Taxation andCustoms Union
Data for the EU Member States, Iceland and Norway
2017 Edition
Taxation Trends in the European Union
More information on the European Union is available on the internet (http://europa.eu).
Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2017
Print ISBN 978-92-79-65721-4 ISSN 1831-8789 doi:10.2778/494349 KP-DU-17-001-EN-C
PDF ISBN 978-92-79-65720-7 ISSN 2467-0073 doi:10.2778/30295 KP-DU-17-001-EN-N
European Union, 2017
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Taxation Trends in the European Union
Data for the eU MeMber StateS, IcelanDanDnorway 2017 edition
DG Taxation and Customs Union
Taxation trends in the European Union 3DG Taxation and Customs Union |
PrefaceTaxation is an important part of our lives. Tax policies have a major impact on businesses, the economy and ordinary citizens, and shape our public finances and public services. It is essential to have high quality data and comparable information about tax systems if we are to develop robust and effective tax policies for the future. The aim of Taxation Trends in the European Union is to respond to this need by providing an overview of trends in taxation revenues, tax structures and reforms over recent years.
The 2017 edition of Taxation Trends is based upon harmonized and comparable taxation data from the National Statistical Institutes, transmitted to Eurostat and validated by Eurostat, and uses the government finance statistics as well as the more detailed National Tax Lists for each country. The statistics are based on the European System of National and Regional Accounts (ESA 2010), which is a major development of the pre vious system (ESA95). Progress has been achieved in the harmonisation of methodology and in the precision and accuracy of the concepts, definitions, classifications and accounting rules.
The report also draws upon valuable contributions from experts of the Ministries of Finance in all the countries covered by the report, including some additional data. We would like to express our special thanks for their many inputs and help without which the report would not have been possible.
In addition to the analysis of Europe-wide trends in Part 1, the report also includes a Part 2 with country chapters covering the 28 EU Member States, Iceland and Norway. For each country, key taxation indicators are provided on tax revenues as a percentage of GDP for the years 2003 to 2015. These are supplemented by factual tables presenting the latest tax reforms in each country. In Annex A, the reader can find more than 80 tables of the various taxation indicators, while Annex B contains a detailed description of the methodology used to calculate the indicators.
The data and information from this report, as well as other materials, can be found on the Economic Analysis web pages of DG Taxation and Customs Union. Finally, the Taxes in Europe database contains detailed and updated information on the most important taxes in force in the EU Member States.
Stephen Quest
Director-General
Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union
http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/taxation/gen_info/economic_analysis/index_en.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/tedb
Taxation trends in the European Union4 | DG Taxation and Customs Union
Background informationTaxation trends in the European Union is produced by the Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD).
The Commission staff wishes to thank the Working Group on the Structures of the Taxation Systems, composed of experts from the national Finance Ministries and run by DG TAXUD, for their very helpful oral and written contributions to the report. Nevertheless, the Commission Services bear sole responsibility for this publication and its content. This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the tax departments in the Member States.
Any questions or suggestions relating to the analysis should be addressed to:
Gatan Nicodme, Head of the unit Economic analysis, evaluation & impact assessment support European Commission, DG Taxation and Customs Union, B-1049 Brussels Email: [email protected]
Language and disseminationTaxation trends in the European Union is available in English only. The publication can be downloaded free of charge from the website of the Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union (http://ec.europa.eu/taxtrends). The paper version can be purchased from any of the sales outlets listed on the website of the Publications Office of the European Union (http://publications.europa.eu).
Additional informationThe National Tax Lists for all EU countries, showing tax revenues for all major taxes, will be published online (see the sites Economic analysis of taxation and Statistics Explained). Continuously updated tax data are also available on the Eurostat website (online data code: gov_10a_taxag). Readers interested in taxation can find detailed information on the legal form and revenue of the taxes currently in force in the EU Member States in the Taxes in Europe database (TEDB).
http://ec.europa.eu/taxtrendshttp://publications.europa.eu/http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/taxation/gen_info/economic_analysis/index_en.htmhttp://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Tax_revenue_statisticshttp://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/databasehttp://ec.europa.eu/tedb
Taxation trends in the European Union 5DG Taxation and Customs Union |
AcknowledgementsThis report was prepared under the direction of Stephen Quest (Director General of DG TAXUD), Valre Moutarlier (Director at DG TAXUD) and Gatan Nicodme (Head of Unit at DG TAXUD).
The main editor of the report was Brian Sloan (DG TAXUD), with contributions and support from Gnther Ebling and Luis Peragon Lorenzo (DG TAXUD).
Support was also provided by the European Semester country desks in DG TAXUD: Maksim Baranov, Ann-Marie Bruhn, Netty Bussink, Antonella Caiumi, Niall Casey, Alain Clara, Ivana Cordasev, Eduard Folch Sogas, Roberta Grappiolo, Valeska Gronert, Morgan Guillou, Endre Gyorgy, David Howell, Malina Koleshanska-Nussbaum, Ursula Krampe, Arne Kubitza, Beatriz Laranjeira, Stephen Lawson, Juan Lopez Rodriguez, Konstantin Lozev, Milena Mathe, Pia Michelsen, Ioanna Mitroyanni, Pere Moles Palleja, Carmen Muniz Sanchez, Colin ODriscoll, David OSullivan, Ela Olkuska, Martins Ozolins, Henrik Paulander, Nicolas Pavlou, Luis Peragon Lorenzo, Eleftheria Psaraki, Tanel Puetsep, Nathalie Roux, Savino Rua, Peter Schonewille, Vladimir Sika, Aga Skonieczna, Clare Southworth, Szabolcs Szilagyi, Villem Tanzer, Bogdan-Alexandru Tasnadi, Maria Teresa Sutich, Valrie Thibaudeau, Luisa Tivrisi, Tina Tukic , Ivar Tuominen, Astrid Van Mierlo, Pierre Vandenberghe, Aurimas Vasylis, Remi Verneau, Agns Walckiers and Vassil Zhivkov.
Editorial assistance was provided by Petra Harvanova, Tatjana Lapunova and Stphanie Veys (DG TAXUD).
The report also benefited from the contributions and suggestions of the Working Group on the Structures of the Taxation Systems, composed of experts from the national Finance Ministries, as well as comments by colleagues from other services of the European Commission.
Taxation trends in the European Union6 | DG Taxation and Customs Union
Contents
Preface 3
Background information 4
Acknowledgements 5
Abbreviations 12
Introduction 13
1 Development of theoverall tax revenue inthe European Union 15
Level and long-term trends ............................................................................................................................................................................................16
Revenue structure by type of tax ................................................................................................................................................................................20
Distribution of the tax burden by type of tax base..........................................................................................................................................20
Taxation of consumption .................................................................................................................................................................................................22
Taxation of labour .................................................................................................................................................................................................................26
Taxation of capital .................................................................................................................................................................................................................32
Environmental taxation .....................................................................................................................................................................................................36
Property Taxes .........................................................................................................................................................................................................................37
Payable tax credits ......................................................................................................................................................................
