Executive Summary
The 2021 financial year represented the normalisation of tax compliance after the exceptional pandemic year. Total tax revenue reached **€223.2 billion**, 14.9% above 2020 and growth that exceeded pre-pandemic records, reflecting both the economic recovery and the end of the extraordinary deferrals granted in 2020. Corporate Income Tax showed particularly intense recovery, with a 32% increase in revenues.
At BMC, the year was marked by the intensity of compliance work: managing the CIT campaign with complex taxable bases inherited from 2020, advising on new restrictions on deductions, and providing guidance on the emerging universe of digital assets.
Key Highlights
The Corporate Tax reform introduced significant changes primarily affecting medium and large companies. The limitation of the dividend and foreign capital gains exemption to 95% — eliminating the previous full exemption — had a direct impact on international holding structures. The application of a 15% minimum rate anticipated at the domestic level the discussions that at the OECD level were being articulated within the Pillar Two framework of BEPS 2.0.
Cryptocurrencies burst onto the tax agenda with force. While the specific regulatory framework was still under construction, the AEAT intensified its information requirements to exchanges and trading platforms, and began cross-referencing data with taxpayer declarations. Companies with exposure to digital assets had to review their accounting recording policies and tax declarations.
International taxation experienced a year of intense regulatory activity. The advances in the OECD’s BEPS 2.0 project — with the historic October 2021 agreement among 136 countries to establish a global minimum tax rate of 15% — marked the beginning of a new era in international corporate taxation. Multinational companies began evaluating the impact of this reform on their structures.
Analysis by Tax Category
Corporate Income Tax: Filing the 2019 return — submitted in July 2021 — concentrated much of the first-semester tax work. The complexity of taxable bases with COVID incidents, loss carry-forward offsets and new restrictions introduced a level of technical sophistication above the usual standard.
Personal Income Tax: The 2020 income tax campaign — conducted from April to June 2021 — was the most complex in years, due to the impact of ERTEs on the tax situation of millions of workers. Many taxpayers owed tax for the first time, generating extraordinary demand for individual tax advice.
VAT and international operations: The approval of the VAT e-commerce package (OSS/IOSS) from 1 July 2021 transformed the obligations of companies selling goods to consumers in other EU member states, eliminating national thresholds and simplifying registration through a single window.
Regulatory Changes and Trends
The draft Anti-Tax Fraud Law advanced during the year with measures including prohibition of dual-use software, modification of the penalty regime and tightening of conditions for the list of tax debtors. Proactive tax planning gained special relevance for managing the impact of these measures.
Outlook
The tax horizon for 2022 presented significant challenges: transposition of the DAC6 Directive on aggressive planning arrangements, progress towards Pillar Two implementation and the expectation of new taxes on large fortunes and the energy sector. Companies had to strengthen their tax compliance structures in anticipation of an increasingly demanding regulatory environment.
Our international tax advisory team accompanied clients in assessing the impact of the new global taxation architecture.
