Accrued taxes and tax revenues

Accrued taxes grew by 10.1% in 2024 ( Table 1.4 ), six tenths above the increase achieved by the sum of the main taxes (9.5%, Table 1.3 ), as the total includes the partial recovery in 2024 of the Tax on the Value of the Production of Electric Energy. Without the estimated differential rates of Personal Income Tax and Corporate Tax, the expected increase in accrued taxes is 10.2%. The increase in accrued taxes was due to a 6.9% increase in the tax bases and a 2.4% increase in the average rate.

The increase in tax revenue was lower than that of accrued taxes, by 8.4%. The main reason for this discrepancy is that revenue accounts for the majority of the collection associated with fees accrued in fiscal year 2023, which have had more negative developments than expected for the 2024 accrual. Furthermore, when analyzing the evolution of income, the important role played by the regulatory and management changes that in 2024 resulted in a loss of income valued at 2,008 million (details can be found in Table 1.5 ) must be taken into account.

Analyzing the evolution of bases and income by figures, in the IRPF the gross income of households increased by 8.5% in 2024, a very positive rate, especially if one takes into account that it is preceded by two years with an average increase of 7.7% ( Table 2.1 ). All components increased, although the dynamism of capital income stood out (22.6%, Chart 1.20), thanks to the boost received from income from movable capital and capital gains.

The accrued IRPF grew by 11.1% in 2024, as a result of the increase in gross household income by 8.5% and the rate by 2.4% (Charts 1.21 and 1.22; Table 2.1 ). The increase in the effective rate resulted from increases in average wages and pensions, despite regulatory changes that reduced the rate for lower incomes.

Indeed, the regulatory changes had a significant impact on income tax in : 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, we must highlight the 302 million euros lost as a result of the measures implemented to mitigate the effects of the disaster, almost all of which was due to the postponement of the second deadline for the income tax campaign until February 2025.

Consequently, income in IRPF grew by 7.6%, a rate that would rise to 10.2% if the negative impact of regulatory and management changes is discounted, a figure compatible with an 8.5% growth in household income and the increase in the effective rate resulting from the increase in salaries and pensions.

In the Corporate Income Tax the consolidated tax grew by % ( Table ). It is worth noting that this high rate follows three years of strong increases (36% in 2021, 17.7% in 2022, and 11.4% in 2023). The positive performance of the tax base in recent years has meant that since 2023 the previous record high of 2006 has been surpassed, but this result has not been fully reflected in the accrued tax, which remains below the level reached that year (Chart 1.23). The evolution of the tax base is quite similar to that of corporate profits, excluding companies with 0% or 1% tax rates. The change in 2021 in the regulation for double taxation has reduced the amount of these adjustments in the consolidated groups, favoring a progressive approximation of the tax base to these benefits ( Table 8.5 ).

Accrued Corporate Income Tax grew by approximately the same amount as the consolidated base, by 10.4%. The difference is the small drop estimated for the effective rate (-0.4%). The rate drop is greater (-2.7%) if calculated on the profits of companies excluding those with rates of 0% and 1%, mainly financial companies with high variability of their profits depending on the market situation, but with hardly any impact on the accrued tax (Charts 1.24 and 1.25).

Corporate Income Tax revenues increased by 11.5% ( Table 3.1 ), reaching 39,096 million. As with the Personal Income Tax , the increase would have been greater if not for the negative impact of regulatory and management changes, which reduced revenue by 2.189 billion. In this case too, the impact was concentrated in three groups of measures. The first was the impact produced by the ruling relating to RDL 3/2016, which resulted in extraordinary refunds from previous years not yet prescribed amounting to 1,089 million, and a loss of revenue in the 2023 annual declaration of 1,696 million. The second was the negative effect on installment payments of the measure in force in 2023, which reduced the negative tax bases that could be consolidated in corporate groups to 50%. In 2023, this measure had a positive impact, which turned negative in 2024. This effect was 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 tax rate for -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.

As regards VAT, final expenditure subject to VATgrew by 5.7% in 2024, 1.7 points below the increase of a year earlier (Chart 1.26, Table 4.1 ), with lower increases in both the deflator and the volume component. The slowdown in household spending was similar in intensity to that of the total aggregate, while it was more pronounced in public administration spending. On the other hand, household spending on home purchases was slightly higher than the previous year (Chart 1.27).

A notable feature of the 2024 financial year was the gradual increase in interest rates, which was implemented with the aim of gradually returning to the rates in force prior to the strong inflationary process that led to interest rate cuts on energy-related products and, subsequently, on food products. This explains why the average effective rate grew by 1.4%, following the declines observed in previous years. As a result, the VATaccrued in the period grew by 7.3%, a rate that exceeds by more than four and a half points the one reached in 2023, as the slowdown in subject expenditure was offset by the recovery of the rate (Charts 1.28 and 1.29). Net accrued experienced a VAT.

##revenue grew by 7.9% in 2024 (previously 1.6%), practically the same as accrued VAT, although the effects of the rate increase were felt differently in cash than in accrual. The progressive return to 21% in the rates applied to electricity and natural gas resulted in higher revenues (1.159 billion).

However, the shift to a rate of 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%) had a very limited impact in 2024, as it began in October (the October accrual was recorded in December, and those for November and December in 2025). In contrast, the rate cuts in the latter part of 2023 were felt in the first few months of 2024. In addition, cash inflows were also influenced by other positive impacts derived 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 effect in previous periods but not in 2024.

value of consumption subject to Special Taxes fell again, although less sharply than in 2023 ( % compared to the previous -13.9%; Table 1.3 ), due to the smaller fall in the prices of products associated with oil ( Table 9.1 ) and electricity, which affect the value of two of the components with the greatest weight in the total. The behavior of consumption, with growth also in the most important components (Hydrocarbons, Tobacco, and Electricity), contributed to slowing the decline in added value. The contribution of alcohol-related consumption, on the other hand, was negative.

In 2024, Special Tax revenue grew by 6.6%. Without the revenue from regulatory changes (1.009 billion from the Electricity Tax and the Tax on Non-Reusable Plastic Packaging), the increase would have been only 1.7%.

The main figure in this group of taxes, the Hydrocarbon Tax ( Table 5.5 ), grew by 2.1% (0.6% in 2023). As has been the case in recent years as a result of the decline in the diesel vehicle fleet, the greatest increase was in gasoline consumption compared to diesel, which also led to an increase in the effective rate. Revenue from the Tobacco Tax increased by 3.2% ( Table 5.6 ), in an environment of rising prices and falling consumption, except for a sharp rebound at the end of the year due to the hoarding effect prior to the expected rate hike. The Electricity Tax ( Table 5.7 ) recovered much of its weight in revenue by gradually returning to the rate of 5.11%. It is worth noting that revenue collection for the year was 1.112 billion, which means that, under normal conditions, a historic revenue collection would have been achieved, far exceeding the peak in 2012 (1.507 billion) with much lower consumption than at that time.

Alcohol taxes saw a meager 1% increase in revenue (-7.2% in 2023). In the Tax on Alcohol and Derived Beverages , which taxes beverages with a higher alcohol content, the increase was even lower, at 0.8% ( Table 5.2 ), while in the Tax on Beer the increase was 1.4% ( Table 5.3 ) and consolidates the growing trend in the level of its income.

In the second year of the Non-Reusable Plastic Packaging Tax revenues reached 571 million, 19 million less (-3.3%) than in 2023. The reason for the decline lies in the tax management that involves refunds that began to be issued late in 2023, which affects the comparison with 2024. If gross income is analyzed and taking into account that in 2023 there was one fewer month of tax returns (the first one was filed in February), the result is very similar collections in the two years (646 million from February 2024 and 645 million in 2023).

As for the rest of the figures, in the Non-Resident Income Tax ( Table 6.1 ) the collection grew by 25.4%. With this result, it has seen four consecutive years of growth and now exceeds €4 billion in revenue. These are primarily linked to withholding taxes on capital gains and, therefore, to the evolution of dividends, which, as mentioned, performed very positively in 2024.

Revenue from the remaining taxes in Chapter I increased by 28.5% thanks to the partial recovery of the Tax on the Value of the Production of Electric Energy (within environmental taxes, Table 6.2 ) and despite the low collection of the Temporary Solidarity Tax on Large Fortunes . Regarding the former, the tax has been suspended since mid-2021 as part of measures to mitigate the effects of rising electricity prices. In 2024, it recovered, albeit gradually (in the first two quarters of the year, the return was not complete). As for the second, the decrease in income was related to changes in the Wealth Tax in some CC. AA. , so that most of the income that this tax, configured as a complement to the other, had generated in 2023 went to the coffers of those CC. AA.

In the rest of Chapter II, it is worth highlighting the strong increase in the Insurance Premium Tax (9.1%, one of the highest rates in the last 20 years without any rate increases; Table 1.6 and Table 6.4 ), in the Financial Transaction Tax (25.5%, due to lower tax adjustments as the provincial councils have assumed management powers) and in the Tax on Certain Digital Services (in this case the tax adjustments also count, although, even with that, the increase was almost 24%).

In Chapter III of Fees and other income ( Table 1.6 and Table 6.6 ) the collection grew by 8.4%, which was 156 million more than in 2023. Of these, 65 correspond to fees, almost half coming exclusively from the Public Radio Domain Tax.