The Government increased the fiscal pressure by 2.9 points between 2019 and 2022 and a good part of that increase in this reference, which includes tax pressure and social contributions, families have borne it through personal income tax. The Eurostat data collected by Fedea shows this, and the document states this. The tax pressure in Spain and the EU that this foundation has published today.
“The evolution of income from taxes and contributions has been much higher in Spain with a growth of 2.9 points over GDP in the period 2019-2022 [38,3% vs 35,4%]”, notes the study. “This significant increase,” it continues, “has been the result of an increase in income tax revenues [1,9% PIB] in which personal/family taxation explains just over sixty percent of the total [1,25% PIB] and the one that revolves around corporations, the rest [0,65%]”.
“Personal income is the heading that has assumed the highest percentage increase of the tax burden (41.4% of the total), mostly due to the non-updating of the rate and personal income tax deductions”, underlines the document signed by Miguel Ángel García Díaz, associate researcher at Fedea and former vice-counselor of Employment, Training and Work of the Junta de Andalucía between 2019 and 2022.
That is, the repeated refusal of the Government and, especially, of the acting Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, not to adapt the personal income tax to inflation, not to index it, is the main reason for the increase. This practice is widely recommended in economic manuals and the vast majority of economists have pointed out the need to adapt the tax, since doing so is not a reduction in taxes but not doing it is a hidden increase.
Montero, however, has always refused, arguing that this measure benefits all incomes, high and low, but the reality is that the one who is especially negatively affected by non-deflation is the middle class, which is the largest payer of personal income tax.