BBVA paid record taxes in 2022, with its own and third-party taxes combined coming to almost €11 billion (+33 percent)
BBVA reported a total tax payment in 2022 of €10,948 million (+33 percent vs. 2021) across all the countries in which it operates, of which €5,023 million (+65 percent) were its own taxes and €5,925 million (+14 percent) were third-party taxes. This was the highest tax payment ever recorded by the Group, in line with its earnings performance during the past year. In Spain, BBVA generated a total tax contribution of €2,759 million, of which €1,326 million consisted of its own taxes (+42 percent).
The Chair of BBVA, Carlos Torres Vila, noted that "The BBVA Group's outstanding earnings in 2022 have enabled us to make an unprecedented tax payment of €10,948 million, combining BBVA's own taxes with tax collected on behalf of third parties, such as employees, customers and suppliers, in the course of our business activities. This constitutes a contribution to the communities in which we are present and helps us to achieve our Purpose, ‘to bring the age of opportunity to everyone,’ and to build a more sustainable and inclusive society."
BBVA paid 63 percent of its own taxes worldwide (€5,023 million) as corporate income tax. Value added tax (VAT) accounted for 12.64 percent of the total. Employee taxes (social security contributions) represented 13.74 percent, while the remaining taxes (real estate, business activities and local taxes) represented 10.59 percent.
BBVA's tax payment in 2022 by tax category
Specifically, corporate income tax payments amounted to €3,166 million for the BBVA Group as a whole. The result of dividing this payment by pre-tax profit, which was €10,356 million, makes for a tax rate of 30.57 percent.
By countries, considering its own and third-party tax payments, BBVA made a contribution of €3,416 million in South America (31 percent of the total), followed by €2,759 million in Spain (25 percent of the total) and €2,727 million in Mexico (25 percent of the total). BBVA's tax payment came to €1,780 million in Türkiye (16 percent of the total), €210 million in the rest of Eurasia (2 percent) and €56 million in the United States (1 percent).
BBVA's own and third-party tax payments by country in 2022 - BBVA
In Spain, BBVA paid €1,326 million in own taxes, of which €549 million (41 percent) was corporate income tax. This represents a rate of 42.33 percent, the ratio of corporate income tax paid to pre-tax profit in Spain. Together with the €1,433 million in taxes collected from third parties, BBVA reached a total tax contribution of €2,759 million in Spain, the highest figure since 2013.
In 2012, BBVA was the first IBEX 35 company to voluntarily release its Global Tax Performance Report, as part of its commitment to tax transparency. In 2020, BBVA launched an additional exercise in transparency. For the first time, the bank integrated the Group's non-financial disclosures with the GRI 207 reporting standard. This reporting framework enables entities to provide comparable information on their tax strategy, governance model and tax risk control, and their performance country by country.
This is one more decision that shows the Group's commitment to transparency, as noted by José María Vallejo, BBVA’s Global Head of Tax. In his view, there is "a direct relationship between taxation and sustainability. First, taxes enable governments to raise the funds they need to undertake sustainable policies and finance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Secondly, the bank believes that a sustainable tax system must be aware of each and every one of the implications that its tax decisions may have in environmental, social and corporate governance terms."
In this context, BBVA once again earned the highest score in the tax category in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) rating. According to this rating, BBVA is the most sustainable bank in Europe for the third consecutive year in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
In 2022, as in previous years, BBVA again sponsored a tax performance report on a group of European multinationals to be published by the European Business Tax Forum. The aim is to share experiences and champion transparency and accountability in the tax performance of multinationals. In Spain, BBVA actively cooperated in the development of the report Total Tax Performance of Ibex 35 Companies in 2020, by PwC, published in 2022.
In 2022, BBVA was granted the AENOR certificate for its Tax Compliance Management System in Spain. This certificate attests to factors such as tax policy and strategy establishment and supervision and the sound design and implementation of the BBVA Group's tax management and control system.