Tax revenues and their comparison with the Budget

In 2021, 1,277 million more was collected than was anticipated in the 2021 Budget ( Table 1.7 ). This positive deviation was the result of a better performance in all major figures, with the exception of Special Taxes. The increased revenue is all the more remarkable because it occurred in an adverse context for three reasons: The forecast was made under higher expenditure assumptions than those finally given (the forecast for national final consumption expenditure in the 2021 PGE was higher than the figure currently estimated); There was lower revenue due to regulatory changes (some measures did not come into force); and measures were arbitrated to reduce the cost of electricity (the reduction in the rate of VAT and the Special Tax on Electricity and the elimination of one quarter of the Tax on the Value of Electrical Energy Production) that were not contemplated at the time. take the PGE-2021.

In personal income tax, the deviation was positive, amounting to 350 million, 0.4% of the budgeted revenue. The improvement was mainly concentrated in income from tax withholdings on work and economic activities and capital gains from investment funds. Some of these positive deviations were offset by lower income in the annual declaration, and in withholdings on capital and on leases.

In corporate tax, revenues were much higher than those forecast in the Budget. The deviation was 4.907 billion (22.6% of the expected collection). The good progress of the installment payments, in addition to a couple of extraordinary operations, and the surprise in the withholdings for profits from investment funds justified the higher income.

In VAT, the positive deviation is estimated at 279 million, which means a gap of 0.4% with respect to the revenues expected in the PGE-21. The deviation is positive despite the unforeseen reduction in VAT on electricity, which negatively affected the collection in recent months.

Excise tax revenue fell short of budget by 2.08 billion, 9.5% less than expected. The main reason for the error is a weaker consumption performance than that envisaged in the macroeconomic scenario at the time of preparing the budget, in addition to the reduction in the rate of the Electricity Tax approved in September 2021.

The largest negative deviation (-2,666 million) was found in Other indirect taxes, which included the new figures, both those that came into force and those that were planned to be approved and ultimately did not come into effect. The first are the Tax on Financial Transactions and the Tax on Certain Digital Services, which together raised 1,356 million less than expected (some reflections on this are made in Informative Note 3 and Informative Note 4). The second are the Tax on Single-Use Plastics and the Tax on Waste, which never came into force, but were included in the PGE-21 with an amount of 1,341 million.