Descrizione 1
Renato Marra Campanale
Statistical information on environmental taxes can be broken down by tax category, paying units, environmental activity class, and revenue destination. In Italy, environmental tax revenues amounted to €41.5 billion in 2022 (a decrease of 24.4% compared to the previous year). In 2022, environmental taxes accounted for approximately 5% of the total tax and social contribution revenues and about 2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
This indicator provides information on revenues by category of environmental tax and on the units paying these taxes. An environmental tax is defined by its tax base being a physical unit, or a proxy thereof, with proven negative effects on the environment. Four main areas can be identified for environmental taxes: energy, transport, pollution, and natural resources. For energy, taxes apply to energy products used both for stationary and mobile pollution sources (i.e., transport); carbon dioxide taxes also fall under this category as they are levied on energy products. The transport category excludes fuel used for transportation and mainly includes taxes on ownership and use of vehicles and other means of transport. The pollution category includes taxes on atmospheric emissions (e.g., NOx and SOx), water emissions, waste management, and noise. The natural resources category refers to taxes on resource extraction, excluding oil and gas, but currently no such taxes are levied in Italy.
The indicator measures revenue by environmental tax category and by contributing unit (resident or non-resident). Below is a breakdown of Italian environmental tax categories: - energy: border surtax on non-condensable gases; border surtax on mineral oils; tax on mineral oils and derivatives; tax on non-condensable gases; additional electricity tax from municipalities and provinces; tax on electricity and renewable energy system charges; tax on methane gas; coal consumption tax; revenue-based contribution from energy sector operators to the Energy, Gas, and Water Authority; revenues from the Central Italian Storage Body; revenues from emission permit usage; -transport: public vehicle register (PRA); insurance tax on motor vehicle liability (Rc auto); vehicle tax for businesses; vehicle tax for households; air taxi tax; tax on boats and aircraft; - pollution: special landfill tax; tax on sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions; provincial environmental protection tax; regional tax on aircraft noise emissions.
Environmental policy can rely not only on "command and control" tools but also on more flexible instruments such as economic tools, which offer cost-effective solutions to environmental issues, correct environmental externalities, and generate tax revenues for specific purposes.
Economic instruments like environmental taxes support the “polluter pays” principle and are used to achieve targeted objectives. Environmental taxes are useful in discouraging environmentally harmful behavior, by providing incentives to reduce environmental burdens through price changes.
The aim of this indicator is to support the growing knowledge needs concerning the role of economic instruments in environmental policies. It may serve directly or as an input for economic analysis models, such as evaluating the impact of a tax instrument on sectoral costs, inflation, or the international competitiveness of specific sectors.
Regulation (EU) No. 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts
Descrizione 2
Environmental taxes – A statistical guide – 2024 edition (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/w/ks-gq-23-016)
Data on pollution and natural resource taxes are presented together as some countries are unable to distinguish between these two types of taxes.
Qualificazione dati
IstatData: https://esploradati.istat.it/databrowser/#/it/dw/categories/IT1,DATAWAREHOUSE,1.0/UP_ACC_AMBIEN
National
2008-2022
Qualificazione indicatore
The indicator’s methodology is detailed in the document Environmental Taxes – A Statistical Guide – 2024 edition (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/w/ks-gq-23-016)
In 2022, Italy's environmental tax revenue is equal to €41.5 billion, corresponding to about 5% of the total tax and social contribution revenue and approximately 2% of GDP (Table 1).
In Italy, after a period of relative stability from 2014 to 2019, environmental tax revenues (at current prices) have declined by about 29% between 2019 and 2022. This decline is also reflected in the ratio of environmental taxes to both GDP and total tax revenues: approximately 1 percentage point lower in GDP terms and 3 percentage points lower in total tax terms between 2019 and 2022 (Table 1).
Dati
Figure 1: Environmental tax revenue by type of tax. Italy
ISPRA elaboration of Istat data
The category of environmental taxes on natural resources is not present in Italy.
The 'total of taxes and social contributions' includes imputed social contributions borne by employers.
Table 2: Revenue from environmental taxes per unit corresponding to the tax and by tax. Italy, 2008, 2015, and 2022
Istat
The unit of measurement is expressed at current prices.
Table 3: Revenue from environmental taxes by CEPA Class and allocation of revenue. Italy
Istat
CEPA: Classification of Environmental Protection Activities and Expenditures; the unit of measurement in millions of euros is expressed at current prices.
Table 1: Revenue from environmental taxes by tax category. Italy
Istat
The 'total taxes and social contributions' includes imputed social contributions borne by employers
In 2022, Italian environmental tax revenues amounted to €41.5 billion. Among environmental tax categories, energy taxes accounted for around 80% of the total on average between 2008 and 2022, transport taxes (mostly on vehicle ownership) for about 19%, and pollution taxes for roughly 1%. No taxes are levied in Italy on natural resource extraction (Table 1, Figure 1). In 2022, the contribution to environmental tax revenues came from economic activities (40%), households (59%), and non-resident units (1%) (Table 2). In the same year, energy taxes were paid for about 46% by economic activities and 52% by households and the main contributors to the revenue from transportation taxes are households (77% of the total revenue in this category), followed by economic activities for the remainder. The revenue from pollution tax comes for almost 60% of the total from households and for 40% from economic activities. An analysis of environmental tax revenue by CEPA (Classification of Environmental Protection Activities and expenditures) shows that the class “Air and climate protection” made up nearly all (98.6% in 2022) of environmental tax revenues from 2008 to 2022. When analyzing the destination of environmental tax revenues by type of tax (specifically earmarked taxes used to fund environmental protection expenditures), 2022 recorded the lowest share in the period considered. These taxes accounted for only 4% of total environmental tax revenues, compared to 19% in 2021.