Coal levy

Various taxes are referred to as coal tax or coal tax , the basis of which is the possession , mining, trading or consumption of coal . The assessment takes place - except on a monetary value - often on properties such as the carbon content , the heating , condensing or weight. In the last few decades in particular, it has been discussed and used as an economic policy instrument which, through its steering effect , is intended to restrict the use of coal as a fossil fuel - mostly because of its environmental and climate problems . In the past, coal taxes were also levied for purely fiscal or socio-political purposes.

The combustion of coal has the highest specific greenhouse gas emissions compared to the use of other energy sources and is therefore considered to be particularly harmful to the climate ( CO ₂ problem ). As it usually contains relatively high levels of sulfur, it also pollutes the air we breathe ( SO _X / NO _x problem), which is why explicit coal taxes are older than the climate debate and date back to the beginning of environmental protection policy in the times of the forest dieback debate of the 1970s. In addition to special taxes on coal use, there are also dedicated increased rates for coal products in general energy and air pollution taxes ( CO2 and SOX / NOX taxes).

If the two-degree target of the Kyoto Protocol , which is the upper limit of controllable climate change, is to be achieved with a probability of more than 50%, then - according to data from the IPCC - between 2011 and 2050 a maximum of between 870 and 1,240 gigatons ( Billion tons) of carbon dioxide are released. Converted to the reserves, this means that in the global context around a third of the oil reserves , half of the natural gas reserves and more than 80% of the coal reserves must not be burned.

National

Overview

The following table lists some countries that tax the consumption of coal. A tax on the consumption of coal is part of a broader fuel tax in some countries. In some cases, individual economic sectors (power generation, chemical industry) are exempt from taxation. In part, the tax depends on the amount used (quantity-based consumption tax) or the quality used ( calorific value- related consumption tax) of the coal.

Euros to Dollars: 1.2

country	introduction	Rate [in $ / t]	[in $ / 33 GJ] (B)	annotation
Belgium		14th		general energy tax
Denmark	1977	48-71	0.16-0.35	general CO 2 / NO x - resp. Energy taxes, like coal
Germany			0.01	only for private households, see: Energy Tax Act (Germany)
Estonia	2003	0.36		general fuel tax; in addition, charges according to emission (per kg SO, SO 2 , NO x , etc.) (S)
Finland		139		General energy tax with SO 2 surcharge and contribution to ensuring supply
India		1.6
Iceland		31		Solid fuel tax (coal and peat)
Israel		13		Driving and fuel tax
Japan		9		Oil and coal tax
Netherlands		17th		Fuel tax on coal
New Zealand		1		Energy resource tax (domestic coal reduced)
Canada : British Columbia		40-34		depending on the quality
Austria	2003	60		special coal tax, not for coal-based power generation
Poland			0.01	Energy product tax
Portugal		16		Energy product tax with coal surcharge
Slovenia	2002	17-53	0.01	comprehensive CO 2 - / air pollution tax, uniform rate with pollution factor; resp. Fuel tax
Spain			0.005 / 0.02	Coal tax (commercial / private)
Sweden	1991	313		Energy and CO 2 tax, plus $ 3 per kg sulfur (S)
Czech Republic			0.01	Tax for solid fuels, plus emissions-related annual tax for power plants depending on the fuel and size of the plant
Hungary			0.01	Fuel tax
United Kgr.		7/19	0.02	Global warming tax (fuel-related reduced / standard or basic tax)
USA : individual regions		0.0002-1		In addition, partial taxation according to turnover, amount and method of mining and others

Source and status: QECD TaxBase (2015)

^(H)The conversion to ¹⁰⁰ ⁄ ₃  GJ makes energy-related charges with a calorific value of around 20–30 MJ / kg for various types of coal roughly comparable

^(S) Up to 3%, 30 kg per ton

Denmark

Denmark, with its strict environmental policy, has been taxing energy consumption - including coal products - since 1977. Taxes currently amount to € 32.60 / tonne, lignite € 23.98 / tonne and petroleum coke € 43.52 / tonne.

Germany

National climate protection contribution

In Germany , the introduction of an additional CO ₂ tax was discussed in 2015 under the heading of a national climate protection contribution . This CO ₂ charge should be designed in such a way that it primarily affects coal-fired power plants, in particular lignite-fired power plants, that are more than 20 years old, i.e. that it would have effectively acted as a coal charge. After resistance from trade unions, utilities and economic politicians, the proposal was withdrawn in July 2015 and instead it was decided to shut down coal-fired power plants via a remunerated security standby, from which they should be able to go back online for four years if necessary.

Coal price surcharge (1920–1923)

From 1920 to 1923 a surcharge, sometimes called the coal tax, was levied on coal. The surcharge was earmarked for the TreuHandStelle für Bergmannswohnstätten in the Rhenish-Westphalian coal district , a predecessor of THS Wohnen , in order to finance apartments for miners. The miners' estate formed by this surcharge, among other things , was reported at EUR 1.237 million in 2014. Until 2017 it was administered as trust assets of the federal government by the housing association for the Rhenish lignite area, supervised by an agent of the federal government, the agent for the miners 'estate at the trustee for miners' dwellings in the Rhenish-Westphalian hard coal district and the housing association Rheinische Lignite .

Coal tax (1917-1922)

From August 1, 1917 to November 15, 1922, a tax was levied on coal mined and imported in Germany on the basis of the Coal Tax Act of April 8, 1917. The almost 1,000 companies that produced compressed coal and importers were liable for tax . The measurement was based on the manufacturer's sales price. The tax rate was initially 20% (corresponding to almost 10% of the retail price) and rose to 40% at the end. The introduction of the tax was justified by the First World War with heavy burdens on the imperial budget.

Further

Based on the Energy Tax Act , a consumption tax of 0.12 ct / kWh (2006 status) is levied on coal used for heating. This tax is also sometimes referred to as the coal tax.

The coal pfennig levied from 1974 to 1995 , on the other hand, was a surcharge on electricity and not a coal tax. The income was used to finance hard coal mining.

Austria: Coal Tax Act 2003

Basic data
Title:	Coal Tax Act
Type:	Federal law or regulation
Scope:	Republic of Austria
Legal matter:	Tax law
Reference:	BGBl. I No. 71/2003
Effective date:	January 1, 2004
Legal text:	ris.bka
Please note the note on the applicable legal version !

In Austria , an energy tax has been levied on hard coal , lignite , coke and similar products since 2003 (coal tax law ) . All deliveries of coal, the consumption of coal by coal traders or coal producers and the consumption of coal that is brought to Austria are taxed. The delivery of coal to coal traders for further delivery (not taxable) and coal that is used to produce coke (raw material, tax on coke) are not taxed; There is a tax exemption by way of reimbursement (according to the Energy Tax Remuneration Act) for coal if it is used to generate electrical energy (but not for thermal energy) or which is not used for heating or as fuel (non-energetic use, e.g. for colorants). It is designed as a consumption tax , with the exception of imports to Austria, where the supplier is subject to tax.

The tax is EUR 0.05 per kg (EUR 50 / ton).

The tax on coal was introduced as a minimum taxation - as previously only for petroleum products - when the EU Energy Tax Directive came into force . The exception for electricity generation (coal- fired power generation ) , i.e. power plant operators, takes into account the Austrian energy supply situation, in which coal-fired power plants are now only in operation as peak-load power plants and are subject to other strict environmental conditions. Since, for example, steel production in Austria also only takes place to a limited extent (and due to the switch to high-performance and special steels, it is already pre-cleaned on a large scale), the tax is primarily aimed at private households or the heating of public buildings, which usually do not have any exhaust gas purification. This is intended to promote the conversion to renewable energies in heating technology.

Switzerland

In Switzerland , a general energy tax on electricity from coal, gas or nuclear power plants has been under discussion in recent years, also referred to as a " dirty electricity tax" by the environmental organization WWF and the solar association Swissolar , for Swiss hydropower and renewable energies -Protect production against cheap imports from Germany through overproduction from coal-fired power plants.

Australia

Australia recently - as the first country in the world - abolished a CO ₂ reduction-related tax without replacement. Australia covers 70% of its energy needs from coal, which is why it was also known as the coal tax . The emissions-related tax introduced in 2012 was 16.50 euros per tonne of emissions, three times as high as in the EU. The deletion was officially justified in 2014 with an impairment of competitiveness.

See also

• Coal tax column : historic border posts around an area around London , within which customs duties were payable on imported coal

Individual evidence

1. ↑ for example the German coal tax (1917–1922)
2. ↑ so the German coal price surcharge (1920–1923) or the US Federal coal excise tax , see A Taxonomy of Energy Taxes, National Academies, 1979, p. 17.
3. ↑ Christophe McGlade, Paul Ekins: The geographical distribution of fossil fuels unused when limiting global warming to 2 ° C. In: Nature . 517, 2015, pp. 187–190, doi: 10.1038 / nature14016 .
4. ^ Alcohol, Tobacco, Fuel and Electricity Excise Duty Act . RT I 2003, 2, 17 i. d. F. RT I 2007, 45, 319 (English version as amended online, riigiteataja.ee).
5. ^ India Doubles Coal Tax, Yet Again. Anand Upadhyay on cleantechnica.com, March 3, 2015.
6. ↑ Green taxes in Sweden. Ecological-Social Market Economy Forum (foes.de, accessed April 27, 2015; figures there are not up-to-date).
7. ↑ OECD database on instruments used for environmental policy and natural resources management → Tax Rates: Ländersuche (English, accessed April 27, 2015).
8. ↑ Green taxes in Denmark. Ecological-Social Market Economy Forum (foes.de, accessed April 27, 2015).
9. ↑ Planned coal delivery - Gabriel's fight on all fronts. ( Memento from April 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: Tagesschau.
10. ↑ Position paper of the Federal Environment Agency on the coal tax
11. ^ Coalition decides to shut down coal-fired power plants. In: FAZ. 2nd July 2015.
12. ↑ ^{a b} Federal Ministry of Finance (Ed.): Federal assets account for the 2014 budget year . S. 6 ( PDF ). PDF ( Memento of the original from June 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
13. ↑ Werner Meier: The miners' housing . In: Fritz Eiselen (Ed.): Construction industry and construction law . September 18, 1929 ( Online (PDF) ).
14. ↑ Text of the law on miners' settlements (repealed by July 25, 2017)
15. ↑ ^{a b} The Coal Tax Act of April 8, 1917 . In: Yearbooks for Economics and Statistics . tape 54 , no. 6 , 1917, JSTOR : 23828008 .
16. ↑ Hans-Günter Caasen: The tax and customs revenue of the German Empire 1872-1944 . Diss. Jur. Bonn 1953, p. 3–26 ( online (PDF) ). Online (PDF) ( Memento of the original from June 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
17. ↑ Umweltbundesamt (Ed.): Environmentally harmful subsidies in Germany . 2014, p. 12,22,23,87 ( PDF ).
18. ↑ Goods of heading 2701, 2702, 2704, 2713 and 2714 of the Combined Nomenclature .
19. ↑ ^{a b c d} coal tax (coal tax law 2003). ( Memento of the original from March 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Federal Ministry of Finance (bmf.gv.at, accessed April 27, 2015).
20. ↑ ^{a b} Energy taxation - The coal tax. The supplier of the coal or the consumer has to pay the tax. Austrian Chamber of Commerce (wko.at, accessed April 27, 2015).
21. ↑ Switzerland wants to make coal electricity more expensive . In: klimaretter.info - The magazine on the climate and energy transition, June 17, 2014.
22. ↑ Now it's decided: After only two years, Australia has abolished its CO2 tax. The government believes the environmental measure is harmful. In: Spiegel online. 17th July 2014.