The silent tax with which the government has decimated the rise in payrolls and pensions

Interestingly, this perception of withstanding an excessive load for taxes has gained traction just when salaries have experienced greater growth to compensate for the impact of runaway inflation. The data from the information that companies provide to the Tax Agency indicate that wages increased on average between 5% and 6% in 2023 And that this year 2024 would be rising above 4%, and the historical increase that pensions have experienced, 8.5% in 2023 and 3.8% in 2024, is well known.

Unprecedented increases – explained by a context of unusual inflation – that, however, They don’t seem to have improved the perception of welfare of citizens; And perhaps the regulatory approach of the government has had something to do.

Dentellada to payrolls

ABC has examined with the help of Registry of Fiscal Advisors (Reaf) the impact that the decision of the Treasury not adapt to inflation in a context of increases close to 10% and the rise in social contributions for the activation of the mechanism of intergenerational equity (MEI) have had on the improvements salary of this period and the main conclusion is that those discretionary decisions of the government They have trimed the net gain by up to 22% that these increases have left in the pocket of the Spaniards even of medium income, for the benefit of the farms of the Treasury and the Social Security.

On the premise that salaries had grown exactly the same as inflation, that is, 3.1% in 2023 and 2.8% in 2024, a wage earning with a salary of 23,000 euros in 2022 would have had in 2024 a Salary of 24,376 euros, that is, with a gross rise of 1,476 euros. According to the reaffront calculations, once the mandatory contributions to IRPF have already been given, social security that gross rise would have left a net yield in the employee pocket in a matter of 921.82 euros. However, if the Government had adapted the IRPF to inflation, thus avoiding that cold progressivity made a salary that has not gained purchasing power pay more taxes as it has occurred these years, and the MEI had not entered into vigor the liquid improvement that taxpayer would have noticed on his payroll It would be almost 190 euros majorof 1,111 euros, 17% higher.

In other words, that these regulatory decisions have resulted in an undercover salary cut for employees in that income range, which cannot be considered elevated, about 200 euros per year.

The gap, logically, is the higher the higher the salary range. For an wage earner that in 2022 was at 40,000 euros in 2022 and, therefore, it would reach 2024 in 42,394.72 euros the regulatory scissors to its net salary would be around 400 euros. The real net improvement of 1,380.82 euros that would have obtained in 2024 for that gross rise of 2,394 euros would have actually been 1,776.81 euros, 22% more than really admitted.

For the other two examples that ABC has raised with the help of the calculations of the Registry of Fiscal Advisors, an extra factor must 2022 was subjected to price. With that extra premise, the net improvement of 1,941.22 euros that has obtained a wage earning and 22% more) if the government has not chosen not to adapt the IRPF and at the same time rise quotes in this period, thus raising the pressure on payrolls.

For an income that started from 150,000 euros in 2022 and that at the height of 2024 it would have experienced a gross salary improvement of 8,980 euros its net improvement would increase from the 4,658.18 euros that it has obtained in reality to 5,495 euros, 15% further.

Sources from the Ministry of Finance stress that “the government has focused on approving Fiscal sales for low and medium incomes, which have probably had the greatest fiscal reduction that has been carried out ». Reaf’s projections confirm that impact for salaries in the SMI environment to which the IRPF reduction has optimized its salary improvement to the point that a Brute improvement of 898 euros translated into a real gain of 1,243 euros.