This paper analyses the performance of the Spanish Personal Income Tax (PIT) in terms of progressivity, redistribution and social welfare throughout the extended period of economic growth between 1999 and 2007. For each of the three PIT models applied in this period (Laws 40/1998, 46/2002 and 35/2006), the paper evaluates its contribution to progressivity and the redistributive effect of the different elements of the tax structure by adapting the Pfähler (1990)-Lambert (2001) methodology to the specificities of that structure. The empirical analysis was carried out for both taxpayers and households using microdata from the 1999-2007 PIT Return Panel disseminated by the Spanish Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Key words: Spanish personal income tax, IRPF, income inequality, redistribution, progressivity, social welfare.
JEL Classification: D31, H23, H24.