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.
Tax revenues in 2021 were 15.1% higher than in 2020, reaching an amount of 223,385 million euros. The difference between the growth of net income and the gross income analyzed in the previous section is explained by the evolution of the returns made, which, in 2021, fell by 3.1%, which meant the realization of 1,680 million less .
Likewise, in Table nº 13. Total net tax collection and in Chart No. 14. Evolution of tax collection managed by the Tax Agency (Annex), this information is developed.
When compared to a year as negative as 2020, the high growth rate does not give a good idea of what the collection behavior was like in 2021. The comparison with 2019 helps to make a better assessment. In this sense, 2021 income was 5% higher than two years ago, with positive results in the main figures (IRPF, Corporate Tax, VAT) with the only exception of Special Taxes. The fundamental cause of the increase in income was the recovery of tax bases, whose growth is provisionally estimated at around 13%, exceeding those observed in 2019 by around 4%. On the contrary, the numerous measures of different nature that had an impact on collection did not represent, in net terms, a significant figure.
Table 15. Adjustments due to the impact of regulatory changes (Annex) presents, in detail, the measures that took effect during the year and their impact on the different taxes . It can be seen that the regulatory and management changes that affected revenues in 2021 were numerous, but, as mentioned, their joint impact in net terms was not very relevant and is estimated at -501 million.
The measures can be grouped into four different blocks: the group related to the measures that were implemented throughout 2020 to combat, in different ways, the effects of COVID (the table would include the first four sections); a second block that would contain the regulatory changes included in the PGE-2021; a third set of measures would be those approved in order to alleviate the impact of the rise in electricity prices; and the last group that would collect extraordinary income and returns. It must be clarified that the perspective of the table is always to try to correct all those elements that can distort the rate of variation of income and, therefore, measures from 2021 are included, but also those that, being from 2020, alter the comparison with 2021. This way of proceeding particularly affects the first and fourth groups indicated above.
As can be seen in the table, the measures that had the greatest impact in 2021 were those related to the price of electricity. In total, the reduction in income that these measures entailed was 1,605 million. The first measures were approved at the end of June and involved a reduction in the VAT rate (from 21 to 10%), applicable to electricity consumption in contracts whose contracted power was less than 10 kW (basically domestic consumption), and the suppression of the third quarter of the Tax on the Value of Electrical Energy Production. Both measures meant a loss of income valued at 1,269 million (509 million from VAT for the June-October period, and 760 million from the Tax on the Value of Electrical Energy Production for the third quarter). Subsequently, in mid-September, the measures were expanded by adding a reduction in the rate (from 5.11% to 0.5%) in the Special Tax on Electricity and extending the suppression of the Tax on the Value of Energy Production Electricity to the fourth quarter (this last measure is no longer effective in 2021 since that quarter would have been entered in February 2022). The impact of the rate reduction in the Special Tax on Electricity is estimated at 336 million for consumption between September 15 and the last day of November, which is the period accounted for in 2021 income.
The second block of impacts by quantitative importance is that of the measures approved in the PGE-2021, which meant an increase in collection of 1,462 million. Three groups could be distinguished. The first is the one that has to do with rate increases and includes three measures: the increase in the rate in the general personal income tax base aimed at the highest incomes (with an impact of 131 million in withholdings that will be completed in June of this year when the annual declaration is presented); the change to the general rate of VAT on sugary drinks (314 million for the first ten months of validity); and the increase of two points (from 6 to 8%) in the rate of Insurance Premium Tax (476 million for the January-November period).
Within the measures of the PGE-2021, the second group would be made up of the two new taxes: the Tax on Financial Transactions and the Tax on Certain Digital Services. Both figures came into force at the beginning of the year, but with the obligation to deposit the amounts accrued since January 1. The impact on 2021 collection was 462 million (296 from the January-November period in the first case and 166 from the first three quarters in the second).
Thirdly, a measure that was also included in the PGE-2021 is the limitation to 95 percent of the exemption of income from participation in profits or the transfer of the same in the Corporate Tax for companies whose figure of business exceeds 40 million euros. In 2021, the measure was applied to installment payments and it is estimated that it led to an increase in income of 79 million. The impact was small because the majority of affected companies were taxed in 2021 through the minimum payment that depends on profits and not on the tax base, which is modified by the rule. In fact, it is estimated that the base raised by the measure was more than 1,650 million and less than 15 percent of them corresponded to companies that paid taxes according to the base. The effect of the measure was completed by liquidating the year in the annual declaration, which in most cases was presented in July 2022. According to the information in these statements, the complete impact was 412 million and, therefore, its impact was distributed between 2021 (79 million of the payments) and 2022 (333 in the differential fee). The increase in the base due to this measure was 3,269 million and, of them, 2,153 translated into a higher tax and 1,117 corresponded to companies with a zero tax base.
The impacts derived from extraordinary income and returns subtracted 824 million. This is a very heterogeneous group that includes both refunds actually made in 2021 (473 million for single provincial VAT records and 94 million for rulings in the Non-Resident Income Tax), as well as the differential impact caused by some measures that are carried forward. from the past (maternity benefits, interest as a result of the ruling of unconstitutionality of Royal Decree-Law 2/2016 on installment payments) or from the income from the Corporate Tax records that occurred in 2020.
In last place would be all the measures linked to COVID implemented in 2020 and that affected the comparison of income between 2021 and 2020 in different ways. In total, these measures amounted to 466 million. The most relevant are those related to the liquidity of companies that were in force in 2020 (also in the first quarter of 2021, but with a much smaller impact). It was about facilitating the payment of tax obligations, by deferring it. This reduced collection in 2020 (due to amounts not received before the end of the year) and therefore in 2021 they had a positive impact. Secondly, there are measures to support SMEs, measures that took various forms (in particular: changes in the modality, elimination of days in a state of alarm in the calculation of the modules and increase in the general reduction from 5 percent to 20/35 percent in the objective estimate of income). The changes had a negative effect on the VAT of the simplified regime and on the installment payments of personal income tax in 2020 and in the first payment of 2021, although the greatest impact was observed when applying the new general reduction in the annual personal income tax declaration (-195 million, including the remaining impact of the elimination of days in a state of alarm). And a third element to highlight within this group of measures were the rate reductions on products related to COVID (masks, vaccines, PCR,...). In this case the impact is less than one might think when calculated in differential terms with respect to the previous year in which some of the measures were already in force.