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For the first time in more than ten years, income from taxes and social security contributions fell in EU countries last year during the corona pandemic.
According to the statistics agency Eurostat on Friday, the EU countries received around 5.5 trillion euros in taxes and social security contributions in 2020, 215 billion less than in 2019. In the euro zone alone, revenue fell by 206 billion euros.
It is the first time since 2009 that tax revenues have fallen, the statisticians wrote.
According to Eurostat, the reasons for the decline were the general economic downturn during the pandemic and relief measures such as tax cuts to cushion the effects of the crisis on citizens.
740 billion tax revenue in Germany
In relation to economic output, however, tax revenues increased slightly as the economy contracted during the pandemic.
Last year taxes and social security contributions amounted to 41.3 percent of the gross domestic product of the EU countries, compared with 41.1 percent in the previous year.
The share of taxes, measured in terms of economic output, was highest in Denmark (47.6 percent), France (47.5 percent) and Belgium (46.2 percent), followed by Sweden (43.4 percent) and Italy (43 percent) ).
At 41.5 percent, Germany was only slightly above the EU-wide average.
The tax share was lowest in Ireland (20.8 percent), Romania (27.2 percent) and Malta (30.4 percent).
The full table can be found here.
In 2020, a total of 21 EU countries recorded, in some cases significant, declines in tax revenues.
The decline was most severe in countries that are heavily dependent on tourism, including Greece (minus 11 percent) and Croatia (minus 9 percent).
In Germany, the federal, state and local governments received almost 740 billion euros in taxes last year.
That was 59.6 billion euros less than in 2019, a decrease of 7.5 percent.
beb / dpa
