Skip to main content
European Commission logo
en
Business, Economy, Euro
Taxation and Customs Union

Tax revenue rebounds in 2024 after decade-low in 2023

The Taxation Trends dataset provides a detailed overview of key taxation indicators, enabling analysis of tax systems from multiple perspectives—by tax type, economic function, government level, and implicit tax rates.

  • News article
  • 31 March 2026
  • Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union
  • 2 min read

The data cover all EU Member States (including aggregates at EU-27 and euro area level), Iceland, and Norway.

According to the latest release (30 March 2026), EU-27 Member States collected €7.1 trillion in taxes in 2024*, a 5.6% increase from 2023. However, strong nominal GDP growth (4.4% in 2024) partially offset this rise, leading to only a modest increase in the tax-to-GDP ratio—from 39.0% in 2023 to 39.4% in 2024.

Denmark (45.2%), France (43.5%), and Austria (43.4%) had the highest tax burden in the EU-27, while Ireland (21.7%), Romania (27.9%), and Malta (28.8%) reported the lowest rates.

Tax Revenue Composition in 2024

  • Labour taxes (including social contributions) grew by 6.6% in nominal terms, driven by rising salaries and a strong labour market.
  • Consumption taxes increased by 5.0%.
  • Capital taxes saw slower growth (4.1%), largely due to stagnant property tax revenues.

As a result, labour taxes now account for 51.5% of total EU-27 tax revenue (up from 51.1% in 2023), while the shares of consumption taxes (26.8%) and capital taxes (21.6%) declined slightly.

About the Data

The Taxation Trends report is produced annually by the Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD), in collaboration with the Expert Group on the Structures of Taxation Systems — a body of national finance ministry experts chaired by DG TAXUD.

The dataset includes statistics on tax revenue by economic function, tax type, government level, and implicit tax rates. It also informs the Annual Report on Taxation (due in June 2026) and the EU Semester cycle.

Total tax revenues (% of GDP)
Total tax revenues (% of GDP) and breakdown by economic base (% total revenue), EU-27, 2014-2024
Breakdown of tax revenues by economic function
Breakdown of tax revenues by economic function (% total revenue) EU member states, 2024

More information about the data on taxation trends

*Measured by Indicator 2 of Eurostat National Accounts Working Group, as defined in June 2001: Total receipts from taxes and actual compulsory social contributions, including those for government as an employer. This indicator is consistently used across this report to measure tax revenues (see definition of tax revenue in Tax revenue statistics - Statistics Explained).

 

Details

Publication date
31 March 2026
Author
Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union