Spain’s increase in fiscal pressure in 2021 is the sixth highest among the 36 countries in the study. This is one of the conclusions of the annual OECD tax revenue report
In 2021, the fiscal pressure in Spain recorded one of the highest increases annual among the countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), since the relationship between the weight of taxes and social security contributions and the size of the Spanish economy has increased by 1.7 points percentage, against a half point for the others.
OECD tax burden: 34.1%
Thus, according to data from the annual tax revenue report published last week by the institution, Spain’s tax burden amounts to 38.4% in 2021compared to 36.7% in 2020, thus exceeding the 34.1% OECD average (compared to 33.6% in 2020).
Spain’s increase in tax burden in 2021 is the sixth largest among the 36 countries with available data, behind the 3.4 percentage point increase in the Norway2.8 points from Chili2,6 points d’Israel2.2 points from the South Korea and 2 points from the Lithuania.
In 2021, the tax/GDP ratio increased in 24 of the countries for which complete data were available. It remained unchanged in New Zealand and fell in 11 countries, with the largest declines recorded in Hungary (-2.1), Mexico (-1.1) and Iceland (-1).
Denmark, France and Austria: the highest tax burden
The Denmark is the country where tax burden was the highest in 2021, since the tax/GDP ratio was 46.9%, ahead of France (45.1%) and Austria (43.5%), while Mexico had the lowest tax/GDP ratio, at 16.7%, preceded by Colombia (19.5%) and Ireland (21.1%).
Spain, from 18th to 13th place
Spain thus ranked thirteenth out of 36 OECD countrieswhile she was eighteenth in 2019. According to OECD data, since 2000, the tax burden in Spain has increased by 5.4 percentage points, from 33% to 38.4% in 2021, which is higher than the increase of 1.2 percentage point observed on average in OECD economies, where the tax-to-GDP ratio was 32.9% in 2000, compared to 34.1% in 2021.
On the other hand, taking 2020 as a reference year, the OECD estimates that the greatest weight in Spain’s tax revenue corresponded to the social security contributionswith 37.4%, compared to 26.6% for the OECD averagewhile personal income tax (IRPF) accounted for 23.7%, compared to the OECD average of 24.1%.
In the case of theCorporation taxthe weight of this tax in Spain’s tax revenue was 5.3%, compared to an average of 9% for the OECD, while the contribution of property taxes in Spain accounted for 6.7% of receipts, compared to an average of 5.7% for the OECD.
The VAT contribution was 17.1% in Spain, lower than the OECD average of 20.2%, and the weight of other consumption taxes was 9.6%, compared to 11.9% for the average of OECD.