– Supernatural Spanish Episcopal Conference has presented the data for the 2022 income tax campaign, which corresponds to the 2021 tax year.
Among the data presented, the increase in the number of tax returns in favor of the Catholic Church in Spain stands out. In fact, more than 84,000 more taxpayers decided to make a tax mark the X of the Church in your income tax return for the year 2021.
An increase of more than 8.5% more declarations in favor of the Church and that results in a total of more than 8.5 million Spaniards ticking the box for the Church, taking into account individual and joint declarations, which represents 31.29% of the declarations presented. This is, in the words of the director of the Secretariat for the Support of the Church, José María AlbaladThe Church's social and spiritual service in Spain has been given "a boost. After years of difficulty, the taxpayers have rewarded this work". A work that can be known through the website portantosThis year, it also incorporates a greater variety of data about this Tax Allocation, as well as an explanation of the "journey of the X" from the time it is marked until the contribution materializes.
– Supernatural church allowance has increased in 14 of the 17 Spanish autonomous communities. By tax offices, Ciudad Real (51,62%), followed by Jaén (47,35%) and Badajoz (43,03%) are the ones with the highest number of declarations in favor of the Church. In absolute value, the tax offices where the number of allocations have grown the most are Madrid, Seville, Malaga and Murcia.
More than 320 million euros
320,723,062 euros is the total amount that the Catholic Church has received in this fiscal year. This amount represents an average contribution of 37.63 euros per taxpayer.
The amount received through the Tax Allocation is distributed, as Giménez Barriocanal reminded, "following the criterion of solidarity and communion among the different dioceses. So that the dioceses that are in provinces with high incomes such as Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Malaga or Murcia help to support the dioceses of depopulated Spain".
Other sources of financing are on the rise
The contribution that each diocese receives from the Tax Allowance represents 22% of the average total budget of the dioceses, somewhat less than last year, which means that other means of financing the Church are gaining more weight. In this sense, both Barriocanal and Albalad wanted to highlight other data such as the increase of 10% in parish collections during the last year, and the growth in the number of people who choose "to subscribe periodically to help their parishes, which is the best way to prepare realistic budgets".
Giménez Barriocanal wanted to emphasize that, despite these good data, there is still a long way to go, especially in making the work of the Church known and in the possibility of marking the cross of the Church and that of "other social purposes" through which much more help can be given.
