On January 1, 2018, China's first environmental protection tax with environmental protection as its goal was formally implemented, thus replacing the implementation of the pollutant discharge system for nearly 40 years. Environmental taxes are filed and paid on a quarterly basis, and the first epoch will be received from April 1st to April 15th, 2018.

How to collect environmental taxes? How to determine the tax rate? Which industries have a greater impact? In response to concerns of people from all walks of life, the responsible persons of the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation and the Ministry of Environmental Protection accepted interviews with reporters.

Local tax amount is clear

Beijing is taxed at the highest limit

An important principle for the introduction of environmental taxes is to achieve a steady transfer of the sewage charges system to the environmental tax system. The industry is most concerned about how this tax will be collected.

According to the environmental tax law, the object and scope of taxation for environmental protection taxes is basically the same as the current pollutant discharge fees. The scope of taxation includes pollutants such as air, water, solids, and noise that are directly discharged into the environment. Among them, the air pollutant tax amount ranges from 1.2 yuan to 12 yuan per pollution equivalent, and the water pollutant tax amount ranges from 1.4 yuan to 14 yuan per pollution equivalent.

According to Wang Jianfan, Director of the Department of Taxation of the Ministry of Finance, at present, except for the Tibet Autonomous Region, all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities have issued specific applicable tax amounts for taxable atmospheric pollutants and water pollutants in the region according to legal procedures.

Among them, Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Jilin, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang and other 12 provinces set the tax amount according to the lower limit, and their air and water pollutant tax amounts are 1.2 yuan per pollution equivalent respectively. 1.4 yuan.

In Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and other 12 provinces, the tax amount is in the middle level, and the air pollutant tax is between 1.8 and 3.9 yuan per pollution equivalent. The tax amount is between 2.1 and 3.5 yuan per pollution equivalent.

In six provinces such as Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Henan, the tax amount is at a relatively high level. The air pollutant tax is between 4.8 and 12 yuan per pollutant, and the water pollutant tax is between 4.8 and 14 yuan per pollutant. between.

Cai Zili, Director of the Department of Property and Behavioral Tax of the State Administration of Taxation, introduced that the environmental tax implements a dynamic tax adjustment mechanism that “sets the country’s baseline and places can go up”. Taking Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei, where environmental carrying capacity is relatively small, as an example, Beijing determines the amount of tax according to the maximum ceiling of 10 times the minimum tax standard, and its air and water pollutant tax amounts are 12 yuan and 14 yuan per pollution equivalent respectively; Hebei adopts the minimum tax amount. The standard 8 times determined the applicable tax amount for major pollutants in the atmosphere and water in 13 counties in Beijing.

In addition, Jiangsu Province has also established differentiated taxation in different regions of the province, and the taxation rates of Inner Mongolia, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Yunnan provinces and regions have been gradually improved in different years.

Wang Jianfan said that, generally speaking, the taxes introduced by various localities have taken into consideration the environmental carrying capacity of the region, the current status of pollutant discharge, and the requirements for economic and social ecological development goals, and are conducive to the regulation of taxation in terms of ecological environmental protection.