Catalonia, the community with the highest IRPF for medium and low incomes

Catalonia, the community with the highest IRPF for medium and low incomes

It is also the one with the most taxes of its own, almost a fifth of the total, but only collects 3.2%, one point more than the national average

  The fiscal whip of the Catalan Government has turned this territory into the worst in Spain, in terms of tax pressure, for the weakest strata of the population that, at the same time, are the majority. It has the highest rates in the country in the income tax (IRPF) for the average and low incomes, that is, below an annual income of 30,000 euros and up to 16,000 euros - who earns less than 12,000 is exempt throughout the country-.

  This is reflected in the annual report on regional and regional taxation presented this Monday by the Register of Economists and Tax Advisors (REAF) which, in general, places Catalonia with a high personal income tax in virtually all of its income brackets. However, between 45,000 and 70,000 euros per year the one that taxes its citizens the most is Extremadura, while above that amount the Comunidad Valenciana does.

The first negative difference for those working in Catalonia is that there the minimum rate for this tax is 12%, two and a half points more than the average of the 17 autonomies (9.5%), whose competition reaches half of the IRPF, both in fees and some exempt minimums as in deductions and bonuses. Even in those that surpass this floor -Andalucía, Aragón, Asturias, Murcia and Valencia-, they do not reach to establish more than 10%.

The result is that if we take, for example, an annual salary of 16,000 euros - the most common in Spain according to the INE - in Catalonia would have to pay the treasury 1,612 euros (seeing the case of a single person, no children and less 65 years old), 8% more than in the next community with the highest income tax (Baleares, with 1,493 euros). In the event that revenues per year were 20,000 euros, the Treasury would stay in that territory with 2,511 euros, almost 5% more than what would be paid in Aragon and Murcia (2,394 euros each), the others that more tax that stretch.

In the average income, however, the difference between what is paid in the community with higher income tax (Extremadura with 9,822 euros for an annual salary of 45,000 euros, and 19,932 euros for emoluments of 70,000 euros) and the second in the list (Murcia with 9,745 euros and Valencia with 19,738 euros, respectively) is only one point.

The same dynamic is repeated in the higher income brackets, starting at 110,000 euros. At the other extreme, Madrid is the one with the lowest income tax for all incomes, followed by the lower sections of Galicia, the media of Castilla y León, and the highs of both. Thus, a person who works in that community would pay IRPF between five and twelve points less than in the most demanding community according to their salary.

In other taxes, establishing a common line is complicated, warn the experts of the REAF. What they do highlight is the "exaggerated use of normative capacity", when establishing the autonomies of common regime up to 732 types, reductions, deductions or bonuses, especially in the IRPF. A disproportion that is not compatible with its volume of income.

Last year Catalonia was the community that created the most taxes, with four; the most controversial ones are the tax on sugary drinks and also the one applied to the non-productive assets of legal entities (for example, the real estate of companies that are not generating an income or their unoccupied homes). It already adds 18 - although three have been declared unconstitutional, something that has also happened to other territories -, almost a quarter of the 82 autonomous tributes that exist.

«Scarce» own income

With all of them the Catalan Government collects 630 million euros a year, although this figure only accounts for 3.2% of its total tax revenue. Even so, it is one point more than the national average (2.2%, which would translate into 2.090 million), but it is below the regions that are financed much more with their own taxes and do so, in addition, creating fewer figures. This is the case of the Canary Islands (15.8%), followed by the Balearic Islands (3.8%).

Seen in another way, eight out of ten euros collected by the autonomies (83%) come from their part in the three large national taxes: _IRPF (35.7%), VAT (31.6%) and special taxes (16 %) on fuels, alcohol and others. Of course, only in the case of rent have regulatory capacity. In this situation, and before the "scarce" source of financing that supposes the entirely regional taxation, the president of the General Council of Economists, Valentín Pich, and the authors of the report come to speak of "chaos", "marasmo" or even " normative jungle within a model -that the Government intended to reform this year if there is consensus- "unnecessarily complex and obscure".

As regional trends in this regulatory effort from the REAF point to a decline in taxes on inheritance - five communities will lower their inheritance tax this year - in the face of an increase in tax burden on the purchase of housing in Catalonia, Cantabria and Galicia is paid 15,000 euros for a house of 150,000-. In equity, Madrid continues as the only one that does not tax apart the net wealth greater than 700,000 euros.