VAT along the income distribution (https://x.com/matschnetzer/status/1785992917552644564)

vat.R

library(tidyverse)
library(eurostat)
library(ggflags)
library(countrycode)
library(geomtextpath)
library(ggtext)

data <- get_eurostat("icw_tax_03")

plotdat <- data |> 
  filter(quantile == "MED", 
         quant_inc != "TOTAL",
         geo %in% c("AT", "DE", "FR", "DK", "ES", "PL", "SK", "BE")) |> 
  mutate(year = factor(year(TIME_PERIOD)))

plotdat |> 
  ggplot(aes(x = quant_inc, y = values, group = year, color = year)) +
  geom_line(aes(linewidth = year)) +
  geom_labelline(aes(label = year), size = 2.3, family = "Barlow Condensed", 
                 linewidth = 0, label.padding = unit(1, "pt"), 
                 fill = "transparent") + 
  geom_flag(aes(x = "QU2", y = 23, country = tolower(geo)), size = 6,
            data = ~. |> filter(year == 2020) |> slice(1, .by = geo)) + 
  geom_text(aes(x = "QU2", y = 23, label = toupper(countrycode(geo, origin = "iso2c", destination = "country.name.de"))), nudge_x = .4, hjust = 0,
            family = "Barlow Condensed", size = 4, color = "black",
            data = ~. |> filter(year == 2020) |> slice(1, .by = geo)) +
  geom_text(aes(label = values), size = 2.5, family = "Barlow Condensed",
            color = "black", nudge_x = -.1, hjust = 1,
            data = ~. |> filter(year == 2020, quant_inc == "QU1")) +
  geom_text(aes(label = values), size = 2.5, family = "Barlow Condensed",
            color = "black", nudge_x = .1, hjust = 0,
            data = ~. |> filter(year == 2020, quant_inc == "QU5")) +
  facet_wrap(~geo, nrow = 2) +
  scale_linewidth_manual(values = c("2020" = 1, "2015" = 0.5, "2010" = 0.3)) +
  scale_color_manual(values = c("2020" = "black", "2015" = "gray60", 
                                "2010" = "gray80")) +
  scale_y_continuous(limits = c(0, NA), 
                     labels = scales::label_percent(scale = 1)) +
  scale_x_discrete(labels = c("Ärmste\n20%", "", "", "", "Reichste\n20%")) +
  labs(x = "Einkommensquintile", y = NULL,
       title = "Mehrwertsteuer belastet kleine Einkommen stärker",
       subtitle = "Abgeführte Mehrwertsteuer als Anteil des Bruttoeinkommens <span style='color:gray80;'>2010</span>, <span style='color:gray60;'>2015</span>, 2020",
       caption = "Daten: Eurostat, experimentelle Statistik. Grafik: @matschnetzer") +
  theme_minimal(base_family = "Barlow Condensed") +
  theme(legend.position = "none",
        legend.direction = "horizontal",
        panel.spacing.x = unit(1.5, unit="lines"),
        axis.title.x = element_text(margin = margin(t = 1, unit = "lines")),
        strip.text = element_blank(),
        plot.title.position = "plot",
        plot.title = element_text(size = 19),
        plot.subtitle = element_markdown(size = 14, 
                                     margin = margin(b = 1, unit = "lines")),
        plot.caption = element_text(size = 9),
        panel.grid.minor = element_blank(),
        panel.grid.major.x = element_blank())

ggsave("vat_quintiles.png", width = 9, height = 6, dpi = 320, bg = "white")