Tax revenues fell across the OECD for the first time in a decade during 2019. However, they have warned of a much larger decrease is expected in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic drives down economic activity and consumption tax revenues.

The OECD’s 2020 Revenue Statistics publication found the average tax-to-GDP ratio fell to 33.8 percent in 2019, a decrease of 0.1 percentage points since 2018.

This was due to decreases in 15 countries that were larger, on average, than the increases in the 20 remaining countries for which 2019 data was available.

Covid-19 is likely to significantly hit tax revenues in 2020, pa...