Spanish taxpayers paid almost 200,000 million only in VAT and personal income tax during 2022

Taxpayers paid just over 109,000 million euros for personal income tax during the past year.

This is the highest figure in history and represents a very notable increase compared to the figures for 2021 and, also, compared to what the Government itself estimated.

The same happens with VAT, which reached 83,000 million and that if added to the income tax offers a

.

Specifically, there are 192,000 million, as can be seen from the figures published yesterday by the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF).

The agency updated its macroeconomic forecasts for Spain, and the collection data that it estimates for both taxes

expressed in the yellow book of the General State Budget for 2022. In the IRPF, for example, the Executive expected to raise more than 100,000 million for the first time this year, a milestone that has finally fallen short.

In addition, if the comparison of tax revenues for both figures is made against 2021, the rebound is more than 25,000 million.

The increase in personal income tax is due to "

", explains AIReF.

This is, to the better performance of the labor market but, also, to the increase in wages and pensions to face inflation.

At this point, the Government's decision not to adjust the tax for inflation is key, not to deflate the rate, a practice that is widely recommended in the economic literature but that the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, has emphatically rejected and repeated.

As a consequence, the workers

.

On the one hand, because salaries have not grown at the rate of inflation, so they have lost purchasing power as a result of the increase in the cost of living.

And, on the other, because despite this loss they have had to face a higher payment in terms of personal income tax.

In the case of pensions, the loss of purchasing power has not occurred because the Government has revalued all benefits with inflation.

Even the highest, which has caused the maximum benefit to exceed 3,000 euros this year.

The increase in VAT is also directly related to

, a point that the Tax Agency itself indicates on a monthly basis in its collection reports.

Along with this variable, the body that reports to the Ministry of Finance highlights the good behavior of consumption as a result of the recovery.

The result of all this is that citizens have faced a heavy payment of taxes, and a good part of these taxpayers are

.

Because this area of ​​society is the one that largely supports the collection of VAT and personal income tax.

Increase growth strongly

In AIReF's macro updates, the strong growth review that is being carried out also stands out:

, which represents a rise of nine tenths compared to previous forecasts of the organism itself.

At the same time, the data indicated for 2023 is 1.6%, which represents an additional increase of another tenth.

"The main source of revision in 2022 comes from the incorporation of the new CNTR data," explains AIReF, referring to the significant improvement that the National Statistics Institute (INE) made to the national accounting data, and for which revised the growth in the third quarter of the year by up to six tenths.

This notable modification occurred after the departure of Juan Rodríguez Poo from the presidency of the INE, pressured and forced by the Government, and the subsequent arrival of Elena Manzanera.

"

about the prices of energy raw materials in 2023, justify an upward revision of the expected growth in 2023," adds the Tax Authority.

And the update of the organization directed by Cristina Herrero also includes

, from 4.3% of GDP previously forecast to 4.5%.

The rebound is due to "the implementation of the approved packages of measures and the latest budget execution data," AIReF specifies, and the increase in budget deviation occurs despite the strong increase in tax revenues already noted.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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