Summary
In 2013, the tax burden increased by 8.1%, after the reduction observed in 2012, accounting for approximately 34.9% of GDP (32.4% in the previous year). This evolution was mainly associated with the increase in direct taxes (25.7%), while social contributions increased by 2.3% and indirect taxes remained unchanged.
Regarding direct taxes, there was an increase of 34.3% in the individual income tax and of 21.6% in the corporate income tax collected by Central Government.
Indirect taxes remained unchanged in 2013 comparing with the previous year (change rate of -4.3% in 2012). The value added tax, which accounts for around 60% of this type of taxes, recorded a reduction of 2.0%. On the contrary there was an increase of 8.6% in revenue from the real estate tax collected by Local Government, mainly reflecting the effect of the process of property revaluation.
The actual social contributions increased by 2.3% in 2013 (reduction of 6.7% in 2012). This result was mainly influenced by the increase in average compensation per employee (3.3%), while employment diminished.
According to the available information, in 2012, Portugal continued to register a lower tax burden than the EU average (32.4% compared to 39.7% in the EU28).