In 2021, 31.57% of Spanish taxpayers checked the box for the allocation to the Catholic Church.
In total, 7,337,724 taxpayers marked the X on the Income Tax Return, which means, counting joint returns, 8.5 million taxpayers who trust in the work of the Church. Although this data highlights an increase of 40,000 Income Tax returns in favor of the Catholic Church with respect to the previous fiscal year, the amount collected has been lower than the 2019 fiscal year.
295,498,495 euros was the amount received by the Catholic Church in this fiscal year, which represents a decrease of 5.58 million, with respect to the previous year.
The EEC Vice-Secretary for Economic Affairs, Fernando Giménez Barriocanal insisted that this is a "logical and foreseeable" decrease given that the economic crisis generated by the coronavirus pandemic is already noticeable in this year and wanted to thank and highlight the commitment of all those who value and support the activity of the Church, which has multiplied in these months of pandemic.
"With less money the Church has had and has to do many more things," said the deputy secretary for economic affairs of the Spanish bishops.
Fewer new filers
Likewise, Giménez Barriocanal pointed out the decrease in the number of new taxpayers who mark the X in favor of the Church. In this regard, he explained that during 2020 and the entry of the ERTE workers, a high percentage of people who did not file their income tax return before had to do it that year and have not taken into account the tax allocation for the Church or for the Church. Other social purposes.
In fact, he stressed that "we see that it is not a Church issue because the percentage of new taxpayers who have not checked this box is exactly the same as those who have not checked it. Other social purposes". For this reason, he has again insisted on the need to remember these two allocations "that it does not cost us more or we will get back less and that we can help twice as much by checking the two boxes".
New "Por tantos" portal
For his part, the director of the Secretariat for the Support of the Church, José María Albalad, stressed the "sincere and emotional gratitude" to all the contributors who make it possible for the stories of so many people helped by the Church to be found behind their "x" in the declaration.
He also reviewed the website portantos.es which presents a new look and feel as well as improved content and presentation to bring the Church's work, economic data, etc. closer to the public. Among the new features of the website are the interactive graphics through which you can know, for example, the percentage of tax allocations that have marked the "x" of the Church by autonomous communities or the amount collected in each of them.
He also wanted to highlight the more than 700 initiatives included in the website. Solidarity Church and shows the work promoted by the Church in Spain during this time of pandemic.
