Ministère de la Transition écologique

Commissariat Général au Développement Durable (CGDD) – Service de la Donnée et des Etudes Statistiques (SDES)

Commissariat général au développement durable

5, route d'Olivet

CS 16105

45061 Orléans Cedex 2

France

Data presents environmental tax revenue (by tax category - energy, transport, pollution and resource taxes) broken down by economic activity (tax payer), using the NACE classification for production activities extended to cover taxes payable by households and non-residents.

Environmental tax revenue is broken down by:
A. type of environmental tax,
B. sector/industry of tax payer

A. Classification according to type of environmental tax

For analytical purposes, the environmental taxes are divided into four categories:
1. energy taxes (including CO2 taxes),
2. transport taxes,
3. pollution taxes,
4. resource taxes (excluding taxes on oil and gas extraction).

B. Environmental taxes by economic activity

Environmental tax revenues are allocated to the different tax payers:
• by economic activity according to the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE Rev.2)
• households as consumers
• non-residents
• not allocated (impossible to be allocated to one of the categories mentioned above)

Environmental taxes by economic activity data cover taxes payable by all sectors of the economy: producers (economic activities by NACE), households as consumers as well as non-residents. 

 The environmental tax statistics are compiled based on Eurostat’s 2013 'Environmental taxes - a statistical guide'. Environmental tax is defined 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 ESA2010 as a tax".

Environmental tax statistics are part of European environmental economic accounts, which constitute satellite accounts to national accounts. Thus, environmental tax statistics follows ESA2010 definition of ‘taxes’. Consequently, only payments that are identified as taxes in the national accounts can be reported as environmental taxes whereas other types of payments to government are not excluded from the scope of the data collection. Compliance with the tax definition of the national accounts improves international comparability of the statistics, and is in line with the guidance, concepts and definitions of the System of environmental and economic accounting (SEEA).

Data refer to environmental taxes collected by the government and payable by the different economic agents.

The target population are all production sectors by NACE, households as consumers and non-residents.

France

1995-2021 (2009-2021 for allocation of environmental taxes by institutional sectors)

Not applicable.

Million National Currency (MNAC)

The data refer to the calendar years.

Statistics on environmental taxes are based on Regulation (EC) No. 691/2011 (Annex II) on European environmental economic accounts as amended by Regulation 538/2014, as well as legal acts in the area of national accounts. Data transmission became obligatory in September 2013. Before, Eurostat collected the data on a voluntary basis.

The basis for the national accounts tax aggregates is Table 9 "Detailed tax and social contribution receipts by type of tax or social contribution and receiving sub-sector including the list of taxes and social contributions according to national classification" of the ESA2010 transmission programme - Annex B of Regulation (EU) No. 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union. Moreover, Commission Regulation (EC) N° 995/2001 of 22 May 2001 implementing Council and European Parliament Regulation (EC) N° 2516/2000 of 10 July 2000 on the recording of taxes and social contributions sets the rules for the data sources, time of recording and comparable treatment of taxes and social contributions assessed but unlikely to be collected.

Not applicable.

No confidentiel data

Not applicable

NTL and files to break down environmental taxes are available in august of year n+1. As requested by Eurostat, we publish the data by 30 april at the latest. When the data are validated by Eurostat, we update an annual publication to present the main figures for environmental taxes

We do not release calendar access.

The dissemination of statistical data is to all users at the same time. But users are not informed that the data are being released, except in the publication on the accounts for the environmental economy and on web articles. 

See concept 8.1

No regular or ad-hoc press releases linked to the data

Data are presented annually in a publication on the accounts for the environmental economy and on web article.  We will update this web article with 2020 data.

Data are not available on online database.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Environmental taxes, a statistical guide

Not applicable.

No documentation

First of all, we always satisfy the following rules at each step of the process:

All values reported in the answer to regulation 691/2011 are the values reported in the NTL sent by French NS in march 2023.

The inter-years consistency is checked at each step. That means finding of last year report are back-casted.

We select all taxes lines flagged as “Environmental Taxes” in the NTL. As noted by Eurostat, the National Tax List includes the variable “Alcohol, tobacco, environmental and property tax” whose modalities “E” (Energy), “T” (Transport) and “P” identify environmental taxes. Remind that a line in the NTL could be used for several individual taxes.

We select all the individual taxes in the individual taxes file behind taxes lines flagged as “Environmental Taxes” in the NTL and we check these taxes are matching the environmental tax criterions. 

We check the environmental category of all the individual taxes we have selected and we categorization is modified if needed. So, we have built the referential of environmental taxes.

We are currently working on a update of the program used to break down taxes by environmental category. This work still also allow for better consideration of tax exemptions.

We also have regular exchanges whit French NSI to understand data developments.

We break down the taxes on revenue from carbon quota auctions (see point 18.5.2). This is the first estimation exercice. This method will need to be improved for future reporting.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The reporting of environmental taxes is complete. we can still only estimate the breakdown of CO2 emission permits and other CO2 taxes

Not applicable.

2021 data are provisional in 2023, 2020 data are semi-definitive and 2019 data are definitive

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable

Not applicable.

The Regulation requires environmentally related taxes to be provided for the first time on 30 September 2013.

FRANCE transmitted the data to Eurostat on 28/04/2023, covering the years 1995-2021;

Provisional data for taxes by environmental categories (E, T, P, R) are also available for year 2021. They will be revised in 2024 (semi-definitive) and 2025 (definitive).

The data for 2008 (the first year of disaggregation) are subject to a break in series which is indicated in the report. This is the only year with a break in the series; for the other years, the methodology and data sources have remained unchanged.

This year we received the data for 2021 in march 2023, with a delay of 18 months

We sent the environmental tax report in April 2023, a 16-month delay

No time lag

Not applicable.

The data used for the reporting of environmental taxes are taken from French NSI data. The geographical comparison is therefore ensured.

Not applicable.

The data used to report environmental taxes are taken from French NSI data. These data sources are comparable and reconcilable over time.

The period 2008-2021 is comparable in time

Data contained in the environmental tax report are consistent with the NTL provided by French NSI

No data sub annual

The breakdown of environmental taxes is based on national accounts data.  We work closely with French NSI to ensure this coherence.

The differences are explained by an addition of taxes that are not accounted for in the NTL or a breakdown between categories different from the NTL (Cf Quality report Annex).                                                   

Not applicable

2 months of work for one person.

The data used to report environmental taxes are taken from French NSI data. Each year we check the consistency of the data with previous years and make the necessary changes to ensure that the data are updated.

As every year, we updated the data with the latest version of the NTL.

For 2020 the changes are as follows:

The table belows shows the differences by category of tax.

For the categories “Pollution” and “Transport”, the adjustments are low and correspond to the updating of the data further to the update of the NTL.

For the energy category, there are some differences in the amount, but on the total revenue, the result is identical

To better take into account the data on CO2 emissions taxes, the French NSI has created a special line in the NTL which records  the revenue from carbon quota auctions. This data was retroactive to 2013.

See point 17.2

Data for 2018 are definitive, semi-definitive for 2019 and provisional for 2020.

The main used sources are the NTL, individual taxes file, input/output and householders spending tables.

All data are produced by French NSI INSEE and with a perfect matching together:

- The NTL and the individual taxes file are the main sources for identification of environmental taxes. We produce what we could call “NETL” for France, meaning “National Environmental Tax List” which is an extraction of NSI INSEE NTL for environmental category with completion. We reduced the scope of our repertory, due to user’s demand for a simpler tab;

- The individual taxes file, input/output and householders spending tables are the main sources for the answer to regulation 691/2011, allocating taxes by category.

We had several contacts / discussions with the NSI department responsible for NTL about these review these years, leading to improve both processes and avoiding mismatching.

Once a year between January and March.

Every year, we collect the data used to report environmental taxes from the French NSI. There is no automatic mailing, we have to make this request every year.

For each environmental tax report, we create an annex to the quality report that compiles the report data and the changes made to verify that all the data are valid.

Some environmental taxes must be split into several environmental categories. This is particularly the case for IFER, classified as "energy", but a part of the tax is relocated to "transport". All these operations are described in the appendix attached to the quality report (2023 Quality Report Annex).

Not applicable.

First of all, France tax allocation for regulation 691/2011 follows the guidelines draw by Eurostat in its manual “Environmental taxes – a statistical guide 2013 edition”.

The French model is based on individual tax file line; that means we do not use category aggregates and a “general dispatching key” (by instant the one of the biggest mount tax of the category).

If a tax is a “tax over production”, we identify NACEs paying the taxes (when this is possible).

If a tax is a “tax over products”, we use the first main approach based on the national accounts (input/output tables or the so-called supply and use tables), according to improved information sources and the legislation in force: specific exemptions, partial exemptions…

Tax over production

For taxes over production, the “real” tax payers are the producers and does not include the householders. In that cases, NTL and individual tax file don’t give any information about the producers (NACE) who are paying the tax.

We have to check each tax description in the legislation in force (see legifrance.gouv.fr) and identify the tax payers. If we have one NACE involved, it’s over: all the tax is affected to the corresponding NACE.

But if more than one NACE are involved, we need more information. In the best cases, we could get more detailed information from other sources: mainly internal statistics reports of governmental units. If this information is usually more detailed, it’s not given in the ESA standards.

Tax over products

In that case, we use the first main approach based on the national accounts (input/output tables or supply and use tables) according to improved information sources and the legislation in force.

1-      Identifying the product over which the tax is based.

For lots of taxes, the individual tax file gives the information about the CPA product that refers the tax.

But for some specific taxes, NTL and individual tax file does not give any information. So we have to check each tax description in the legislation in force (see legifrance.gouv.fr) and try to identify the tax base product or a proxy of this product.

2-      Merging use of product by NACES, householders and non-residents.

So we get for a CPA product which is a tax base a complete Institutional sectors use.

We estimate the non-residents product use share as a share of the householders use, based on the national accounts giving the non-residents global use.

ETS CO2 Taxes

As requested by Eurostat, France has initiated work to better identify CO2 taxes.

Since 2020, NTL added a specific line on CO2 taxes (“D29F Taxe sur les émissions de CO2 – Emission Permits (EU ETS)”. These are revenues from the sale of carbon quotas on the European market.

We have established a method for disaggregate these revenues by paying agent from the information provided by the European Environment Agency. We have not yet managed to recover direct information on the distribution of revenue by paying agents.

Therefore, we base our breakdown on verified emissions by activity sectors and freely allocated allowances. We assume that the difference corresponds to the quotas purchased at auction and estimate the number of quotas purchased by the sectors of activity concerned.

However, this method of calculation poses a problem in that it produce negative data. This is explained by the fact that when carbon allowance auctions were introduced, some sectors of activity received more carbon allowances than they produced.

This concerns the years 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2020. The solution is to reallocate negative amounts to the others sectors of activity according to their respective size.

We then allocate the amount of revenue for the year according to the number of quotas purchased.

 This solution is not satisfactory in the long term, but it is a first step. We will work with our external partners to refine this breakdown.

Other CO2 taxes (new)

The amounts of other taxes on CO2 concern only the carbon component of the TICPE. These data and the breakdown by sector of activity are taken from Ademe (Agency for Ecological Transition). These data are estimates. Internal work at the Ministry must be carried out this year to evaluate these data more accurately.

See point 18.5.2 : CO2 taxes

Eurostat did some recommendations about non-residents tax allocation in spring 2017, mainly enjoined member states to use Tourism Satellite Accounts for an improved non-residents tax allocation. France followed this recommendations.

 In 2015 and 2016 reportings, we estimated the non-residents product use share as a share of the householders use, based on the national accounts giving the non-residents global use (global share method).

Since 2017, France follows Eurostat recommendation but only for oil taxes i.e. TICPE and then apply the global share method only on the residue (Total N-R spending – Oil N-R spending).

French national accounts use a different basis (including methods and definition) for years after 2009 (included). The new basis is the so-called “base 2010”. All data from 2009 to 2021 are consistent with base 2010. But the data for year 2008 and before are not consistent with these data.

We are not able to compute all data for years before (and including) 2008 with Nace Rev.2. So, we apply the 2009 tax allocation structure for earlier than 2009 years, as it was stated by Eurostat.

Not applicable

Not applicable.

The year 2020 was marked by the health crisis. The evolution of the amount of some taxes is strongly decreasing.