PP and Ciudadanos arrived in San Telmo with a long history of protests against the Inheritance and Donations tax. The popular ones even set up tents to collect signatures against this tax, while the orange ones pressured the PSOE – during their time as partners – to extend the minimum tax-free amount for direct heirs to one million euros. With these antecedents, it would not surprise anyone that one of the first measures of the Government of Juanma Moreno was that bonus to 100% of this controversial rate. That caused an almost immediate drop in collection, despite the fact that in 2019 pandemics – and the associated economic crises – were the stuff of science fiction.
Between January of that year, when the Board approved the bonus, and May of that year, the Andalusian Tax Agency collected 77.6 million euros from donations and inheritances. In the same period of 2020, that is, with two months free of Covid and another three with the economy at a standstill, the figure fell to 42.3 million euros. The situation has turned around in the first five months of this year, since the liquidations of the Inheritance and Donations Tax accumulated until May 31, 2021 represent income of 107.2 million euros for the regional coffers. It is the highest figure that has been registered in this section since 2018, the last year with the PSOE in the Andalusian Executive,
According to what appears in the Tax Collection Notebooks of the Board, the growth experienced reaches 153%, the third highest in percentage terms within the catalog of taxes º to the Autonomous Administration. The collection only grew more in the Patrimony tax (907.3%), the ecological ones (824.5%) and the improvement canon (396.3%). The first two are taxes with little impact on the tax revenue account, since the 10.6 million of the first and the 252,000 euros of the second account for 0.15% of the total collected until May. The third is a very specific rate created to finance the hydraulic works necessary for Andalusia to adapt its water purification infrastructure.
The fall of personal income tax and VAT
They are not the only taxes that see their collection grow in the first tranche of 2021. Of the 15 concepts included in the collection notebooks of the Ministry of Finance, 11 have a positive balance compared to the same period last year. Two of these taxes are those that account for the bulk of income, but they do not depend on direct collection, but on transfers that the State makes to the community through the regional financing system. Until May, VAT has yielded 2,538 million euros in Andalusia, 3.72% less than in 2020. Personal income tax, for its part, has led to the entry of 2,332 million into regional coffers, 4.82% less .
These two taxes account for seven out of every ten euros collected in Andalusia in these first months of the year, but their fall is compensated by the good performance of other taxes, including two of those involved in the tax reductions recently launched by the Government of the PP and Cs and that are closely related to economic activity.
The department headed by Juan Bravo reduced the general rates of property transfer taxes and documented legal taxes. The first step from having several –10%, 9% and 8%– to a general one of 7%, while the second step from 1.5% to 1.2%. This modification came into force at the end of April, so the impact of the reduction has only been felt in the last of the five months analysed.
In any case, the Property Transfers account ended May with 422 million euros collected, 37.9% more than the same period in 2020, while Documented Legal Acts reported a balance of 167.7 million, 27.28% more than in the last exercise. In both taxes, the collection of 2021 not only improved that of 2020 in a few months partially marked by the crisis caused by Covid-19, but it was also higher than that achieved in 2019, the last year of economic growth before the pandemic. . So, the positive balance was 384 million in Transmissions and 167 in Documented Legal Acts.
In total, the Andalusian treasury has raised 6,876 million euros between January and March 2021, 0.65% more than in the same period of 2020, when the amount reached 6,831 million euros.
90% more collections in the tax on face-to-face gambling
Other taxes that show a positive balance in the collection of the first five months of the year are those related to gambling. The Tax Collection Notebook of the Board includes two of these types. The most relevant is the one that taxes face-to-face gaming activities, that is, casinos, bingo halls and similar establishments. Between January and May 2021, the Ministry of Finance has collected 30.5 million euros for this reason, 90% more than in the same period of 2020.
The amount accumulated by the tax levied on remote gaming has also grown, going from 5.4 million euros last year to 7.3 so far this year, 34.7% more. These rates are some of those that have been subsidized during the pandemic to avoid a break in the accounts of this type of premises and of establishments that have, for example, slot machines.
