Hacienda is all of us. But not exactly equally. That is, at least, what will be reflected in the 2022 Income Tax Return campaign that starts, online, next Tuesday, April 11, after the Easter holidays.

There are several novelties that are introduced in the campaign of this Exercise. But one of the most significant will have to do with the incidence of inflation on personal income tax, since some communities have decided to deflate the CPI and others have not.

At the end of 2022 there were several regions that, making use of their autonomy, announced their intention to deflate the inflation of the IRPF to try to alleviate the escalation of the prices of their taxpayers and to alleviate the so-called cold progressivity. As the IRPF is a progressive tax and its sections do not automatically adjust to inflation, it can happen that a salary increase supposes de facto the payment of more taxes, when jumping from bracket, without having gained any type of purchasing power.

To avoid this effect and given the refusal of the Treasury to approve this measure, communities such as Madrid, Andalusia, Galicia, Murcia or the Valencian Community applied it. The Basque Country also launched it.

In the case of Madrid, the percentage on which it is applied will be 4.1% in all sections of Personal Income Tax, calculated from the data of increase in the national ordinary wage cost of the second quarter of 2022 of the INE. According to the Community chaired by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, it will mean savings close to 200 million and will affect 3 million taxpayers.

In the Andalusian case, what was approved is an increase in the first sections of income tax by 4.3%, those with income below 40,000 euros. According to the community presided over by Juan Manuel Moreno, it will affect 82% of its taxpayers. From Gestha, the union of Treasury Technicians. They estimate that it will have an impact of about 130 million.

Murcia approved, for 2022, an increase of 4.1% of the taxable base of the first four sections of the IRPF and according to the team of Fernando López Miras, the measure benefits some 330,000 taxpayers with an estimated saving of almost 8 million euros ".

Galicia also joined the tax pressure to the Executive and approved a deflatation of 4.1% of the IRPF sections to its taxpayers with incomes below 35,000 euros. The president of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, estimated that this initiative will mean savings in the next income statement of 450 euros for each Galician with "medium and low" incomes and a total impact on the collection of about 46 million euros.

But not only the communities governed by the Popular Party have opted for this formula of fiscal relief in the face of escalating prices. The Valencian Community also approved a deflatation of personal income tax and a 10% increase in deductions. The president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Ximo Puig, has taken forward an increase of 10% of the amount exempt from taxation in the IRPF to all Valencians and the adaptation to inflation of the autonomous sections of the IRPF, benefiting all those who earn less than 60,000 euros.

"Ours is not fiscal populism," Puig warned when announcing the measure in the general policy debate in Les Corts. "Not like in other places. If some lower taxes on the rich here it helps to make ends meet, "he settled.

In the Basque Country they have been ahead of this debate and their Regional Treasurys have already undertaken three defactations of the IRPF: the Executive of the lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu approved the first, of just 1.5 points, already at the end of 2021. It was followed by two more in 2022, one of an additional 4% (5.5% in total by 2022) and another that will be applied in 2023 of another 2%. Navarra, for its part, which also has its own Treasury, has refused to apply this measure.

Tax on the rich

The differences in personal income tax will not be the only regional ups and downs of this fiscal campaign. Along with the Income comes the liquidation of the wealth tax and the entry into force of the controversial solidarity tax, or also called the tax on the rich.

It affects taxpayers who present incomes greater than three million euros. It is divided into three tranches: a rate of 1.7% for assets between 3 and 5.3 million euros; another of 2.1% for those between 5.3 and 10.6 million; and the last, of 3.5%, those exceeding 10.6 million euros.

The figure, of a temporary nature, has been very controversial since it was presented by the Executive as a formula to counteract the strategy of those communities, mostly of the PP, that subsidize the Wealth Tax.

PENSION PLANS

The 2022 income campaign presents other important novelties this year. Such as the reduction, up to 1,500 euros, of the maximum individual contribution to private pension plans. What rises, on the contrary, are the contributions to business plans: up to 8,500 euros per year.

MATERNITY DEDUCTION

Another novelty of the income statement affects deductions for maternity. Unemployed mothers with babies under three years old will be able to join them this year. Also those who receive the Minimum Vital Income with children of the same age.

TWO PAYERS... IN 2024

This year other fiscal changes have been announced, within the draft of the General State Budget, which will not yet enter into force, they will do so from the 2023 campaign, in 2024. One of them is the one that affects workers with two payers. They are still exempt from making the declaration if the income did not exceed 14,000 euros and the second payment was less than 1,500 euros. For the 2023 Income Tax campaign, the threshold goes to 15,000 euros.

Descent to low incomes

Another of the main measures approved by the Government, which do not yet enter into force, is the reduction of work income on gross salaries between 15,000 and 21,000 euros. According to the Spanish Government, this measure will affect 50% of workers, and will save 1,881 million.

According to The Trust Project criteria

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  • Personal Income Tax
  • Taxation
  • Income Tax Return