1. environmental taxes State of play
Stela Stamatova
Eurostat
Unit E2 - Environmental accounts and climate change
15 October, 2012

2. Current data collections:
Tax revenue by functions includes environmental taxes by type (DG TAXUD based on Eurostat data).
Revenue by paying economic activities (Eurostat - voluntary data collection at present) – obligatory from 2013 under the Regulation 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts.
15 October, 2012

3. Environmental Tax Revenue
Revenue data are derived from the national tax lists which Eurostat collects as part of the ESA95 transmission programme.
DG TAXUD (function from 2012 onwards performed by Eurostat) assigns an economic function to each tax and identifies the environmental taxes in consultation with Eurostat and with DG TAXUD’s Working Group on the structures of the taxation system.
Discrepancies between the DG TAXUD environmental tax revenue totals as derived from the national tax lists and the detailed allocated environmental tax data should be avoided.
15 October, 2012

4. Annual Eurostat data collection of revenue by paying activity
Eurostat collects data on environmental taxes at a more detailed level, by tax categories (energy, transport, pollution, resources) and by paying economic activities - based on a gentlemen’s agreement in A*64 NACE breakdown (64 categories – agriculture, mining, etc.) plus households and non-residents.
The data for envt taxes are recorded and presented from the perspective of the entities paying the taxes in a way that is fully compatible with the data reported under ESA 95.
15 October, 2012

5. Regulation 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts
A new Regulation 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts was adopted on 6 July 2011.
Environmental taxes by economic activity are one of the three modules included the Regulation (Annex II).
Environmental tax data shall be submitted annually, within 21 months of the end of the reference year.
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6. Regulation 691/2011
First submission shall cover the reference years – made by 30 September 2013
For 4 categories (energy, transport, pollution, resources)
In a breakdown of A*64 (64 industries) plus households, non-residents and ‘not allocated’
Derogations: first data transmission can be postponed for a maximum of 2 years (up to September 2015) – France, Poland, Spain, Cyprus, Malta, Iceland.
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7. 2012 data collection for environmental taxes by economic activities
This is the last voluntary data collection which was launched on 27 June 2012 with a deadline 30 September one questionnaire was sent out based on NACE Rev. 2.
The questionnaire was updated and covers the period pre-filled with data if available for and with DG TAXUD totals for the different categories of environmental taxes.
15 October, 2012

8. 2012 data collection – UPDATES and changes
The methodological notes have been updated – clearer and in line with Regulation 691/2011.
An updated list of tax bases is included based on TF conclusions – clarifying that for international comparison purposes all taxes on oil and natural gas extraction as well as value added type taxes (VAT) should be excluded from environmental tax statistics.
15 October, 2012

9. 2012 changes…
There are now two rows at the end of each data sheet – for taxes as well as fees/charges that for national purposes are included in environmental taxes but for international comparison purposes are excluded.
A separate sheet at the end of the questionnaire provides all taxes included in the national tax list (as reported in table 9 of the ESA 95 transmission programme) to facilitate checking consistency.
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10. 2012 Aggregated questionnaire for environmental taxes
A draft questionnaire /together with the regular questionnaire/ based on NACE Rev. 2. but on an aggregated level as it should be by the Regulation 691/2011 was proposed by ESTAT for comments by countries.
The draft version is identical to the questionnaire used for the 2012 data collection, except for:
the activity breakdown in the data sheets – the A*64 breakdown specified in Regulation 691/2011 is presented separately from the intermediate totals such as C Manufacturing;
other voluntary details are presented also in this separate table called NACE Rev. 2 aggregated industries classification.
15 October, 2012

11. 2011 data collection on environmental taxes
14 countries reported detailed data based on NACE Rev. 2 compared to only 2 countries the year before - for 5 countries- old data
SI, FR, EL and RO sent data for the first time
Data is published in ESTAT Database (table env_ac_taxind)
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12. Environmental tax revenue by type, EU-27, 1995 – 2010 (EUR and % GDP)
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13. Energy taxes by economic activities, 2009 (1) (% of energy tax revenue)
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14. Future work
Fully coherent data sets (a review of the existing list of environmental taxes; Questionnaires are pre-filled with already validated data for totals provided to Eurostat as part of ESA 95 transmission on table 9).
Identification of all (new) environmental taxes as part of the work under Regulation 691/2011.
Coordination in countries between environmental accounts and national accounts.
15 October, 2012

15. useful publications for environmental taxes
’Environmental taxes - a statistical guide’:
SIF published on for 2010 data collection and new one is planned:
The TF Minutes of the meeting: (
15 October, 2012