2022 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 system. 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 five 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 five regions from the rest is their good score in each of the five components of the Index. None of the top five regions are among the five lowest-ranked regions in any of the five separate components of the Index.

Madrid

Madrid has undertaken two important tax reforms and improved its score by 0.73 points in the overall Index, reinforcing its first place. Madrid cut income tax rates by 0.5 percentage points for each tax bracket and abolished all regional taxes, except for stamp duty, transfer, income, wealth, and inheritance taxes. Madrid could improve more by cutting the top inheritance tax rate from 34 percent to 25 percent and abolishing the factor that depends on the level of pre-inheritance wealth and familial closeness to the inheritor. It could also index the tax code (especially the income tax) to inflation on a yearly base to avoid bracket creep.

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 4^th, and Biscay 3^rd.  On the income tax component, Alava ranks 1^st while Guipuzcoa and Biscay rank 2^nd. In 2022, Biscay, Alava, and Guipuzcoa indexed their income tax inflation and remain in second, third, and fourth in the overall Index.

All three Basque provinces could benefit from reforming the inheritance tax as they are tied for eighth 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 have not carried out any tax reforms in the last year and remain in fifth place in the overall Index. They could improve by revoking 2020’s income and inheritance tax reforms and by cutting wealth tax bracket rates by up to 2.5 percentage points. 

The five 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 2022, none of the five regions at the bottom of the ranking adopted tax reforms that would improve their score. Catalonia cut the income tax rate for low-income households but at the same time a regional deduction was declared unconstitutional, worsening Catalonia’s overall score on the 2022 Index. The bottom five regions in 2022 are the same as in 2021. However, over the past five years, Andalusia worked its way up and out of the bottom five regions through tax reforms while Asturias joined the bottom five due to its lack of reforms.

Catalonia

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

Valencia Community

Valencia Community scores low in all the components of the Index and has some of the most burdensome inheritance, transfer taxes, and stamp duties in Spain. Additionally, Valencia’s overall (central and regional) top marginal income tax rate stands at 54 percent, the fourth highest in Europe after Denmark (55.9 percent), France (55.2 percent) and Austria (55 percent).

Aragon

Aragon, at 17^th, has several shortcomings regarding income, inheritance, and wealth tax components of the Index.

Asturias

Asturias has not undertaken any type of reforms this year and remained in 16^th place in the 2022 Index. Asturias would benefit significantly from income and inheritance tax reform. 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 2022 Index. After having reformed the inheritance tax in 2018, Extremadura should examine reforms to the wealth and income taxes; it ranks 19^th on these components of the Index.

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

Seven regions changed their positions in the Index during the past year.

Galicia

Galicia reformed transfer and income taxes. Additionally, a 25 percent wealth tax to 2^nd place on the wealth tax component. Because of these reforms, Galicia improved four places overall, from 12^th to 8^th in the 2022 Index.

Navarre

Navarre indexed income tax to inflation and raised child tax deductions for the first time since the 2016 income tax reform. This improved the region’s overall rank from 14^th to 11^th place.

Castilla-La Mancha and Cantabria

Castilla-La Mancha and Cantabria dropped two places overall to 12^th and 13^th in the overall Index due to the improvement of Navarre and Galicia.

La Rioja and 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. However, this reduction was not enough for Murcia to maintain its position. Both Murcia and La Rioja dropped one place to 9^th and 10^th in the overall Index due to the improvement of Galicia.

Balearic Islands

In 2022, the Balearic Islands increased the transaction tax. This, and the improvement of Navarre, led the Balearic Islands to drop one place in the 2022 Index, to 14^th overall.

Andalusia

In 2022, Andalusia reformed income taxes and made permanent the 2021 reduction of stamp duty and transfer taxes. Additionally, the reform of the inheritance tax led Andalusia to have the third lowest top inheritance tax rate in Spain after Navarre and Basque Country. However, these tax reforms were not enough for Andalusia to improve its overall position in the Index. In order to do so, a reduction in the number of other regional taxes is necessary.