Revenue Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean 2021 is a joint publication by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, the OECD Development Centre, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-ECLAC), the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), with the support of the European Union Regional Facility for Development in Transition for Latin America and the Caribbean. It presents detailed, internationally comparable data on tax revenues for 27 Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) economies, three of which are OECD members. On 15 May 2020, the OECD Council invited Costa Rica to become a member. At the time of preparation of this publication, the deposit of Costa Rica’s instrument of accession to the OECD Convention was pending and therefore Costa Rica does not appear in the list of OECD members and is not included in the OECD averages reported.

Revenue Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean 2021 is based on the well-established methodology of the OECD Revenue Statistics database, which is an essential reference source for OECD member countries. Comparisons are also made with the average tax indicators for OECD economies. In this publication, the term “taxes” is confined to compulsory, unrequited payments to general government. As outlined in the Interpretative Guide to Revenue Statistics, taxes are “unrequited” in the sense that benefits provided by government to taxpayers are not normally in proportion to their payments. The OECD methodology classifies a tax according to its base: income, profits and capital gains (classified under heading 1000); payroll (heading 3000); property (heading 4000); goods and services (heading 5000); and other taxes (heading 6000). Compulsory social security contributions paid to general government are treated as taxes and classified under heading 2000. Much greater detail on the tax concept, the classification of taxes and the accrual basis of reporting is set out in the Interpretative Guide in Annex A.