About one in two OECD countries, including Spain, have imposed some form of extraordinary tax in 2022, mainly on so-called “heaven gains” derived from income. oil and energyAt a time when the challenges of post-pandemic progress were met by the outbreak of war in Ukraine, we set out to generate income to “limit inequalities and strengthen social cohesion.”
“These measures are part of the trend of countries looking for solutions.” increasing the progressiveness of tax systems In its annual analysis report on financial trends in the world published this Wednesday, the OECD organization of developed countries states that it is necessary to combat increasing inequalities.
In the report ‘Fiscal policy reforms 2023’The Paris-based organization focuses, above all, on the measures taken by Germany. 36 countries The study, for which tax data is available for 2021, confirms that: a total of 19 European countries and Latin America (just over half) imposes some type of tax extraordinary benefits orIt is obtained by companies in certain sectors. As explained, the purpose of these measures is to generate revenue to finance the compensatory measures. The impact of inflation on families and homes.
Spain became the seventh OECD country where financial pressure increased the most in 2021 after increasing its GDP by 1.6 percentage points.
Profit or income
According to the OECD report, the list of 19 countries that have implemented this type of tax measure includes 13 regions where the tax is applied to profits. This situation Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, Greece and the United Kingdom. Additionally, another group consisting of two countries was identified (Argentina and Colombia) Where it is taxed is income.
The OECD report includes a third category called “Others”. Spain, extraordinary taxes on energy and banking taxes are net income and interest, respectively. This group also includes ‘falling out of blue earnings’ tax practices. Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Italy and RomaniaThose who choose to tax concepts related to exports or other variables.
In addition to these extraordinary taxes, some countries have adopted measures to cap energy prices as a way of stopping the ‘profit collapse’. In this group, attention is drawn to the measures adopted by the OECD. Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Slovenia, Sweden, France, Netherlands and Slovakia (the study is neither from Spain nor Portugal within this group, although there are authors of the so-called ‘Iberian exception’).
The OECD is of the opinion that “Theoretically, taxation of purely economic income, whether through a tax on excess or windfall profits, should, if well designed, have no detrimental effect on investment or other production options.” Opponents of the design of new taxes in Spain criticize their application to income rather than profits.
Energy, banking, pharmaceuticals
In most of the cases analyzed by the OECD, taxes imposed on those who “fell from the sky” energy sector in general or to oil or electricity companies. In Spain, Colombia and the Czech Republic, such taxes are also designed as follows: Financial Institutions. In Argentina and Croatia they spread to all productive sectors, and in Hungary they also expanded. pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, financial institutions and retail trade.
In practically all cases these are “solidarity taxes”. temporary nature The expiration date is 2023. In some cases, this period extends to 2024 (in the case of Spain), 2025 (Czech Republic), 2027 (Colombia) or 2028 (the United Kingdom). In Colombia, some of the new figures have been adopted as permanent.
General increase in tax pressure
The provisional tax bill on the “earnings falling from the sky” earned by energy companies and other sectors is just one of them. general trendsThis is what the OECD found in its 2023 report on fiscal policies in countries, published this Wednesday.
In addition, the OECD highlights that 2021 (the year around which most research revolves) is the second consecutive year of global warming. Weight of income from taxes and social contributions in GDP. The OECD estimates that financial pressure will increase by 0.6 points in 2021, reaching: 34.1% GDP is the highest since the beginning of the series (1990). This average of 34.1% fiscal pressure includes 46.9% in Denmark and 16.7% in Mexico. Inside Spain According to OECD data, this rate was 38.4%.
Fiscal pressure increased as the decline in income in 2020 was smaller than the decline in GDP outbreak of health crisis. However, the increase in fiscal pressure in 2021 is due to tax revenues increasing on average more (12.8%) than GDP (10.5%) for the countries studied.
The weight of income on GDP from 36 countries for which the OECD has 2021 data increased by 24 from them; 11 more points dropped and in one of them (Greece) it remained unchanged. The biggest increase in financial pressure Norway (+3.4 points), due to the impact of the extraordinary tax on oil extraction. Also rose by more than 2 points Chile, Israel, New Zealand or Korea. Spain became the seventh country (+1.6 points) where tax pressure increased the most in 2021, after Lithuania. The biggest decrease in financial pressure was in Hungary (-2.1 points). The pressure also dropped Canada, Iceland, Mexico and Türkiyeamong others.