The State already collects more VAT than before the pandemic in all the autonomies, except Catalonia and Cantabria

The State collected a total of 85,382 million euros in VAT in 2022, the year that consolidated the pandemic recovery of this tax, the second that contributes the most to public coffers after personal income tax.. Last year closed with a new boom in VAT revenues, driven by strong price increases and the recovery of consumption. However, not all territories have participated in this income boom in the same way.. Data from the Tax Agency (AEAT) show that the collection levels for this tax already exceed those of 2019 in all the autonomies, except in Cantabria and Catalonia.

This is clear from the statistics on tax and economic data on this tax that the Tax Agency released this Wednesday.. The Treasury figures reflect that the Community of Madrid was the territory where companies declared the most VAT. Specifically, 54% of all the income that the AEAT obtained for this concept (45,878 million) was generated in this autonomy, a percentage that has remained stable in recent years.

The undisputed leadership of Madrid is explained because the collection figures depend on where the headquarters of the reporting company is located and not on the place where consumption takes place.. The concentration of large companies in the capital is, therefore, the differentiating factor. To give an example, Telefónica – which has its headquarters in Madrid – had a turnover of 40,000 million in 2022. Although these income include sales from Madrid, the rest of Spain and abroad, all VAT declared on this income is reflected as collected in Madrid.

This concentration of large companies looks very good if we look at the sales volume per taxpayer in each community.. In Madrid there were 625,545 taxpayers in 2022 who declared average sales of 2.2 million euros, while the state average was 900,000 euros. In autonomies such as Catalonia or Andalusia, with a number of filers comparable to that of Madrid, the average turnover was 869,000 and 398,500 respectively.

After Madrid, Catalonia is the community that contributes the most VAT revenue to the State. Companies based in the community contributed 16,637 million euros in VAT to the public coffers in 2022, or in other words, one in every five euros obtained from this tax. Catalonia is the region with the most VAT filers in the country and occupies one of the first positions in sales volume per taxpayer.

However, VAT revenue from the community is still 1.5% below what was obtained in 2019.. This decrease is explained, fundamentally, by the lower added value – the income obtained from sales once purchases have been discounted – that Catalan companies have contributed in 2022 compared to 2019.

After Catalonia, the autonomies that contributed the most income to the State from the VAT collected were the Valencian Community (5,078 million euros), Andalusia (4,548 million) and Galicia (3,013 million). All of them registered increases in collection of more than 10% compared to 2019.

Asturias also deserves special mention, where the revenue obtained from VAT has almost doubled in just three years, going from 877 million to 1,575. Other autonomies that have also significantly increased VAT revenue compared to 2019 have been the Balearic Islands (1,614 million in 2022 and an increase of 21%), Castilla-La Mancha (1,175 million and 21%) or La Rioja (390 million and 18 ,4%).