Spaniards paid almost 23 billion euros in environmental taxes in 2023, a new record which also means that these types of taxes represent 6.5% of all taxes in the Spanish economy. According to data from the National Institute of Statistics -INE-, households paid almost half of these taxes.
INE data indicates that 4 out of 10 euros spent on environmental taxes are borne by households which, in proportion, are those who have the least impact on the environment. But they are already paying 5.8 points more than in 2022. They therefore contributed 10 billion in 2023 and this 2024 the figures will increase.
Environmental taxes according to the INE
According to the nomenclature of the system of national accounts, taxes on products, excluding VAT and taxes on imports, amounted to 16.064 million euros in 2023, or 6.6% more than the previous year.
For their part, other taxes on production reached 5 billion – 32.8% more than in 2022 -, while other current environmental taxes amounted to 1,816 million, or 1.0% less.
Anti-pollution taxes
Environmental taxes are grouped into three categories: energy taxes – which represented 77.5% of the total in 2023 -, transport taxes -13.7% – and taxes on pollution and resources -8 .8% -.
Between 2023 and 2022, pollution and resource taxes increased by 87.7%, energy taxes by 7%, and transport taxes by 3.5%.
In reality, and within product taxes, one of the figures that significantly increases the final amount is the special tax on non-reusable plastic containers. It represented nearly 600 million euros in 2023, according to INE data.
Taxes in industry
According to statistics, households paid 42.8% of total environmental taxes in 2023. By type, they paid 72.7% of transport taxes and 42% of energy taxes.
For their part, economic activities paid 57.2% of total environmental taxes. By type, they paid 96% of pollution and resource taxes, and 58% of energy taxes.
The branches of activity which paid the most environmental taxes in 2023 were the manufacturing industry -20.4% of the total- and transport and storage -14.6%-.
On the contrary, those who paid the least were extractive industries and agriculture, livestock, forestry and fishing – with 0.5% and 1.0% of the total, respectively.
