3.2.2. Evolution of corporate tax revenues

Corporate tax revenues amounted to 32,176 million and increased by 20.8% in 2022. The main reason for the increase in revenue was the positive performance of profits in both 2022 and 2021. It is estimated that in 2022 profits grew by around 19% for companies as a whole and by around 17% for Large Companies and groups. In line with this trend, split payments grew by 17.6% in 2022 (the growth is slightly higher when the extraordinary income from 2021 is eliminated). The increase was even across all types of company, although it should be noted that last year's extraordinary income was concentrated in the groups, so that, taking this into account, the growth in payments was significantly higher in these. If we analyse the groups where payments increased the most in 2022, the predominance corresponds to groups from the banking and energy sectors.

As regards profits for 2021, which grew by 35.9%, they are behind the 41.7% increase in income from the annual declaration, although those from the liquidation of the 2021 financial year rose by more than 45%. Such high rates are due to the poor results of 2020, but the figures for 2022 are also better than those recorded before the pandemic.

Another result of the 2021 annual declaration was the high amount of refund requests, around 11.6 billion, which represents an increase of more than 5 billion compared to those requested in the previous year. The reason for this increase is the level reached by the fractional payments in 2021, as a result of the extraordinary income already mentioned and the increase that occurred in that year in the minimum payment, which is based on profits and not on the base.

Refund requests for the 2021 campaign began to be returned in the last months of 2022 and did so at a faster rate than in previous years. Both facts, the increase in requests and the acceleration in their execution, together with the existence of extraordinary refunds due to rulings or the management of deferred tax assets (DTA), are the elements that explain why refunds made in 2022 grew more than in other years (26.6%).