Money Calls to Money
The idea of turning crisis into opportunity originates in Chinese thought and, looking at the 2022 data from the Spanish tax agency on IRPF collections, shows that the rich and super-rich in the Community of Valencia understood the moment like no one else. In fact, the declarations filed in the previous year reveal that Valencia hosts more affluent residents than ever before.
The label super-rich comes from the income brackets the tax authority uses to classify declared earnings. At the top of the table are those earning more than 601,000 euros annually. There were 1,251 such declarations, up 336 people (36.72%) from 2021, a pandemic year. This leap matters because it breaks through barriers seen in earlier years, even when Covid was not a factor, and growth seemed modest. It marks a shift into an exclusive club that once appeared hard to join.
Nationally, the super-rich grew by 25%, reaching 15,186 taxpayers. Madrid absorbed the largest share (43% of the total), followed by Catalonia (22%) and Valencia (8.24%), a touch higher than in 2021. Yet the whole group represents just 0.07% of all filers, a fraction only slightly above Valencia’s 0.05%. In this compact snapshot, attention shifts to the premium rise that arrived while concerns about contagion lingered and employment rules were still in play.
Still, the opportunity was there for those 1,251 filers, whose annual salaries hovered around 525,401 euros, about 50,000 euros below the 2021 average. Wealth for these individuals comes from more than salaries; it reflects gains from assets, investments, and stock holdings, which explains why incomes exceed the 601,000-euro threshold even when salaries are not in the top tier.
Here is where the tax data highlight the distinctive difference of the “super-rich.” The 1,251 filers in 2022 held 35% of the savings base. They accounted for 1.599 billion of the 4.563 billion euros declared in Valencia. The per-capita average stood at 1,344,284 euros. In the next tier, the average drops to 92,165 euros. The gulf between these groups and the rest of the population helps explain why some observers call these taxpayers a select club.
High earners also stretch beyond the very top. For Valencia, the band of workers earning between 30,000 and 60,000 euros annually is crucial. This group represents about 30% of this income bracket and 18% of all declarations, translating to roughly 18 billion of the 56.247 billion euros collected in total. In practical terms, that money moves the entire system forward and matters to the regional economy.
Yet gains did not stop there. The lower brackets also posted growth. The tranche of earners between 150,000 and 601,000 euros rose by 15%, including 11,311 Valencians. The band from 60,000 to 150,000 euros rose by 14% and encompassed 94,623 declarants. At the next level, the 30,000 to 60,000 euro group climbed 12% and included 478,477 people. These four bands are the most dynamic and show the broadening strength of Valencia’s income distribution in the upper-middle range compared with 2021.
Only two bands declined: those with negative balances and the 1,500 to 6,000 euro range, each shrinking by 12% and 8%, respectively.
Other notable points in this Valencia income portrait include the continued prominence of the 12,000 to 21,000 euro annual earnings band. About half a million Valencians fall into this band, where the average salary stood at 19,332 euros, a level that recovered to pre-pandemic norms after the downturns seen during the crisis years. In this context, 2019-like conditions reappeared for a moment, underscoring how the region’s income landscape has shifted yet again.