Summary

In 2023, tax revenues reached 271,935 million euros, 6.4% more than what was collected in 2022 .

This increase in revenue came after two years of intense growth, exceeding 15% in 2021 and 14% in 2022. But it must be remembered that both years had atypical characteristics, the first because it was the one after confinement and the second because of the comparison with a period that had not yet completely recovered normality and, furthermore, in the midst of the inflationary process.

Income grew due to the increase in bases, particularly those linked to income, and was limited by tax reductions in Personal Income Tax and VAT . Main tax bases went up by 7.6%. Income increased by 10.6%, with high increases in all areas, but especially in the corporate tax base. Spending remained more moderate (with an increase of 3.6%) due, above all, to the fall in energy prices that reduced the value of consumption subject to excise taxes; Expenditure subject to VAT , on the other hand, rose 7.1% for the year as a whole. The reductions in Personal Income Tax and in VAT represented a loss of more than 4,150 million, although together all the regulatory changes and management subtracted 3,342 million from the income, which means that, without measures, collection would have increased by 7.8%, a rate close to that of the bases .

The increase in collection occurred in a context of progressive moderation in activity, but high growth in nominal variables . GDP in volume closed the year with an increase of 2.5%, after growing 4.1% year-on-year in the first quarter and slowing down to around 2% in the rest of the year. This change is largely explained by the disappearance of the contribution that external demand was having until the first quarter. A similar behavior was seen in the main fiscal indicators. Both the daily domestic sales, as well as the monthly sales of Large Companies to a constant population and the quarterly sales of Large Companies and SMEs corporate, deflated and corrected for seasonal and calendar variations, offered the same panorama, with a gradual decreasing trend only altered in the last part of the year. However, in nominal terms the situation was different. A slowdown was also observed, although not in all the variables that influence income and always with higher rates due to price increases, in any case, significantly lower than those of 2022. Nominal GDP growth stood at 8.6% for the year as a whole. Domestic demand and household consumption spending, also domestic, grew somewhat less (6% for the former and 7.1% for the latter), both in the context of increased income and remuneration of employees. key variable for monitoring job retentions, exceeded the 2022 figures by 8.8%.

As a result of the evolution of the bases and the impact of regulatory changes, there was a notable divergence between the 10.1% growth recorded by direct taxes ( Personal Income Tax , Corporate Tax, Non-Resident Income Tax, environmental taxes and others of little significance for the State) and the 1.7% increase in indirect tax collection (including fees and other income). The Income Tax grew by 9.9% as a result of the increase in employment, wage and pension increases, and the increase in the effective rate (despite to the reduction of the tax on the lowest incomes) and the growth in withholdings for income from personal capital and in installment payments from personal companies. In Corporate Tax income increased by 9%, driven by the growth in profits of Large Companies and groups in 2023 (which resulted in an increase of over 15% in installment payments) and the positive quota of the annual declaration for the 2022 financial year; The high amount of refunds made, mostly corresponding to fiscal year 2021, stopped a further increase in the tax. Collection from VAT grew by 1.6%, well below spending, due to regulatory and management measures that reduced income in more than 3,000 million. Special Taxes increased by 2.6% thanks to the Tax on Non-Reusable Plastic Packaging, new in 2023; Without it, the collection would have been almost the same as in 2022.