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 2024, tax revenues will rise to €294.734 billion, representing an 8.4% increase compared to 2023. The difference between the growth in net and gross income analyzed in the previous section can be explained by the evolution of refunds made, which increased by 4.4% in 2024, representing €2.998 billion more than in 2023.
Also, in the Table 13. Total net tax collection (Annex) and in the Table 14. Trend in tax collected managed by the Tax Agency (Annex), this information is developed.
He Table 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.
As mentioned in the previous section, the main cause of the increase in income was the growth of the bases, which is provisionally estimated at 6.9%, although it is higher (7.7%) if only the income and final expenditure subject to tax are taken into account. VAT (the value of consumption subject to Special Taxes decreases due to the drop in the prices of petroleum products that do not directly influence income). In 2024, the dynamism that income already had in 2023 was maintained (this year they grew by 8.9% and in 2023 they did so by 8%), while the expenditure subject to VAT slowed to around 6%. In 2024, revenue growth was also limited by the impact of regulatory and management changes, which together reduced the cost of more than €2 billion (without them, revenue would have grown by 9.1%).
Details of the measures taken into account can be found in Table No. 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. As indicated above, the estimated impact assumes that, without these measures, revenue would have grown by an additional 0.7%.
The table shows a clear difference between the measures for direct and indirect taxes. In the first the impact was very negative, more than 4.8 billion, adding the PIT, the Corporate Income Tax, the Tax on the Value of Electricity Production, the Temporary Solidarity Tax on Large Fortunes, and the extraordinary income and refunds in the "Other" column, which correspond entirely to the Non-Resident Income Tax. On the contrary, in indirect taxes the measures increased the collection by 2.82 billion, basically due to the end of the rate reduction in the VAT electricity and natural gas and the Electricity Tax, which meant additional revenues of 2.12 billion.
By figures, in the PIT The measures reduced revenue by almost 3.2 billion. Three measures stand out in particular. Firstly, the increase in the reduction for employment income led to a loss of €1.445 billion (€1.560 billion in withholdings). In 2023, a similar measure cost €1.726 billion euros, although €115 million euros were recovered in that year's annual tax return. In second place, with almost the same amount (€1.435 billion), are the refunds to mutual members as a result of a court ruling. The bulk of that figure (around €1 billion) is due to lower revenue and higher returns that materialized in the 2023 annual return; The rest come from resources that taxpayers contributed at the time for this reason. And thirdly, although the figure is not particularly high, it is worth noting the 302 million euros lost as a result of the measures implemented to mitigate the effects of the DANA (Denial of Income Tax), almost all of which was due to the postponement of the second deadline for the income tax campaign. This final payment will be made in February, so it is simply a deferral of payment.
The negative impact of the measures on corporate income tax is estimated at 2.189 billion euros. It is also concentrated in three groups. The first is the impact of the ruling on Royal Decree-Law 3/2016, which resulted in extraordinary refunds of 1.089 billion euros from prior fiscal years not yet prescribed, and a loss of revenue in the 2023 annual tax return of 1.696 billion euros. The second is the negative effect on installment payments of the measure in force in 2023, which reduced the negative tax bases that could be consolidated in groups of companies to 50%. Last year, this measure had a positive impact that has now turned negative, an effect that is accentuated because the amounts not deducted in 2023 can be subtracted, in equal parts, over the following ten fiscal years. The negative impact of both elements was slightly offset in the annual settlement. Finally, the 2023 annual tax return saw the first effect of two regulatory changes approved in the 2023 Budget: the reduction in the SME tax rate (-291 million) and the new special regime for the Balearic Islands (-65 million). All of these negative impact measures were partially offset by the lower amount of extraordinary refunds compared to 2023 and by the existence of extraordinary income this year.
The changes in direct taxes are completed with the recovery of the Tax on the Value of Production of Electric Energy (partially in the first two quarters and completely in the third), with the decrease in income from the temporary Solidarity Tax on Large Fortunes following the elimination of the 100% bonuses on the Wealth Tax that existed in some CC. AA., and with the lowest extraordinary refunds made in 2024 compared to 2023 in the Non-Resident Income Tax.
In it VAT During 2024, the rates applied to electricity and natural gas gradually returned to 21% following the reductions that took place starting in June 2021 in the midst of the energy crisis. This fact explains the income of 1.159 billion. There was also an increase to 4% from 0% for basic food products and to 10% from 5% for pasta and oils (with the exception of olive oil, which remains at 4%). This recovery, however, began in October, so it had a very limited impact in 2024 (the October accrual is recorded in December, and the November and December accruals in 2025). In contrast, the rate cuts in the latter part of 2023 were felt in the first few months of 2024, so despite the return to normal rates, the net impact was still negative. In addition, there were other positive impacts from extraordinary income and refunds, the increase in deferrals that began in 2023 (part of which was recovered in 2024), and other measures that were in place in previous periods but not in 2024.
Regarding the remaining measures (Special Taxes and Others), the greatest impact is the return to the 5.11% rate on the Electricity Tax (since September 2021, it was 0.5%). In this case, too, the return was gradual, reaching normality in the second half of the year. In addition, the special taxes include the difference between the collections from January 2024 and January 2023 for the tax on non-reusable plastic containers (at that time, when the tax began, there was only a small amount of revenue from Customs because the first declaration was filed on February 20). Finally, a positive impact is included on both the Financial Transaction Tax and the Tax on Certain Digital Services, related to the regional tax adjustments, due to the regional treasuries assuming management of both taxes and, consequently, these adjustments having been significantly reduced.