Spanish households paid on average more than 263 euros more VAT in 2022 and half of the increase was due to inflation
Inflation has contributed to increasing tax collection in the last year. In fact, public coffers entered a record volume of 255,000 million euros in 2022, 14.4% more than the previous year.. Specifically, according to a study published this Tuesday by the Savings Bank Foundation (Funcas), Spanish households paid an average of 263 euros more VAT last year than in 2021 and half of that increase was due to the increase in prices.
The research, signed by economist Desiderio Romero, indicates that inflation has driven a good part of the increase in VAT collection in the last year, which grew by 14.9% in 2021 and 13.4% in 2021, according to Tax Agency data. This increase translated for families into the payment of an average of 2,592.2 euros of VAT in 2021 and 2,855.8 euros in 2022. The average fiscal burden of this tax has therefore increased in the last year by 263 .6 euros, that is, it has grown by 10.2%. The study investigates what part of this increase is attributable exclusively to inflation.
VAT is an indirect tax that taxes consumption, so that it is paid when purchasing any product and represents a percentage increase in the price of articles and services.. Therefore, in general terms, the higher the price, the higher the amount of VAT paid, hence there has been an increase in collection in a context of rising prices.. Inflation climbed to an average of 8.4% in 2022, well above the 3.1% recorded in the previous year, which showed an acceleration in the pace of price increases.
Specifically, the research calculates that 52.4% of the increase in the VAT tax burden borne by households was due to the increase in prices. That is, inflation caused families to pay on average 138.2 euros more VAT in 2022 than in 2021.. This average amount varies depending on household spending, due to the nature of the tax. The greater the volume of expenses, the higher the increase in VAT incurred due to inflation. In this way, according to the study, households with an expenditure of around 16,500 euros would have had to pay on average 87.9 euros more in VAT due to the price increase in 2022 than in 2021, while in those where the Expense rose to around 62,500 euros, the amount of VAT induced by inflation reached 346.7 euros.
In total, between 2021 and 2022 each household paid an average of 297 euros in VAT derived exclusively from inflation. This amount rises to approximately 350 euros for an average household with a spending level of around 32,200 euros, similar to the average Spanish income in 2022.. However, the study reflects that this amount is higher in households residing in smaller municipalities.. Thus, the VAT tax burden accumulated due to the price increase in 2021 and 2022 would reach 332.7 euros on average in households located in municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants, while it would be 272.4 euros in those settled in cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants.
By autonomous community, according to the research published this Wednesday, Navarra was the region in which households had to face a greater amount of VAT derived from inflation, a cumulative amount of 341.8 euros between 2021 and 2022. They were followed by Galicia, Murcia and Castilla y León, three communities where households paid on average more than 320 euros in VAT in the last two years due to the increase in prices.. At the opposite extreme are the Canary Islands, Melilla, Ceuta and the Valencian Community, with amounts of less than 280 euros.