Revenue Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean is a joint publication by the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, the OECD Development Centre, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Inter-American Centre of Tax Administrations (CIAT) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). It presents detailed, internationally comparable data on tax revenues for 22 Latin American and Caribbean economies, two of which are OECD members. Its approach is based on the well-established methodology of the OECD Revenue Statistics database, which has become an essential reference source for OECD member countries. Comparisons are also made with the average for OECD economies.

Tax revenues as a proportion of national incomes in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries have, with the exception of the financial crisis in 2009, risen almost continuously between 1990 and 2014. In the group of 22 LAC countries covered by the Report the average tax to GDP ratio rose from 21.5% in 2013 to 21.7% in 2014 compared with 21.4% in 2012 and 20.8% in 2011.

The tax to GDP ratio is a key indicator reflecting the current collection of funds through taxation by a country in order to finance public goods and services and to invest in infrastructure. Raising revenue through taxes is an important factor in ensuring a country’s economic emergence (OECD, 2014). The appropriate level of taxation gives governments the capacity to make the investments necessary to achieve growth. It also enables emerging countries to develop their political autonomy and build effective and accountable States. Many developing countries recognise that tax revenues provide more predictable revenue streams than the often uncertain and more volatile non- tax revenues from oil and commodities that some countries have come to rely on.

Non-renewable natural resources revenues in Latin America and the Caribbean fell both in absolute terms and relative terms in 2014 reflecting the strong impact of plunging international commodities prices for a number of the region’s principal raw material products. After posting a 10.0% increase to USD 263 billion in 2013, they declined 9.5% in 2014 to USD 238 billion (Figure 2.1).1 At the regional level a decline in hydrocarbon revenues, provoked by a collapse in oil prices in the second half of the year, was the principal driver of the overall trend. The region’s mining revenues also crept down, but their decline played a secondary role given their relatively smaller participation in overall non-renewable natural resource revenues in the region.

Revenues of both the Latin American and the OECD countries have been attributed to the different levels of government according to the revised guidelines set out in to the final version of the 2008 System of National Accounts (SNA). Under this, revenues are generally attributed to the level of government that exercises the authority to impose the tax or has the final discretion to set and vary the tax rate.