€5 billion in environmental tax paid in Ireland in 2019
Ireland paid a total of €5 billion in environmental-related taxes to the government in 2019.
Environmental taxes in Ireland amounted to €5 billion in 2019, up from €3 billion in 2000, but down from a peak of €5.2 billion in 2017.
These taxes, as a percentage of total taxes at 6.5% in 2019, were the lowest over the 2000-2019 period.
Environmental taxes make up 6.9% of total tax revenues
These taxes accounted for 6.9% of Ireland’s total tax revenues in 2018.
The report also showed that revenue raised by environmental taxes exceeded expenditure on related subsidies in Ireland over the 2000-2018 period.
In 2018, environmental subsidies were 22% of environmental taxes -. subsidies in Ireland reached €1.1 billion that year.
What is environment tax?
An environment tax is defined by Regulation (EU) 691/2011 as: “A tax whose tax base is a physical unit (or a proxy of a physical unit) of something that has a proven, specific negative impact on the environment, and which is identified in the European System of Accounts as a tax.”
Once a tax base has been included in the list of environment tax bases, any tax levied on that base is considered an environment tax, irrespective of the motivation behind it.
There are four main types of environment taxes: energy; transport; resource; and pollution taxes.
A carbon tax was introduced by the Irish government in 2010, which placed a tax on auto-diesel, petrol, aviation gasoline, kerosene, marked gas oil, fuel oil, LPG (Other), Auto LPG, and natural gas.
