Environmental taxes Sacha Baud Directorate Spatial Statistics Vienna 24 – 27 September 2012

Environmental taxes Definition of environmental taxes: ‚A tax whose tax base is a physical unit (or a proxy of a physical unit) of something that has a proven, specific negative impact on the environment, and which is identified in the ESA 95 as a tax‘.

Environmental taxes Definition of environmental taxes: ‚A tax whose tax base is a physical unit (or a proxy of a physical unit) of something that has a proven, specific negative impact on the environment, and which is identified in the ESA 95 as a tax‘. ESA 95 definition of a tax: A tax is a compulsory, unrequited payment, in cash or in kind which is levied by general government, or by the Institutions of the European Union.

Environmental taxes Definition of environmental taxes: Tax base: ‚A tax whose tax base is a physical unit (or a proxy of a physical unit) of something that has a proven, specific negative impact on the environment, and which is identified in the ESA 95 as a tax‘. Tax base: There is no formal definition of tax bases. Instead a list of tax bases has been developed and all taxes levied on these tax bases are considered as environmental taxes. Tax bases can be products, assets or other taxable events.

Environmental taxes Definition of environmental taxes: ‚A tax whose tax base is a physical unit (or a proxy of a physical unit) of something that has a proven, specific negative impact on the environment, and which is identified in the ESA 95 as a tax‘. Proxy of a physical unit: Sometimes it could be difficult to get data of a tax base. In these cases proxies can be used, e.g.: Use of petrol or fuel oil as proxy for SO2 or NOx emissions. Duty for airways security as proxy for emissions from air transport.

Environmental taxes Groups of environmental taxes: a) Energy taxes (including fuel for transport) They include taxes on energy products used for transport and stationary purposes. Furthermore this group also encompasses CO2 taxes, if identifiable. b) Transport taxes (excluding fuel for transport) These taxes mainly consist of taxes related to ownership and use of motor vehicles, but also taxes on other transport equipment (e.g. planes, ships) and related transport services (e.g. duty on charter or scheduled flights)

Environmental taxes Groups of environmental taxes: c) Pollution taxes They encompass taxes on measured or estimated emissions to air and water, management of solid waste and noise. CO2 taxes are covered by the energy taxes group. d) Resource taxes For international comparison purposes all taxes on oil and natural gas extraction should be excluded from environmental tax statistics. All other taxes on resource extraction (e.g. mining taxes, taxes on water, forests, wild flora and fauna) should be included.

Environmental taxes Taxes according to ESA 95: The main characteric of a tax according to ESA 95 is that it is a compulsory, unrequited payment, i.e. a payment without any return in service by the government or by the European Union. The general government often use a definition of a tax which is different to that of national accounts. A payment to the government called „tax“ need not to be a tax, whereas a payment called e.g. licence could be a tax For consistency and comparability reasons it is therefore suggested to use tax data reported under ESA 95. Another reason is that the amount of environmental taxes has to be consistent with the amount reported in the national tax list.

Environmental taxes Taxes according to ESA 95: ESA 95 categories relevant for environmental taxes: Taxes on production and imports (D.2) Taxes on products (D.21) Value added type taxes (VAT) (D.211) Taxes and duties on imports excluding VAT (D.212) Import duties (D.2121) Taxes on imports excluding VAT and duties (D.2122) Taxes on products, except VAT and import taxes (D.214) Other taxes on production (D.29)

Environmental taxes Taxes according to ESA 95: ESA 95 categories relevant for environmental taxes: Current taxes on income, wealth, etc. (D.5) Taxes on income (D.51) Other current taxes (D.59) Capital taxes (D.91)

Environmental taxes Tax bases: Measured or estimated emissions to air: Measured or estimated NOx emissions SO2 content of fossil fuels Other measured or estimated emissions to air Ozone depleting substances (e.g. CFCs or halon) Measured or estimated effluents to water: Measured or estimated effluents of oxydisable matter (BOD, COD) Other measured or estimated effluents to water Effluent collection and treatment, fixed annual taxes

Environmental taxes Tax bases: Certain non-point sources of water pollution: Pesticides (Based on e.g. chemical content, price or volume) Artificial fertilisers (Based e.g. on phosphorus or nitrogen content or price) Manure Waste management: Waste management in general (e.g. collection treatment taxes) Waste management, individual products (e.g. packaging, beverage containers) Noise (e.g. aircraft take-off and landings)

Environmental taxes Tax bases: Energy products: Energy products for transport purposes Unleaded petrol Leaded petrol Diesel Other energy products for transport purposes (e.g. LPG or natural gas) Energy products used for stationary purposes Light fuel oil Heavy fuel oil Natural gas

Environmental taxes Tax bases: Energy products: Energy products used for stationary purposes (continued) Coal Coke Biofuels Other fuels for stationary use Electricity consumption Electricity production District heat consumption District heat production

Environmental taxes Tax bases: Transport: Resources: Motor vehicles, one-off import or sales taxes Registration or use of motor vehicles, recurrent (e.g. yearly) taxes Resources: Water abstraction Extraction of raw materials Other resources (e.g. forests)

Environmental taxes Tax exemptions and tax reductions: Tax laws and tax regulations often allow for tax exemption or tax reductions. In Austria e.g. some industries are exempted from paying the energy levy for some energy carriers or farmers could up to now ask for reimbursement of the mineral oil tax paid for Diesel for agricultural use. When distributing environmental taxes to the final tax payer, these exemptions and reductions have to be recorded in the period the taxes accrue.

Environmental taxes Other environmentally relevant payments: They are not defined as taxes and are therefore not part of the obligatory data transmission set as defined in the legal base. But they are further interesting information and can supplement environmental taxes at national level. Austrian examples are: Waste disposal fee, wastewater treatment fee, water supply fee Parking fee (public space) Highway tolls

Environmental taxes Data sources: List of all government levies Starting point of the work by identifying their tax bases. National tax list (table 9 of the ESA transmission programme) Environmental taxes have to be consistent with this list. So it is one of the main data sources. http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/taxation/gen_info/econo mic_analysis/tax_structures/article_5985_en.htm It is important to develop your own list of environmental taxes and then to check it with the NTL to ensure consistency.

Environmental taxes Data sources: Tax statistics Provide detailed information on taxes, social contribution and other government revenues broken down by type of tax or revenue and level of government. Government finance statistics Describe the economic activities of the government. These include government revenues, government expenditure, government deficit, transactions in assets, transactions in liabilities etc..

Environmental taxes Data sources: National accounts Use tax statistics and government finance statistics as data sources but apply a different recording principle, i.e. taxes are recorded in the period they accrue whether or not they are actually paid in that period.

Starting point: All government levies (national, subnational) I. Identification of tax base(s); environmentally-related levies II. Distinction between environmental taxes and env. rel. paym. III. Allocation to environmental tax groups Starting point: Overview of all governmental levies (national and subnational level) Step one: Identification of the tax base(s) of each levy based on tax laws and tax regulations; separation of the levies that are environmentally related Step two: Distinction between environmental taxes and other environmentally related payments based on the ESA 95 definition of a tax. Step three: Allocation to the groups of environmental taxes Step four: Allocation to the final tax payer IV. Allocation to the final tax payer

Environmental taxes Allocation of environmental taxes: a) Allocation to an environmental tax group Based on the tax bases list it should be easy to allocate each environmental tax to the proper tax group (energy, transport, resource, pollution). Problems can occur when e.g. (1) in the NTL some taxes with minor revenues are grouped together or when (2) taxes have several tax bases. Proposed solutions are (ad 1) to change the disaggregation of the NTL to display missing taxes or (ad 2) to split the revenue of a tax using measures or estimates if a measure is not available.

Environmental taxes Allocation of environmental taxes: b) Allocation to the final tax payer using NACE rev. 2 on A*64 level to producers by categories ‚households‘ and ‚non-residents‘ for consumers not allocated There are two main approaches: The first approach is based on supply and use tables. The second approach is based on direct allocation of specific taxes, using further statistical or administrative data. These two approaches can also be mixed.