3.2. Net tax collection
The net tax collection is the gross revenue net of refunds paid, including adjustments with the Basque provinces and Navarre. It responds, also to a cash basis, unlike other items such as recognised rights or taxes for the purpose of National Accounting.
In 2015, 182,009 million euros were collected, 4% (7,021 million) more than in 2014. In homogeneous terms (that is, correcting, among other elements, the different degree of execution of the returns in both years, the returns of the health cent and the deferrals of public entities), income grew by 4.4 percent. Further details are provided in the following sections of the Appendix:
Table 13. Total net tax collection (Annex) Graph 14. Evolution of the tax collection managed by the Tax Agency (Appendix)As previously indicated, there are two factors that explain the growth: the evolution of the gross tax bases and the increase of revenues linked to settlements of prior periods. The gross tax bases of the main taxes grew by 3.6%, compared to the 2.5% of the previous year, which it is worth remembering was the first positive rate of change following six consecutive years of declines. In this respect, 2015 was a continuation of the upward trend that began at the end of 2013, with the difference that while throughout 2014 a certain bullish pattern could be seen, in 2015 the trend was relatively stable around the average annual value. The greater growth of 2015 was primarily due to the improvement in household gross incomes and, specifically, to the growth in employment, to the slight increase of the average wage (even without taking into account the partial recovery of the extra salary payment of 2012 for civil servants) and to the strong increase of incomes of individual businessmen, which is indicative of the buoyancy of small businesses, another of notable features of the year. With regard to companies' profits, they grew again above 20%, although the overall taxable base for Corporation Tax purposes did so to a lesser extent (9.1%). On the side of expenditure, the growth of the expense bases was slightly lower than in 2014 as a result of the fall in energy prices and, in particular, in the prices of petroleum products. In the case of VAT, the increase of the expense was at similar levels to those of the previous year; insofar as the value of products linked to excise duties decreased for the reason indicated above, despite the growth in consumer spending (especially in petrol and diesel fuels) and the influence of other temporary factors that also favoured it (such as the high summer temperatures that increased the consumption of electricity).
With regard to net incomes, the behaviour of refunds is also relevant, as they have, as a whole, increased the growth of revenues. In Personal Income Tax, the 0.4% decrease in net incomes is similar to that of gross incomes and originates in the reform of the tax, as previously indicated. In Corporation Tax, refunds have grown less than gross incomes, allowing an increase in net collections of 10.3%. The same applies to Non-Resident Income Tax, in which refunds remained practically equal to those of the previous year, while incomes, in net terms, increased by 15.5%. In VAT, revenues grew by 7.4%, above gross incomes as a result of the lower level of refunds. In the case of annual refunds, this is because of the lower amount of the refunds requested in the previous year (in 2015 the refunds requested at the beginning of the year corresponding to the 2014 fiscal year were settled). In the case of monthly refunds, it is because of the change in the how the tax is collected, which meant that part of the revenues previously managed by Customs began to be collected through lower refunds requested in the self-assessment form. In Special Taxes, the amount of tax collected registered an increase of just 0.2%, because of the repayment of the fuel tax known as the "céntimo sanitario".
The following table of the Appendix shows data that completes this information:
Chart 15. Evolution of tax revenues and the aggregate tax base (Annexe)