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. Moreover, it corresponds, to recording on a cash basis, unlike other items such as recognised rights or taxes for the purpose of National Accounting.
In 2016, 186,249 million euros were collected, 2.3% (4,240 million) more than in 2015.
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)The difference in growth of net revenues with respect to the gross amounts set forth in the previous section is due to the evolution of refunds made, which dropped by 1.2% in 2016. Performance recorded in the different tax figures varied greatly. In both Personal Income Tax and Corporation Tax, refunds on total tax liabilities were higher than last year, which explains that growth in net revenues was below that of gross revenues. However, net revenues on Non-resident Income Tax grew by 19.6%, compared to the high refunds made in 2015. In VAT, revenues grew by 4.2%, above gross revenues, as a result of the lower level of refunds of monthly VAT (due to the reduction in refunds requested in 2015 and 2016 and the lower rate of implementation). In Special Taxes, the amount of tax collected registered an increase of 3.8%, because of refunds of the so-called "céntimo sanitario".
As stated, the negative impact on revenues of regulatory changes introduced in 2016 came to 2,264 million euros. The greater impact is due to the reform of direct taxation. It is estimated that the reform had a cost to tax revenues in 2016 of 6,489 million, of which 4,487 million corresponds to Personal Income Tax, 1,920 million to Corporate Tax and 82 million to Non-resident Income Tax. A portion of the impact corresponds to the reform made in 2015 (the effect on the last periods accrued in 2015 which were transferred to 2016 coffers and the impact on total tax liability) and also to the second stage of the tax reform developed in 2016. Almost two thirds of the total impact (4,216 million) can be attributed to the second phase of the tax reform and the rest (2,273 million) are amounts pertaining to the 2015 reform.
The second measure in terms of importance affected payments by instalment of Corporation Tax after the publication of Royal Decree Law 2/2016. The change entailed application of increased rates and the a minimum payment for corporations with turnovers of over 10 million euros. These measures replaced other similar ones that had been in place until the end of 2015, although their impact was planned and proved greater than the previous ones. The differential impact was 2,967 million euros which was recorded in tax revenues for October and December. A third measure of significance in terms of its amount was the change in the way of paying VAT on imports introduced in 2015, the effects of which extended into the first months of 2016. We should bear in mind that this measure had no effect on VAT accrued, but did have an effect on the method of paying said VAT, meaning that the positive impact observed in 2016 was actually the balancing entry of an equal negative amount in 2015.
Out of the remaining measures, there are two of note. The first is the impact of the repayment of extraordinary salary payments to public employees. The repayment of the first half of the payment was approved in 2015 and the other half in 2016, meaning its impact in differential terms should have been zero. However, not all Public Administrations paid in the same way and at the same time, which meant that the effect of this repayment has been distributed very irregularly throughout the last two years. The second notable point was the negative impact water charges recorded. This is due to the fact that the fee for two years was recorded in 2015, whilst in 2016, having regularised the tax, the amount for 2015 only was recorded.
The following Appendix table shows details supplementing the information:
Table 15. Adjustments due to impacts of regulatory changes (Appendix)