3.1. Gross tax collection

The gross amount of tax collected comprises the effective incomes obtained in the fiscal year from both the self-assessment tax returns filed by taxpayers and from the settlements carried out by the Tax Agency. It is therefore set on a cash basis.

The total gross tax collection amount managed by the Tax Agency in 2015 reached 227,535 million euros, with an increase of 2.6% compared to 2014.

Table 12 of the Appendix shows the gross amount of tax collected, by tax concepts. This growth in revenues occurred in a year of reform for direct taxation. In this context, the growth in revenues is explained by the growth of the gross tax bases and by the increase in revenues related to settlements of prior periods (tax differences, refunds, inspections). Except for Personal Income Tax, which was the tax most affected by the reform and fell by 0.2%, all of the major categories saw growth in the amount of taxes collected in 2015: Corporation Tax (8.0%), Non-Resident Income Tax (10.6%), the rest of Chapter I (15.2%, due to the high revenues from Inheritance and Donations Tax and from Environmental Taxes), VAT (2.8%), Special Taxes (1.9%), the rest of Chapter II (38.3%, which in 2015 includes an additional four months of collection of Tax on Fluorinated Gases), and Chapter III (16.0%, due to the revenue from the Levy on the use of continental waters in electric energy production).