Although we do not like them, we know that taxes are necessary, since thanks to them the welfare state is largely maintained. Among the many taxes that are regulated in Spanish regulations, one of the best known is the Personal Income Tax, but not everyone knows exactly what it is about and how it works. And you, do you know how to calculate personal income tax ?
In today’s article we are going to learn a little better about this tax and how the personal income tax withholding works, which is applied to payroll and public benefits such as retirement pensions.
What is income tax?
Although we do the Income declaration once a year, personal income tax is paid month by month by all those who receive income from a work or professional activity and also those who collect public benefits.
This tax is levied on income (understood as money) obtained by natural persons residing in Spain .
Why is personal income tax withheld from our payroll?
Although we are going to refer to payroll because it is the most common case, if you collect a retirement pension, the personal income tax will also be deducted month by month. And the same occurs with the self-employed, who have to pay the Treasury a percentage of their invoices issued to companies or professionals in the concept of Personal Income Tax.
The IRPF withholding that we see in payroll and other payments is an advance of what we have to pay . The Treasury understands that if we win X money we have to pay Y as an advance.
Then, once a year we present the income tax return , in which what we do is check whether or not there is an adjustment between those advances that we have paid and what we should have really paid according to the income we have obtained in a year.
Thus, if we have paid more income tax than we should, we will receive the return to be returned. On the contrary, if we have paid less, we will have to pay the Treasury the difference between what we have already paid and what we have to pay according to our income level.
How to calculate personal income tax?
From what we have seen so far, surely you have already realized that the amount that we pay month by month is done taking into account the hypothetical amount of income that we are going to obtain in a year.
To find out what percentage we have to pay, what is done is to apply a scale of sections approved by the Treasury . For example, if we earn 12,000 euros a year they have to apply a total rate of 19% (taking into account the state and regional tranche). But if we win 15,000 euros, a rate of 19% is applied to the first 12,450 euros and a rate of 24% to the rest.
What companies do when preparing the payroll is to calculate what each of their workers charges in a year and based on the result, apply a rate that is as similar as possible to the section to be taxed in Income . Thus, when the time comes to file the return, there will not be too much mismatch.
It is a somewhat complex subject, so it is best to trust the experts. If you want to calculate the personal income tax that you should be withheld from your payroll so as not to get scared when it comes time to file the income statement, it is best to use the calculator at the Tax Agency’s Electronic Headquarters .