Relevance Data on tax revenues presents detailed information on tax and social contribution receipts by type of tax or social contribution, and by sub-sector for the General Government Sector. Total tax revenue is made up of taxes received by the Central Government (S1311) (which consists of Government Ministries and Departments and the Extra Budgetary Units) and the EU Institutions (S212). The taxes that are reported represent ‘ultimately received’ tax revenues including the ‘own’ taxes paid to the EU. The tax-to-GDP ratio measures the overall tax burden as the total amount of taxes and compulsory actual social contributions as a percentage of GDP. Data is in line with the European System of Accounts (ESA) 2010 methodology. Methodological description Tax revenues data is extracted from the reports of the Treasury Department; the Departmental Accounting System (DAS). Revenues from VAT, Income Tax and Social Security Contributions are recorded using the time-adjusted cash method in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No. 2516/2000. Following a study undertaken by NSO in 2008, Eurostat approved a time adjustment of t+1 for VAT and t+2 for Income Tax and Social Security Contributions. Accuracy and reliability of data All accounts in the corporate chart of accounts (COA) of DAS are coded in accordance with the requirements of the ESA 2010 and checks with previous years and with the current economic scenario are undertaken. This ensures the accuracy and reliability of the data compiled. Timeliness and punctuality of data In line with the legal requirements for the transmission of data (ESA 2010 transmission programme), transmission is scheduled at t+9 months after the end of the reference period. After transmission of data to Eurostat, a news release on tax revenues is published annually as scheduled in the Advance Release Calendar. Data for a particular reference year t is published in year t+1. The national tax list (NTL) is published in the excel version of the release. Accessibility and clarity of data ‘Tax Revenues’ news releases are published on the NSO’s website. Data on tax revenues is available also on the NSO’s statistical database (StatDB). Coherence and comparability/consistency of data Data are comparable across all European Union member states as harmonised European rules (ESA 2010) are adopted for compiling the data. Consistency is ensured with other data submitted in tables of the ESA 2010 transmission programme. Malta’s General Government data is comparable as from year 1995. However D.2122 (Taxes on imports excluding VAT and duties) does not include levies on imported agricultural products for the years before 2005. Prior to year 2008 the unit of measure was the Maltese Lira (Lm) and the conversion rate to euro used was the fixed rate of 0.4293. |