Tax revenues in the EU were overall stable before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the 2020 edition of the Commission's report on taxation trends in the EU, published on Tuesday 7 July.
The report reflects the fiscal situation in the EU before the economic and health crisis caused by Covid-19 and presents mainly data from 2018 and some data from 2019. It will be “an important reference as to how EU economies were performing prior to the ongoing crisis and thus how this could help them going forward”, says the Commission.
The report shows that in 2018, tax revenue in the EU-27 increased slightly to 40.2% of GDP, up from 39% in 2017 (see EUROPE 12285/18).
Revenues remained almost equally distributed among indirect taxes, direct taxes and social contributions. The distribution of revenues by tax base remained stable compared to previous years, i.e. around 52% from labour, 28% from consumption and 20% from capital.
On the revenues derived from consumption side, the report shows a slight increase in 2018 to 11.2% of GDP. Labour taxes also increased slightly in 2018, reaching 20.8% of GDP, while revenues from taxes on capital amounted to 8.2% of GDP, slightly lower than in 2017.
See the report: https://bit.ly/2O2YkoX (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)