2021 Spanish Regional Tax Competitiveness Index

Executive Summary

The Regional Tax Competitiveness Index (RTCI) for Spain allows policymakers, businesses, and taxpayers to evaluate and measure how their regions’ tax systems compare. This Index has been designed to analyze how well regions structure their tax systems. Additionally, it serves as a road map for policymakers to reform their tax systems and make their regions more competitive and attractive for entrepreneurs and residents.

The Index compares the 19 Spanish regions on more than 60 variables in five major areas of taxation: individual income tax, wealth tax, inheritance tax, transfer taxes and stamp duties, and other regional taxes, combining the results to generate a final ranking. The Index provides a simple metric to assess the whole tax system and identify strengths and weaknesses. The result is a score that can be compared with those of other regions.

The 5 best regions in this year’s Index are:

1. Community of Madrid

2. Biscay

3. Alava

4. Guipuzcoa

5. Canary Islands

What distinguishes the top 5 regions from the rest is their good score in each of the five components of the Index. None of the top 5 regions are among the 5 lowest-ranked regions in any of the five separate components of the Index.

Madrid

Madrid has not carried out any tax reforms in the last year and remains in first place. Madrid could improve more by reforming the inheritance tax and keeping pace with Cantabria, Galicia, and Andalusia. It could also cut income tax rates for certain tax brackets, as it lags behind the Basque Country’s provinces on some brackets.

Basque Country

The differences among the three Basque Provinces are driven by the income component and the wealth tax component of the Index. On the wealth tax component, Guipzucoa ranks 13^th, Alava 3^rd, and Biscay 2^nd.  On the income tax component, Alava ranks 1^st while Guipuzcoa and Biscay rank 2^nd.

Biscay, Alava, and Guipuzcoa remain in second, third, and fourth place respectively due to a small income tax adjustment the three approved for the 2021 fiscal year. Under the new regulation, annual income under EUR 14,000 is income tax-exempt in all three regions of the Basque Country.

All three Basque Provinces could benefit from reforming the inheritance tax as they are tied for seventh place on this component of the Index. Additionally, Guipuzcoa could improve by raising the wealth tax threshold and tax shield to the level applied in Biscay, while reducing the tax rate.

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands remain in fifth place in the overall Index, but the overall score of the Islands dropped in 2021 due to a wealth tax reform implemented by the central government. In 2021, the central government increased the wealth tax’s top bracket rate from 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent. However, since 2001, each region in Spain has been able to amend the general framework of the wealth tax and establish different tax rates and deductions. The Canary Islands is one of the six regions in Spain that has not established specific tax rates for their regional wealth tax. Therefore, the tax increase by the central government was automatically transferred at the regional level, causing the Canary Islands to drop one place on the corresponding component of the Index.

The 5 lowest-ranked regions in this year’s Index are:

15. Extremadura
16. Asturias
17. Aragon
18. Valencia Community
19. Catalonia

The regions with the worst overall scores obtain low scores in almost all the components of the Index and especially in the three most important ones: income tax, wealth tax, and inheritance tax. In 2021, none of the five regions at the bottom of the ranking have adopted tax reforms that would improve their score. Valencia Community changed the wealth and income tax and introduced a new regional tax, dropping Valencia’s overall score on the 2021 Index. The bottom 5 regions in 2021 are the same as in 2020. However, over the past five years, Andalusia worked its way up and out of the bottom 5 regions through tax reforms while Asturias joined the bottom 5 due to its lack of reforms.

Catalonia

Catalonia, which has twice as many regional taxes when compared to the rest of the Spanish regions, ranks last in the overall Index. Catalonia has one of the worst-structured individual income, inheritance, and wealth taxes.

Valencia Community

Valencia Community has undertaken several tax reforms and dropped from 16^th to 18^th in the overall Index. In 2021, Valencia Community reduced the wealth tax threshold and increased the top marginal tax rate from 3.12 percent to 3.5 percent. Additionally, it introduced a new tax on vacant properties and increased the top marginal income tax rate by 4 percentage points. Valencia’s overall (central and regional) top marginal income tax rate stands at 54 percent, fourth highest in Europe after Denmark (55.9 percent), France (55.2 percent), and Austria (55 percent). Valencia scores low in all the components of the Index and has some of the most burdensome inheritance, transfer taxes, and stamp duties in Spain.

Aragon

Aragon, at 17^th, has several shortcomings regarding income, inheritance, and wealth tax components of the Index. Aragon is one of the regions that didn’t establish specific tax rates for the regional wealth tax and therefore the central wealth tax increase was automatically transferred at the regional level, worsening Aragon’s overall score in 2021.

Asturias

Asturias’s overall rank improved from 18^th to 16^th due to the decline of Valencia Community in the 2021 Index and the worsening of Aragon’s score. Asturias would benefit significantly from income tax reform and, especially, of the inheritance tax. Asturians have by far the highest inheritance tax liability among the regions.

Extremadura

Extremadura has not undertaken any type of reform this year and remained in 15^th place in the 2021 Index. After having reformed the inheritance tax in 2018, Extremadura should examine reforms to the wealth and income taxes; it ranks 19^th and 18^th on these components of the Index.

Notable Ranking Changes in this Year’s Spanish Regional Tax Competitiveness Index

Apart from the changes that occurred in the 5 best and 5 lowest-ranked regions, the other nine regions also changed their positions in the Index somewhat during the past year.

Castile and Leon

The inheritance tax reform raised Castile and Leon to 4^th place on the inheritance tax component. Because of that reform, Castile and Leon improved seven places overall, from 13^th to 6^th in the 2021 Index.

Andalusia

Andalusia reformed income and wealth taxes while temporarily reducing stamp duty and transfer taxes for 2021. This improved the region’s overall rank from 11^th to 7^th place.

Castilla-La Mancha

Castilla-La Mancha is one of the regions where the central wealth tax increase was automatically transferred at the regional level, worsening its overall score in 2021. This, and the improvement of Andalusia, Castile and Leon, and Murcia’s overall score, led Castilla-La Mancha to drop three places in the 2021 Index, to 10th overall.

La Rioja, Cantabria, and Galicia

La Rioja, Cantabria, and Galicia dropped two places overall to 8^th, 11^th, and 12^th in the overall Index due to the improvement of Castile and Leon and Andalusia.

Murcia

Murcia is in the process of lowering its income tax rate. The scheduled annual rate reductions began in 2019 and will continue through 2023. The reduction helped the region improve on the income tax component, but the region’s overall rank dropped from 8^th to 9^th due to the improvement of Castile and Leon and Andalusia.

Balearic Islands

In 2021 the Balearic Islands introduced a new waste incineration tax. This, and the improvement of Castile and Leon, led the Balearic Islands to drop one place in the 2021 Index, to 13^th overall.