.
Collection from Special Taxes fell to 18,790 million, 12.1% below the income recorded in 2019. They decreased somewhat less than the accrued tax thanks to the transition from the accrual period to the cash period (this includes positive data from 2019 and not the latest negative data from 2020, which goes to 2021). The regulatory and management measures (the remains of the regional rate in the Hydrocarbon Tax and those approved to facilitate compliance with tax obligations) barely contribute a few million.
Income from figures other than the four main ones amounted to 8,095 million in 2020, 12.6% below what was collected in 2019. Except for environmental taxes and the Inheritance and Donation Tax (other income from Chapter I), both cases affected by regulatory or management changes in 2019, in the rest of the figures income decreased. In the Non-Resident Income Tax the drop was 36.2%. These income had already decreased in 2019, but the general economic situation and the decrease in dividends in particular caused the losses to worsen. environmental taxes (Table 6.2) increased by 37.1%, although exclusively due to the lower collection in 2019 as a consequence of RDL 15/2018 that temporarily abolished the Tax on the Value of the Electrical Production in the fourth quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019, both quarters that should have been entered in that year. That is why this figure, the one with the most weight within the taxation classified as environmental, grew by 59.7%. The collection (1,146 million) was, however, much lower than what was normal years before (close to 1,500 million). Revenue from the Fluorinated Gas Tax was also, for the third consecutive year, below those obtained the previous year (-16.7% in 2020). As for other figures in chapter II, in the Taxes on Foreign Traffic (Table 6.3) revenues decreased by 16.2%, consistent with the drastic reduction suffered by international trade, and in the Tax on Insurance Premiums (Table 6.4) they remained practically the same as in 2019 (-0.3%), favored by the advancement of some operations to 2020 (to avoid the increase in the rate in force since 2021), which compensated for the fall in the rest of the year. Regarding the income of Chapter III , they decreased by 21.2% (Table 0), with falls of 33.3% in rates and 10.5% in other income . The first basically had two causes (Table 6.6): the lower production of electrical energy of hydraulic origin in 2019 (Canon for the use of continental waters for the production of electrical energy) and the management problems, some of them a consequence of the measures taken to combat the pandemic (Radioelectric Rate, Rate of Issuance of DNI and passports and Telecommunications Tax).