Eco-Taxes (Environmentally Related Taxes)
Environmental taxes
Revenue from eco-taxes totalled € 7.5 bn in 2010. Around 61% of total receipts from eco-taxes accrued from energy taxes; around 30%, from transport taxes; nearly 8%, from resource taxes; and around 1% from pollution taxes (essentially the contribution towards cleaning up abandoned hazardous sites).
Important ecologically relevant payment flows were entered in an “ancillary account” (such as fees); however, as these are not taxes according to the concepts of the System of National Accounts (SNA), they are not taken into account among eco-taxes as defined by international guidelines. The main difference between fees and taxes in terms of their definition is that while fees represent compensation for public services rendered, taxes are used to finance general public sector functions and their use is not usually related in any way to their levying (non-affectation principle). Ecological accuracy is therefore much lower with taxes than it is with charges.
Analysis of the trend in fee receipts of the last year shows a rise in waste collection fees and sewage fees, only water fees registered a decline. Other ecologically relevant payments include receipts from the sale of motorway toll stickers and HGV road pricing (totalling € 1 512 m in 2010), as well as parking meter fees, which in Vienna alone amounted to € 67 m in 2010.
Ecologically orientated taxation is an important instrument for controlling sustainable development. Environmental taxes are designed to motivate both producers and consumers to limit or reduce the environmental burden and adopt a responsible approach to natural resources. However the figure for environmental tax receipts does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about environmental behaviour. High environmental tax receipts can be the result either of a high level of taxation on environmentally harmful products (regardless of the motives behind such taxation systems) or a high level of usage for such products (with a low taxation level). A combination of both these effects is also possible.
A standardised concept for recording eco-taxes has been drawn up at the international level in OECD and Eurostat working groups together with the countries involved.
The following main groups of eco-taxes have been specified as a result:
- Energy taxes
- Transport taxes
- Pollution taxes
- Ressource taxes
These eco-taxes also include taxes on motor vehicles, landfill taxes and taxes on emissions into the air or into water.
Potentially environmentally harmful subsidies
Potentially environmentally harmful subsidies are attracting increasing attention at national and international level. But a standard international definition for potentially environmentally harmful subsidies has yet to be established despite diverse activities. The main goal of this study, co-financed by Eurostat, was to record potentially environmentally harmful subsidies in Austria based on a proposal made by Eurostat and Statistics Sweden. In yet another work step, the negative effects of potentially environmentally harmful subsidies on the environment were evaluated. Then the amount of these subsidies was compared with the volume of environmental taxes to determine how ecological the Austrian tax system is or where the most efforts have to be made to bring about an environmental tax reform.
| Environmental taxes 1995 to 2010 |  |  |  |
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