Explanatory notes and sources

The analysis scheme: tax bases, effective rates, accrued taxes and tax revenues

The basic structure of the tax revenue (TI) analysis carried out in this report is based on the following identity:

IT = BI * RD/BI * IT/RD,

where BI is the taxable base of the tax, RD is the collection accrued from it, RD/BI is the average effective rate and IT/RD is a ratio that includes the gaps between the moment of accrual and the moment of income. This expression condenses the process of generating tax revenues. First, a flow of goods, services, income, etc., subject to taxation (BI), is produced, to which a rate (RD/BI) is applied, giving rise to the accrued collection (RD). Next, the tax collection process (IT/RD) begins, which determines the income of the tax at a time generally later than the accrual.

This identity summarizes the analysis method used both in its numerical and graphic information and in the accompanying comments. Tax revenue is reported, but an attempt is made to identify the ultimate causes of its variations through the analysis of the three components of identity, the tax base, the effective rate and the adjustment between accrual and cash.

Tax bases

The basic source of information on tax bases is the annual statistics available on the AEAT website (Statistics). The data for the years for which the corresponding statistics have not yet been published have been estimated using the information available from the same sources used to prepare these publications; These are, therefore, provisional data.

The demographic figures that appear in the tables of the report also come for the most part from annual statistics, which guarantees a coherent evolution of the taxpayer population and the tax bases in each of the taxes. These figures may differ in some cases from those contained in the Report of the Tax Agency , which obey different preparation criteria regarding the scope and time of registration.

Taxes accrued

The AEAT's tax management procedure has as its basic core a system of declarations-self-assessments. The system assumes that taxpayers required to declare according to the regulations of each of the taxes must determine the tax debt (self-assessment) at the same time that they present a declaration-self-assessment that includes the code of the declaration model, the accrual period , the identification of the taxpayer and the result of the settlement that the taxpayer himself calculates from declared economic and personal data.

The taxes accrued are basically calculated by aggregating those declaration-self-assessment models presented by taxpayers. The gross accrued taxes are obtained by adding, for each declaration model, the amounts of the declarations whose result is in favor of the Public Treasury, regardless of the moment in which they were entered. The net accrued taxes are the result of subtracting from the gross taxes the amounts of the declarations in which the balance is in favor of the taxpayer and gives the taxpayer the right to request a refund.

The data of the declarations-self-assessments are completed with the information from the information models, which are those models that, without a liquidation nature, summarize and complement the content of the periodic declarations and whose purpose is to control the correct compliance with tax obligations. These models serve, for example, to allocate among the different tax figures (IRPF, Corporate Tax and Non-Resident Income Tax) the withholdings of movable capital, leases and investment funds.

By definition, the taxes accrued are consistent with the tax bases (income, profits, sales and consumption) declared in the models. Consequently, the effective tax rate for each tax figure is the quotient between the net accrued tax and the tax base.

The taxes accrued are subject to changes even years after the reference year has closed since taxpayers can submit their self-assessment declarations after the deadline, either voluntarily or as required by the Administration. For this reason, the figures for taxes accrued that appear in the report in the last two years are provisional in nature.

Tax revenue

Tax income is income in cash terms and is expressed, unless otherwise indicated, in liquid terms, that is, as the difference between gross income and refunds made. This measure of income complies with the Accounting Instruction of the General Intervention of the State Administration (IGAE). The figures are comparable to those included in the Tax Administration Report whose source is the IGAE.

There is an equivalence between the self-assessments that are behind the taxes accrued and the concepts of the AEAT Accounting Information System from which the income figures in cash terms are extracted. Each self-assessment is assigned a different model according to the type of tax and the type of taxpayer in question. For its part, the Accounting Information System associates each model or group of models with one or more budget keys. This equivalence between declaration models and budget concepts allows the collection flows to be associated with relevant categories of taxpayers (AA.PP., Large Companies, SMEs, consolidated groups and others) and, ultimately, with the economic flows that have given rise to the tax obligation. Even so, there may be differences in the classification criteria for revenue flows between the declaration models and the budget concepts. An example of these differences is the allocation of withholdings of movable capital, leases and investment funds between the different figures (IRPF, Corporate Tax and Non-Resident Income Tax): In accrued taxes, the allocation is made according to the legal personality of the taxpayer (physical, legal, non-resident), while in accounting it is carried out with fixed percentages between the different figures.

In 2017 and 2018, tax revenues are presented, in some cases, corrected for the impact that the implementation of the Immediate Information Supply (SII) system on VAT had in those years. The introduction of this management system meant a shift in income from 2017 to 2018. In order to obtain homogeneous series over time that allow growth to be adequately measured, the most relevant series are corrected for this displacement. The correction is made on an annual basis, which may cause small discrepancies to occur with the figures published in the monthly collection reports in which the correction is made month by month to provide a good measure of the monthly variation.

The analysis of income in this report is carried out in total terms, that is, before deducting the participations to which the Territorial Administrations (Autonomous Communities and Local Corporations) are entitled according to the territorial financing system. This participation is made effective in each of the years through, basically, deliveries on account and final settlements for the year t-2. Detailed information on these participations can be found in Tables Tables 7.3 to 7.5 of the report, as well as the State's income once these participations have been reduced ( Table 7.7 ). In addition, information on relations with the Foral Treasury is also offered in Table 7.6.

The budgetary scope of tax revenues analyzed in the report covers Chapter I (except for fees for passive rights), Chapter II and rates and other tax revenues (which contain surcharges, penalties and interests) of Chapter III. A complete view of the State's non-financial income, including non-tax income, can be consulted in Table 7.8 .

Tables of tax revenues in terms of recognized rights are also presented alongside the report ( Table 7.10 and Annex: Recognized rights ). Regarding tax revenues in cash terms, the recognized rights exclude income from closed years and include the rights of the year pending collection. They also comply with the Accounting Instruction cited above.

Tax revenue by Delegations

In Annex: Income by Delegations presents information on tax income distributed among the 56 Delegations (grouped, when appropriate, into Special Delegations) and the Central Services.

Given that the assignment of taxpayers by Delegations is done according to their tax domicile, the tax income of a Delegation is not necessarily a good indicator of the fiscal importance of the territory or the economic activity therein. Nor is the annual variation in tax revenue managed by a Delegation an adequate signal of the fiscal or collection dynamism of the territory. In addition to the disturbances that can affect income throughout the territory, in the Delegations there are problems caused by the change in the tax domicile of taxpayers (especially when it is a large company) or by merger and absorption of companies. Furthermore, in some tax figures, such as Special Taxes, income can be assigned either to the Delegation where the tax warehouse through which the product leaves is located, or centrally in the Delegation where the company that owns the warehouse is domiciled. .