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 2022 were 14.4% higher than in 2021, reaching an amount of 255,463 million euros. The difference between the growth in net and gross income analysed in the previous section can be explained by the evolution of the returns made, which in 2022 increased by 24.5%, which meant the realisation of 12,764 million more.
Also, 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.
Table No. 15. Adjustments for the impact of regulatory changes (Annex) presents, in detail, the measures that took effect during the year and their impact on the different taxes.
The growth is close to that recorded in 2021 (15.1%), but while in that year the comparison was made against a year fully affected by the pandemic, in 2022 the comparison is made against a year that, without being completely normal, had already exceeded by 5% the level of 2019, the year before the outbreak of COVID. On a like-for-like basis, revenues in 2022 grew slightly more, by 15%.
As mentioned in the previous section, the main reasons for the increase in income in 2022 are both the growth in consumer spending, wages and pensions, and business profits, as well as the good results of the positive quotas of the annual declarations corresponding to taxable bases of 2021. The increase in revenue could have been greater if it were not for the impact of regulatory and management measures (mainly those aimed at moderating the price of electricity), which subtracted €7.2 billion from revenue, and the acceleration of the rate of refunds in the last part of the year (hence the greater increase in homogeneous revenue). Without these two elements, revenues would have grown by 3.6 points more.
Details of the measures taken into account can be found in Table 15. It should be remembered that, for this purpose, the impact is measured in differential terms with respect to the previous year; That is, due to the effect that changes have on the rate of variation in income. In this sense, the estimated impact means that, without these measures, revenues would have grown by 3.2% more.
As was the case in 2021, the measures with the greatest impact on tax collection in 2022 were those aimed at mitigating the rise in electricity and gas prices. Together, these measures resulted in a loss of 6.636 billion. Again, it should be remembered that this is the differential effect compared to 2021. If the impacts of 2021 and 2022 are added together to obtain the reduction in income in a calendar year, the result would be 8,241 million (this figure is not the full impact of all the measures approved in 2021 and 2022 because in some cases twelve months have not passed since they were implemented). The biggest loss was caused by the elimination of the Tax on the Value of Electric Energy Production (3.399 billion). In 2021, the tax was already suspended, first in the third quarter and later in the fourth, although it was only noticeable in cash collection in the third quarter in November (the fourth should have been paid already in 2022). In 2022, the elimination of the tax was in effect throughout the year.
Secondly, there is the impact of 1,705 million due to the reduction in the rate (from 5.11% to 0.5%) on the Special Tax on Electricity. The measure came into effect in mid-September 2021, so the greatest impact on revenue occurred in 2022. For its part, the reduction in the VAT rate applicable (mainly) to domestic electricity consumption had a negative impact on income in 2022 of 1,313 million. The reduction was initially from 21% to 10%, but since mid-2022 the rate has been reduced to 5%. The impact therefore includes the additional period that the measure was in place in 2022 compared to 2021 and the new rate reduction. Finally, in the month of December, income was also affected by the reduction in the VAT rate from 21 to 5% applicable to natural gas (wood and pellets also benefited from the change, but their weight is marginal). The peculiarity regarding the measurement of electricity is that the new rate applies to all sales, not just those for domestic consumption. This means that the initial impact on revenue is greater and is offset in later periods. The net impact of the measure will only be observed when all taxpayers with the right to deduct the input VAT have submitted their declarations (it must be taken into account that in VAT only those who actually ultimately bear the VAT benefit from the rate reductions). tax, that is, final consumers and exempt sectors that do not have the right to deduct input VAT on their purchases).
Extraordinary income and returns deducted €1.702 billion from revenue growth. Most of it was concentrated in Corporate Tax (-2,202 million). These are refunds arising from judgments (around 1.3 billion) and deferred tax assets (DTA). The figure was offset by the positive impact recorded in VAT, although for the most part these revenues are the opposite response to the extraordinary refunds that were made in 2021.
In 2022, the measures approved in the 2021 PGE (1,133 million) still had a positive impact on income. This happened for two different reasons: one, due to the postponement to the first months of 2022 of the entry of the accruals at the end of the year (increase in rates on withholdings from work, sugary drinks and Insurance Premiums, and new taxes) and, two, because there were measures whose effect had to be seen or completed in the annual declaration of 2021 (the increase in rates for high incomes and the modification of the limits on contributions to pension plans in the Personal Income Tax, and the modification of the exemption on foreign income and the increase in the rate for SOCIMIs in the Corporate Tax). For the first reason, the net impact was around 100 million, while the contribution of the measures implemented in the annual declarations exceeded 1,000 million. In the case of the new taxes, the net effect is negative because in December 2022 the adjustment with the regional territories of the amounts collected since the entry into force of both taxes took place.
The rest of the measures are very diverse, although their impact is not, overall, great. On the one hand, there are all those related in one way or another to COVID (168 million in total). The most significant ones are due to temporary measures with a sign opposite to that which they had at the time they were implemented (this is the case, for example, of the extension of the general reduction in the modules or the recovery in the first months of 2021 of part of the amounts that had been deferred or suspended throughout 2020). And, on the other hand, the three remaining measures: those related to the rental of premises and the rehabilitation of the home from the annual income tax return with effect only from October 2021 and, therefore, of very little amount (-7 million); the elimination of the Fee for the use of continental waters (-177 million) resulting, as has been said, from a ruling; and the exceptional increase in revenue from the Tax on Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases (+21 million) as a result of the regulatory change that came into force in September 2022.