Summary
Tax revenues in 2024 reached €294.734 billion, representing an 8.4% increase compared to 2023.
The increase in revenue was mainly due to the performance of the bases, which grew by 6.9% . If only income and final expenditure subject to VAT, growth rises to 7.7%, a consequence of the dynamism in income with increases close to 9% and the 5.7% increase in expenditure subject to VAT. As already happened in 2023, revenue was limited by the impact of regulatory and management changes, which together reduced the amount of revenue by just over €2 billion (without them, revenue would have grown by 9.1%). The evolution of bases and regulatory changes resulted in a revenue development based mainly on direct taxes, which increased by 9% (although the regulatory changes resulted in a decrease of around €4.8 billion), but, unlike 2023, with a significant contribution from indirect taxes (with an increase of 7.5%), benefitting from the progressive phasing out of the measures on energy and food products in force in previous years.
The economic context has been characterized by an upward trend in activity since the beginning of the year. GDP volume growth in 2024 was 3.2%, with average quarter-on-quarter rates above 0.8%. Year-on-year, 2023 closed with growth of around 2.2%, and in 2024, rates rose to 3.4%. All fiscal indicators (daily sales, monthly sales of Large Companies at constant population and quarterly sales of Companies and corporate , the latter with information from more than one companies) were advancing the evolution of the throughout the year. All of them gave an unequivocal bullish signal, with the added benefit of a recovery in exports starting mid-year. In nominal terms the situation was very different as a result of the end of the inflationary tensions of the previous years . Thus, at current prices moderated considerably, falling from 9.1% in 2023 to % in 2024. However, in the case of domestic demand, which is a variable more closely related to income than nominal , the increase, also 6.2 , was similar to that recorded in 2023.
In 2024, the differences between the behavior of direct and indirect tax revenues that distinguished the previous year were closed . The increase in direct taxes (Chapter I) was 9% (10.1% in 2023), while indirect taxes, fees and other revenues (Chapters II and III) increased by 7.6% (1.7% a year earlier). Income from the PIT grew by 7.6% in 2024. The regulatory changes resulted in a loss of approximately 3.2 billion euros, meaning that, without this impact, revenue growth would have been 10.2%, a figure consistent with an 8.5% increase in household income and the rise in the effective rate resulting from the increase in wages and pensions. Corporate income revenue grew by %. In this case, too, regulatory and management changes worked against revenue collection, reducing it by almost 2.2 billion. Corporate profits are expected to rise by over 13% in 2024. Income from the VAT grew by 7.9%, a rate higher than the increase in final expenditure subject to tax. The remaining increase in revenue is explained by the gradual elimination of interest rate cuts on energy products, as well as the existence of other measures with a positive impact on revenue (deferrals, extraordinary income and refunds). In total, all of these elements increased revenue by more than 1.7 billion. Revenue growth from Excise Taxes was 6.6%. It should be noted that the Electricity Tax, which had been in place since September 2021, was reinstated in 2024 when the rate was reduced from 5.11% to 0.5% to offset some of the price increases. Furthermore, the tax on non-reusable plastic containers, introduced in 2023, was also included for twelve months. If the revenue collected is adjusted for these two reasons, which amounted to just over 1 billion euros, the increase in income would have been only 1.7%. The two main figures, the Hydrocarbon Tax and the Tobacco Products Tax, grew above that figure; Specifically, 2.1% for the first and 3.2% for the second.