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 of net income and the gross income analyzed in the previous section is explained by the evolution of the returns made, which, in 2022, increased by 24.5%, which represented the realization of 12,764 million more .
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.
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 .
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 be completely normal, it had already exceeded the level of 2019 by 5%, the year before the outbreak of COVID. In homogeneous terms, revenue in 2022 grew slightly more, by 15%.
As mentioned in the previous section, the main causes of the increase in income in 2022 are both the growth in consumer spending, salaries and pensions, and business profits, as well as the good results of the positive tax returns. annuals that correspond to 2021 tax bases. The increase in income could have been greater if it had not been for the impact of the regulatory and management measures (mainly those aimed at moderating the price of electricity), which subtracted 7.2 billion from the collection, and for the acceleration of the pace of realization of returns in the last part of the year (hence the greater increase in homogeneous income). Without these two elements, revenues would have grown 3.6 points more.
Details of the measures taken into account can be found in table 15. It must 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 of income. In that sense, the estimated impact assumes that, without these measures, income would have grown by 3.2% more.
As already happened in 2021, the measures with the greatest impact on revenue in 2022 were those aimed at mitigating the rise in electricity and gas prices. Together, these measures represented a loss of 6,636 million. Again, we must remember that this is the differential effect compared to 2021. If the impacts of 2021 and 2022 are added to have the reduction in income in a calendar year, the result would be 8,241 million (this figure is not the complete impact of all the measures approved in 2021 and 2022 because in some cases they have not elapsed). twelve months since they were launched). The largest loss occurred due to the suppression of the Tax on the Value of Electrical Energy Production (3,399 million). In 2021 the tax was already suspended, first in the third quarter and later in the fourth, although in cash collection it was only noticed in the income of the third in November (the fourth should have already been entered in 2022). In 2022, the elimination of the tax was in effect all year.
Secondly, there is the impact of 1,705 million due to the lowering of the rate (from 5.11% to 0.5%) in the Special Tax on Electricity. The measure came into effect in mid-September 2021, so the greatest effect on income 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 from mid-2022 the rate became 5%. The impact includes, therefore, the additional period that the measure was in 2022 compared to 2021 and the new lowering of the rate. 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 income is greater and is offset in subsequent 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 subtracted 1,702 million from the growth in income. The majority was concentrated in the Corporate Tax (-2,202 million). These are returns derived from judgments (around 1,300 million) 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 PGE-2021 still had a positive impact on income (1,133 million). This occurred for two different reasons: one, due to the displacement to the first months of 2022 of the income of the accruals from the end of the year (increase in rates in withholdings from work, sugary drinks and Insurance Premiums, and new taxes) and, two, because there were measures whose effect was should be seen or completed in the 2021 annual declaration (the increase in rates for high incomes and the modification of the limits on contributions to pension plans in Personal Income Tax, and the modification of the exemption for foreign income and the increase in the rate in SOCIMIs in 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 provincial territories of the amounts received 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. There are, on the one hand, all those related in one way or another to COVID (in total 168 million). The largest ones are due to temporary measures with a sign opposite to what 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 housing from the annual personal income tax declaration with effect only from October 2021 and, therefore, of a very small amount (-7 million); the elimination of the Canon for the use of continental waters (-177 million) as a result, as has been said, of 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.