On 27 April 2022 the OECD released the publication Revenue Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean 2022. This annual overview of the region contains internationally comparable data on tax levels and structures for 27 countries in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region.

Tax-to-GDP ratios

In 2020 the average tax-to-GDP ratio in the LAC region was 21.9%. This represented a decrease of 0.8 percentage points relative to 2019, mainly owing to the effects of the pandemic in 2020. The tax-to-GDP ratios ranged from 12.4% in Guatemala to 37.5% in Cuba. Between 2019 and 2020, tax revenues decreased in 20 of the countries surveyed, owing to the effects of COVID-19 in the region. In most LAC countries, there was also a fall in nominal GDP. In most cases the revenue from tax decreased by more than the fall in GDP and consequently the tax-to-GDP ratios fell.

This may be contrasted with the situation in OECD countries. The average tax-to-GDP ratio in the OECD rose by 0.1 percentage points in 2020, with an increase in the tax-to-GDP ratio in 20 of the 38 OECD countries.

Tax revenue

The crisis caused by the pandemic affected revenue from taxes on goods and services in the LAC region much more than revenue from income tax collection. The revenue from taxes on goods and services decreased by an average of 0.7% of GDP between 2019 and 2020. Tax collected from value added taxes (VAT) decreased by 0.2 percentage points; revenue from excise taxes declined by 0.1 percentage points; and tax collection from other consumption taxes including import and export duties declined by 0.4 percentage points over the period.

In the case of income taxes there was an average decrease of 0.2 percentage points between 2019 and 2020, and this was due mostly to the fall in revenues from corporate income taxes. Tax collected from personal income taxes was unchanged as a percentage of GDP and revenue from social security contributions increased by 0.1 percentage points in the period.

Tax structures in the LAC region

The average tax mix in 2020 in countries of the LAC region was very reliant on revenues from taxes on goods and services which accounted for 48.4% of the total tax revenue. Of this amount, VAT revenues accounted for 27.5% of total tax revenues. Another 26.9% of total tax revenues was raised from taxes on income and profits in 2020, of which corporate income tax and personal income tax revenues accounted for 15.6% and 9.8% of the revenue, respectively. The average share of social security contributions in total tax revenues was 18.4% in 2020. The remaining tax revenues in the region were raised from property taxes, unallocable income tax revenues and other taxes, which accounted for 7.9% of total tax revenues.

Special features

This edition includes a special feature looking at trends in fiscal revenues from non-renewable natural resources in the region. Hydrocarbon-related revenues declined from an average of 3.1% of GDP in 2019 to 2.1% in 2020, owing to falling production and price shocks. For 2021 it is estimated that revenues from non-renewable natural resources rose again, owing to increasing global demand, more favourable prices and higher levels of production.

This edition also includes a special feature presenting an analysis of monthly revenue data during the pandemic.