Revenue Statistics 2024

Revenue Statistics 2024 presents detailed internationally comparable data on tax revenues of OECD countries for all levels of government. The latest edition provides final data on tax revenues for the period from 1965 up to 2022, a year marked by Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and the highest levels of inflation in OECD countries for over three decades. In addition, provisional estimates of tax revenues in 2023 are included for almost all OECD countries.1 OECD countries continued to use tax policy to ease cost-of-living challenges in 2023 amid growing spending pressures related to long-term challenges such as climate change and population ageing, which will require higher revenues (OECD, 2024[1]), (OECD, 2024[2]).

According to provisional data provided by OECD countries for this report, tax revenues as a percentage of GDP (i.e. the tax-to-GDP ratio) were 33.9% on average in 2023, a decrease of 0.1 percentage points (p.p.) of GDP relative to 2022. This was the second consecutive small decline in the OECD’s tax-to-GDP ratio following a drop of 0.04 p.p. in 2022.

The tax-to-GDP ratio increased in 18 of the 36 countries for which a full set of preliminary data for 2023 are available, declined in 17 and remained the same in one. However, the declines were larger than the increases on average (-1.4 p.p. versus 1.1 p.p.). The largest increases occurred in Luxembourg (2.7 p.p.), Colombia (2.6 p.p.) and Türkiye (2.5 p.p.). The largest decline in 2023 occurred in Chile, whose tax-to-GDP ratio fell by 3.2 p.p., while declines also exceeded 2.0 p.p. in Korea (3.1 p.p.), Israel (3.0 p.p.) and the United States (2.4 p.p.).

Tax-to-GDP ratios varied considerably across OECD countries in 2023 (Table 1.1). Key observations include:

• France had the highest tax-to-GDP ratio among OECD countries for the second consecutive year in 2023, at 43.8%. Denmark had the second-highest tax-to-GDP ratio (43.4%) while Mexico had the lowest tax-to-GDP ratio (17.7%).

• Luxembourg observed the largest increase in its tax-to-GDP ratio in 2023, of 2.7 p.p. This was largely due to a 1.2 p.p. increase in revenues from personal income tax (PIT) and a 0.8 p.p. increase in social security contributions (Figure 1.2).

• The increase in Colombia’s tax-to-GDP ratio (of 2.6 p.p.) was due to a 2.2 p.p. increase in revenues from corporate income tax (CIT), while the 2.5 p.p. increase in Türkiye was due to a 1.6 p.p. increase in taxes from goods and services and a rise of 1.1 p.p. in social security contributions.

• Chile observed the largest fall in the tax-to-GDP ratio across OECD countries between 2022 and 2023, with a drop of 3.2 p.p. that was primarily due to a decline in revenues from taxes on income and profits.

• The next-largest decline was observed in Korea (3.1 p.p.), where PIT revenues fell by 0.8 p.p., CIT revenues fell by 1.2 p.p. and revenues from taxes on goods and services fell by 0.7 p.p.

The OECD average tax-to-GDP ratio was higher in 2023 than in 2010, when it was 31.5%. The tax-to-GDP ratio increased in 29 countries over this period (including data for 2022 in the cases of Australia and Japan) (Figure 1.2). The largest increases were seen in Japan (8.2 p.p.), the Slovak Republic (7.6%) and Greece (7.5 p.p.); increases of over 5 p.p. were also observed in Korea, Spain, Mexico, Portugal and Luxembourg. In the remaining nine countries, the tax-to-GDP ratio decreased between 2010 and 2023. The largest fall occurred in Ireland, from 27.7% in 2010 to 21.9% in 2023, largely due to an exceptional GDP increase in 2015. The next largest drop occurred in Hungary (2.6 p.p.).

Changes in the tax-to-GDP ratio are driven by the relative changes in nominal tax revenues and nominal GDP (Box 1.2). From one year to the next, if tax revenues rise by more than GDP (or fall by less than GDP), the tax-to-GDP ratio will increase. Conversely, if tax revenues rise by less than GDP, or fall further, the tax-to-GDP ratio will fall. Therefore, a higher tax-to-GDP ratio does not necessarily mean that the amount of tax revenues has increased in nominal, or even real, terms.

In 2023, nominal tax revenues increased from the previous year in 31 out of the 36 OECD countries for which data is available, while nominal GDP increased in 33 out of 36 countries. In Denmark and Ireland, tax revenues rose in nominal terms while GDP shrunk, while the opposite was the case in the United States, Israel, Korea and Chile (Figure 1.3). In Norway, tax revenues and GDP both declined in nominal terms in 2023 relative to the previous year; its tax-to-GDP ratio declined because the decline in revenues was larger than the decline in GDP.

Changes between 2021 and 2022 are shown for Australia and Japan in Figure 1.3 because the tax-to-GDP ratio is not available in 2023. Australia’s tax-to-GDP ratio rose by 0.2 p.p. between 2021 and 2022 while Japan’s rose by 0.6 p.p. with nominal tax revenues increasing by more than GDP in both countries.

The latest year for which tax-to-GDP ratios are based on final data and available for all OECD countries is 2022 (Figure 1.4). These data show that tax ratios varied considerably across countries:

• In 2022, France had the highest tax-to-GDP ratio (45.8%), followed by Norway (43.4%). Seven other countries had tax-to-GDP ratios above 40% (Austria, Finland, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, Denmark and Greece).

• Mexico had the lowest ratio at 16.8%, followed by Colombia (19.7%), Ireland (20.3%), Türkiye (20.9%) and Chile (23.8%). Four other countries had ratios below 30% in 2022: Australia, the United States, Switzerland and Costa Rica.

• The tax-to-GDP ratio in the OECD area as a whole (unweighted average) was 34.0% in 2022, unchanged from 2021.

• Relative to 2021, the tax-to-GDP ratio rose in 21 countries and fell in 17.

• The largest increases in the tax-to-GDP ratio were in Korea (2.2 p.p.) and Norway (2.1 p.p.). Chile, Hungary, United Kingdom and Greece were the only other countries where the increase exceeded 1.0 p.p.

• The largest declines occurred in Denmark (5.3 p.p.) and Poland (2.3 p.p.).

As concerns the average tax-to-GDP for OECD countries, a 0.6 p.p. increase in revenues from CIT between 2021 and 2022 was offset by declines of 0.3 p.p. in revenues from excises, of 0.2 p.p. in social security contributions and of 0.1 p.p. in revenues from PIT (Table 1.2).

Between 1965 and 2022, the average tax-to-GDP ratio in OECD countries increased from 24.9% to 34.0%, an increase of 9.2 p.p. (Figure 1.1). Before the first oil shock (1973 to 1974), strong, almost uninterrupted income growth enabled tax levels to rise in all OECD countries. In part, tax levels rose automatically through the effect of fiscal drag on PIT schedules. From 1975 to 1985, the average tax-to-GDP ratio in OECD countries increased by 2.9 p.p. After the mid-1970s, the combination of slower real income growth and higher levels of unemployment apparently limited the revenue raising capacity of governments. But during and after the deep recession that followed the second oil shock (1980), tax levels in European countries rose further to finance higher spending on social security and rein in budget deficits.

After the mid-1980s, most OECD countries substantially reduced the statutory rates of their personal and corporate income tax, although the negative revenue impact was often offset by reducing or abolishing tax reliefs. By 1999, the average OECD tax-to-GDP ratio had risen to 32.9%, the highest recorded level at that time. It fell back slightly between 2001 and 2004 then rebounded between 2005 and 2007 before falling back during the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 and 2009. The tax-to-GDP ratio increased in all but two years between 2010 and 20222 despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21. For more detailed analysis of the long-term evolution of tax revenues, please see the Special Feature in the 2023 edition of this report, which examines the buoyancy of tax revenues in OECD countries between 1980 and 2021 (OECD, 2023[3]).

The OECD average tax-to-GDP ratio conceals great variety between countries. In 1965, tax-to-GDP ratios in OECD countries ranged from 10.6% in Türkiye to 33.9% in France. By 2022, the corresponding range was from 16.8% in Mexico to 45.8% in France. The trend towards higher tax levels over this period reflects the need to finance a significant increase in public sector outlays in almost all OECD countries.

Tax structures are measured by the share of major taxes in total tax revenues. In 2022, the tax structures of OECD countries varied. Eighteen countries raised the largest part of their revenues from income taxes (both corporate and personal), eleven countries raised the largest part of their revenues from social security contributions, and nine countries raised the largest part of their revenues from consumption taxes (including VAT). Taxes on property and payroll taxes played a smaller role in the revenue systems of OECD countries in 2022, both on average and in most countries (Figure 1.5).

While the level of tax revenues has generally been rising on average in the OECD, the tax structure (or ‘tax mix’) has been remarkably stable over time. Nevertheless, several trends have emerged up to 2022 – the latest year for which data is available for all 38 OECD countries. These trends are discussed below.

On average, in 2022, OECD countries collected 36.5% of their tax revenues through taxes on income and profits (PIT and CIT taken together). Taxes on personal and corporate incomes remained the most important source of revenues to finance public spending in 18 OECD countries; in ten of these – Australia, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the United States – the share of income taxes in the tax mix exceeded 40% in 2022.

Within taxes on income and profits, the share of PIT and CIT varies:

• Revenues from PIT generated 23.6% of total taxes on average in 2022 compared with around 30% in the 1980s. About two percentage points of this reduction can be attributed to the impact on the average of a number of relatively recent entrants to the OECD from Eastern Europe and Latin America, for which tax revenue data is only available from the 1990s onwards. These countries tend to have relatively low PIT revenues and high revenues from social security contributions or CIT, but this impact is only observed in the data after 1990.

• The variation in the share of PIT revenues between countries is considerable. In 2022, it ranged from 6.1% in Costa Rica to 44.0% in the United States and 55.8% in Denmark (Figure 1.5).

• CIT revenues represented between 8% and 9% of total tax revenues on average throughout the period from 1965 to 2003. They then increased to 11.3% in 2007 before dropping to 9.0% in 2010 after the Global Financial Crisis. They remained between 9.0% and 10.0% of total tax revenues until they increased to 10.3% in 2021 and 12.0% in 2022.

• The share of CIT in total tax revenues in 2022 varied considerably across countries, from less than 6% (Estonia, Hungary and Latvia) to over 20% in Ireland (21.5%), Australia (21.8%), Mexico (23.0%), Chile (23.7%), Colombia (25.4%) and Norway (42.3%). Apart from the spread in statutory CIT rates, these differences are partly explained by institutional and country-specific factors, including:

  • the degree to which firms are incorporated;

  • the breadth of the CIT base; for example, some narrowing may occur as a consequence of generous depreciation schemes and tax incentives:

  • the degree of cyclicality of the corporate tax system, for which one of the important elements is loss-offset provisions:

  • the extent of reliance upon tax revenues from the exploitation of oil and/or mineral deposits; or

  • other instruments to postpone the taxation of earned profits.

Social security contributions accounted for 24.8% of total tax revenues on average across OECD countries in 2022. They exceeded 40% in Czechia, Slovenia and the Slovak Republic (45.9%, 42.8% and 41.6%, respectively). Australia and New Zealand do not levy social security contributions.

There was wide variation across OECD countries in the relative proportions of social security contributions paid by employees and employers in 2022 (Figure 1.7):

• Nine OECD countries (Chile, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovenia and Switzerland) raised more revenues from employee social security contributions while the rest raised more from employer social security contributions.

• The highest share of employee social security contributions was in Lithuania, at 23.8% of total tax revenues. Employee social security contributions also amounted to over 15% of total revenues in Germany, Greece, Hungary, Japan, Poland and Slovenia. Denmark had the lowest share, at 0.1% of total revenues. Apart from Denmark, only Chile and Estonia had revenues from employee social security contributions of less than 5% of total revenues.

• The highest share of employer social security contributions in total tax revenues was in Estonia, at 31.8%. Employer social security contributions also exceeded 25% of total tax revenues in Czechia (28.3%) and Spain (25.2%). Denmark and Chile had the lowest shares, at 0.1% and 0.2% of total revenues respectively.

• The highest share of self-employed or non-employed social security contributions was in Czechia (8.4%), followed by the Netherlands and Poland, at 7.5% and 7.4% of total revenues respectively.

Between 1965 and 2022, the share of taxes on property fell from 7.9% to 5.3% of total tax revenues on average across the OECD (Figure 1.6). In Canada, Israel, Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States, property tax revenues amounted to more than 10% of total tax revenues in 2022. By contrast, property taxes accounted for less than 1% of total tax revenues in Czechia, Estonia and Lithuania.

• The share of taxes on consumption (general consumption taxes plus specific consumption taxes) fell from 38.4% to 31.5% between 1965 and 2022 (Figure 1.6).

• During this period, the composition of taxes on goods and services changed. A fast-growing revenue source has been general consumption taxes, especially VAT, which is imposed in 37 of 38 OECD countries.3

• General consumption taxes accounted for 21.4% of total tax revenues in 2022, compared with only 13.3% in the mid-1970s. In 2022, the vast majority of this was from VAT (20.8% of total tax revenues).

• The increased importance of VAT has counteracted the diminishing share of specific consumption taxes, such as excises and customs duties.

• Between 1975 and 2022, the share of specific taxes on consumption (mostly on tobacco, alcohol and fuels, as well as some environmentally-related taxes) more than halved, from 17.7% to 8.2% of total revenues. In 2022, excises were the largest single category of total revenues under this heading, accounting for 5.7% of total revenues (Figure 1.8). The Special Feature in Chapter 2 of this report examines trends in revenues from excises on alcohol, tobacco and sugar-sweetened beverages, which are commonly referred to as ‘health taxes’.

• Rates of taxes on imported goods were considerably reduced across all OECD countries, reflecting a global trend to remove trade barriers.

• Nevertheless, Hungary, Latvia, Slovenia, Slovak Republic and Poland (between 10%-13%), Greece (15.6%) and Türkiye (18.8%) still collected more than 10% of their tax revenues through taxes on specific goods and services in 2022.

This section discusses the share of tax revenues attributed to the various sub-sectors of general government in 2022. The different sub-sectors are:

• Central government

• State government (federal and regional countries only)

• Local government

• Social security funds

• Supranational authorities (EU countries only)

The guidelines for attributing revenues to different levels of government are based on the final version of the 2008 System of National Accounts. These guidelines are discussed in the special feature S.1 in the 2011 edition of Revenue Statistics.

Eight OECD countries have a federal structure. Among these countries, central government received 53.7% of total revenues on average in 2022. The second-highest share of revenues on average was received by social security funds, which are a sub-sector of general government, at 21.0% of total revenues, followed by 17.8% at the state level and 7.3% at the local level (Table 1.3).

Within countries with a federal structure, there was considerable variation around these averages:

• In 2022, the share of central government receipts in the eight federal OECD countries ranged from 28.9% in Germany to 80.0% in Mexico and 81.6% in Australia.

• In 2022, the share of the states ranged from 1.9% in Austria and 4.4% in Mexico to 38.9% in Canada. The share of local government varied from 1.8% in Mexico to 13.1% in the United States and 15.8% in Switzerland.

• Between 1975 and 2022, the share of central government revenues declined by over 12 p.p. in Belgium and by more than 5 p.p. in Spain.

• The share of central government revenues increased in Austria by just under 14 p.p. over the same period. There was little change in Australia.

• Of the seven federal countries with social security funds, five increased the share of revenue between 1975 and 2022. The exceptions were Canada and Mexico, where the share declined between 1975 (1980 for Mexico due to data availability) and 2022.

Colombia and Spain, which are classified as regional rather than unitary countries because of their highly decentralised political structure, have very different revenue compositions by level of government. In Colombia, the share of central government receipts was 75.2% in 2022, with regional governments receiving 4.8% of total revenues and local governments receiving 11.8%. In Spain, the share of central government receipts in 2022 was 42.5% compared with 15.1% for regional government and 8.2% for local government.

The remaining twenty-eight OECD countries have a unitary structure (Table 1.4). In these countries, an average of 64.6% of revenues were derived at the central level in 2022, with social security funds accounting for 24.6%. A further 10.3% of revenues was raised by local government.

Among unitary OECD countries:

• The share of central government receipts varied from 31.1% in France to 93.6% in New Zealand in 2022.

• The local government share ranged from 0.6% in Estonia to 35.1% in Sweden.

• Between 1975 and 2022, there were increases in the local government share in excess of 5 p.p. in six countries: France, Iceland, Italy, Korea, Portugal and Sweden. Decreases of 5 p.p. or more occurred in three countries: Ireland, Norway and the United Kingdom.

• Between 1975 and 2022, there were increases in the share of social security funds of 10 p.p. or more in France and Korea and corresponding decreases in Italy and Norway.

Figure 1.9 shows revenues from each major category of tax revenue for central and sub-central governments. For federal and regional countries, the sub-central level includes revenues received by both state and local governments. Figure 1.9 demonstrates that:

• Central government revenues in almost all OECD countries are predominantly derived from taxes on income and on goods and services, with a negligible share from property taxes.

• Property taxes provide a much larger share of revenues at the subnational level, and account for over 90% of revenues in four countries: Israel, Ireland, Greece and the United Kingdom.

• By contrast, the share of income taxes and taxes on goods and services is generally lower at the sub-central level, although over 90% of sub-central revenues in Finland, Luxembourg and Sweden was derived from income taxes in 2022.

The 22 member states of the European Union (EU) that are also members of the OECD collect taxes on behalf of the EU, as did the United Kingdom prior to 2020. These taxes primarily consist of customs duties and contributions to the Single Resolution Fund (SRF).4 Both taxes are collected on behalf of the EU by national tax administrations and are included in the total tax figures under headings 5123 and 5126 at the SUPRA level of government. In addition, they are shown as a memorandum item separately from the main figures since they represent a tax imposed by the EU and collected by national administrations.5

Table 1.5 shows the level of taxes collected on behalf of supranational governments in EU countries that are also OECD members, divided into countries in the Euro area and other EU member countries.

In 2022, the combined total of payments collected for the EU was highest in Belgium and the Netherlands (both 0.5% of GDP). All other EU countries that are also members of the OECD collected revenues on behalf of the EU equivalent to 0.2% of GDP or higher. In all countries except Finland, France and Luxembourg, customs duties were the primary source of these revenues.

OECD countries apply two kinds of tax credits to income taxes (both personal and corporate):

• Non-payable or wastable tax credits are those that can only ever be used to reduce or eliminate a tax liability. They cannot be paid out to either taxpayers or non-taxpayers as a benefit. They are, therefore, the same as a tax allowance or relief.

• Payable or non-wastable tax credits can be divided into two parts. One part is used to reduce or eliminate a tax liability in the same way as a wastable tax credit. The other part can be paid directly to recipients as a benefit payment when the value of the benefit exceeds the tax liability.

The OECD methodology for classifying non-wastable tax credits is set out in paragraphs 25 and 26 of the Interpretative Guide. These state that only the part of a non-wastable tax credit that is used to reduce or eliminate a taxpayer’s tax liability should be subtracted in the reporting of tax revenues. This is referred to as the ‘tax expenditure component’ of the credit. In contrast, the part of the tax credit that exceeds the taxpayer’s tax liability and is paid to that taxpayer is treated as an expenditure item and not subtracted in the reporting of tax revenues. This part is referred to as the ‘transfer component’.

Table 1.6 provides information on non-wastable tax credits in 2022 for those countries reporting them in Revenue Statistics 2024 (it may be that some countries with non-wastable tax credits do not report them and thus do not appear in the table). It shows the amount of the non-wastable tax credits and their two components together with the results of using the figures to calculate tax revenue values and the associated tax-to-GDP ratios. Table 1.6 also shows two alternative treatments for non-wastable tax credits:

• The ‘net basis’, which treats non-wastable tax credits entirely as tax provisions, so that the full value of the tax credit reduces reported tax revenues, as shown in columns 4 and 7.

• The ‘gross basis’ is the opposite, treating non-wastable tax credits entirely as expenditure provisions, with neither the transfer component nor the tax expenditure component deducted from tax revenues, as shown in columns 6 and 9. This is the approach followed by the GFSM and the SNA.

Table 1.6 shows that, with a few exceptions, the choice of method for reporting non-wastable tax credits has only a small impact on the ratio of total tax revenues to GDP. For countries with available data, the difference between the ratios on a net basis and on a gross basis only exceeds one percentage point for Germany and the United States, and is between half a percentage point and one percentage point for Canada, Czechia, France, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

A memorandum item6 in Revenue Statistics 2024 describes the financing of social security-type benefits in OECD countries. Unlike social assistance benefits, which are funded from general government revenues, social security-type benefits are funded via contributions to social security funds or to private insurance schemes, or by other earmarked sources of funding. These sources of financing include:

• Earmarked financing from tax revenues:

  1. Social security contributions (category 2000 in the OECD classification)

  2. Other taxes earmarked for social security-type benefits

• Earmarked financing from non-tax revenues:

  3. Voluntary contributions to the government (VCG)

  4. Compulsory contributions to the private sector (CCPS)

Figure 1.10 shows the relative contribution of each of these sources to financing for social security-type benefits in OECD countries, based on data provided by countries for inclusion in the memorandum item.

Taxes represent the largest source of earmarked financing for social security-type benefits, predominantly via social security contributions. Together, social security contributions and other earmarked taxes account for over 90% of the financing of social security-type benefits in 27 of the 35 OECD countries that provide this level of data (including 10 countries where they account for 100%). In the remaining eight OECD countries that provide this data, six countries report that compulsory contributions to the private sector play a significant role in financing social-security type benefits, including Chile (where they account for 85.5%), Colombia (69.3%) and Switzerland (53.2%). Voluntary contributions accounted for a significant share of funding in only a few countries, notably the United Kingdom (19.4%) and Denmark (71.8%).

Figure 1.11 shows tax-to-GDP ratios (as in Table 1.1 and Figure 1.4) both exclusive of earmarked funding for social security-type benefits (i.e. tax-to-GDP ratios less social security contributions and other earmarked taxes) and inclusive of all non-tax earmarked financing for social security-type benefits (i.e. tax-to-GDP ratios – including social security contributions and other earmarked taxes – plus compulsory contributions to the private sector and voluntary contributions to government).

The countries with the largest share of social security-type schemes financed by non-tax earmarked contributions are Switzerland (8.1% of GDP), Iceland and Chile (6.1% and 5.8% respectively), which materially affects their rankings:

• Switzerland has a relatively low tax-to-GDP ratio among OECD countries, at 26.9%, but its combined ratio is just below halfway in the OECD distribution.

• Iceland has a tax-to-GDP ratio of 35.2%, in the top-third of OECD countries, and a combined ratio of 41.3%, which is the ninth-highest in the OECD.

• Chile has the fifth-lowest tax-to-GDP ratio at 23.8% and the eighth-lowest combined ratio at 29.6%.

Excluding earmarked financing for social security benefits from the tax-to-GDP ratio does not affect Australia and New Zealand, where benefits are funded out of general taxation. Figure 1.11 highlights that the largest share of earmarked funding for social security-type benefits is seen in France, at 25.1% of GDP, as indicated by the difference between the highest and lowest points on the figure. Belgium, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia have the next highest shares, at between 15% and 17% of GDP.

[2] OECD (2024), OECD Economic Outlook, Volume 2024 Issue 1, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/69a0c310-en.

[1] OECD (2024), Tax Policy Reforms 2024: OECD and Selected Partner Economies, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/c3686f5e-en.

[3] OECD (2023), Revenue Statistics 2023: Tax Revenue Buoyancy in OECD Countries, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9d0453d5-en.

[5] OECD (2022), Revenue Statistics 2022: The Impact of COVID-19 on OECD Tax Revenues, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/8a691b03-en.

[4] OECD (2021), Revenue Statistics 2021: The Initial Impact of COVID-19 on OECD Tax Revenues, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/6e87f932-en.