Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Environmental tax statistics are part of the environmental accounts which constitute a satellite account to national accounts. Environmental tax revenue series display total tax revenue by category of environmental taxes: energy taxes, transport taxes and the sum of pollution and resource taxes.
3.2. Classification system
Environmental tax revenue is broken down by: A. ESA 2010 national accounts classification, B. Environmental tax category, C. Sector/economic activity of tax payer
A. Classification according to national accounts (ESA 2010)
The following three types of taxes are distinguished:
D2: taxes on production and imports,
D5: current taxes on income, wealth,
D91: capital taxes.
B. Classification according to environmental tax category
For analytical purposes, the environmental taxes are divided into four categories:
Energy taxes (including CO2 taxes),
Transport taxes,
Pollution taxes,
Resource taxes (excluding taxes on oil and gas extraction).
C. Environmental taxes by economic activity
Environmental tax revenues are allocated to the different tax payers:
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)
3.3. Coverage - sector
Environmental taxes by economic activity data cover taxes payable by all sectors of the economy: producers (economic activities by NACE), households as consumers, and non-residents.
Definition of an environmental tax (Regulation (EU) N° 691/2011)
An environmental tax is 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 ESA 2010 as a tax. Only payments that are identified as taxes in the national accounts can be considered as environmental taxes. Other types of payments to government are not considered. Environmental tax statistics rely on the tax definition of the national accounts as a reference because this improves international comparability of the statistics, and allows integration of the tax data with the national accounts and with systems of environmental and economic accounting. (See also the "ESA 2010 Manual of Government Deficit and Debt" which contains Eurostat decisions on recording of taxes and social contributions).
In order to define environmental taxes precisely and to ensure international comparability, a list of tax bases was established. All taxes defined as such in the national accounts and relying on the tax bases listed below comply with the definition of an environmental tax.
Energy (including fuel for transport)
- Energy products for transport purposes
· Unleaded petrol
· Leaded petrol
· Diesel
· Other energy products for transport purposes (e.g. LPG, natural gas, kerosene or fuel oil)
- Energy products for stationary purposes
· Light fuel oil
· Heavy fuel oil
· Natural gas
· Coal
· Coke
· Biofuels
· Electricity consumption and production
· District heat consumption and production
· Other energy products for stationary use
- Greenhouse gases
· Carbon content of fuels
· Emissions of greenhouse gases (including proceeds from emission permits recorded as taxes in the national accounts)
Transport (excluding fuel for transport)
- Motor vehicles import or sale (one off taxes)
- Registration or use of motor vehicles, recurrent (e.g. yearly taxes)
- Road use (e.g. motorway taxes)
- Congestion charges and city tolls (if taxes in national accounts)
- Other means of transport (ships, airplanes, railways, etc.)
- Flights and flight tickets
- Vehicle insurance (excludes general insurance taxes)
Pollution
- Measured or estimated emissions to air
· Measured or estimated NOx emissions
· Measured or estimated SOx emissions
· Other measured or estimated emissions to air (excluding CO2)
- Ozone depleting substances (e.g. CFCs or halons)
- Measured or estimated effluents to water
· Measured or estimated effluents of oxydisable matter (BOD, COD)
· Other measured or estimated effluents to water
· Effluent collection and treatment, fixed annual taxes
- Non-point sources of water pollution
· Pesticides (based on e.g. chemical content, price or volume)
· Artificial fertilisers (based on e.g. phosphorus or nitrogen content or price)
- Harvesting of biological resources (e.g. timber, hunted and fished species)
- Extraction of raw materials (e.g. minerals, oil and gas)
- Landscape changes and cutting of trees
Value added type taxes (VAT) are excluded from the definition of environmental taxes. This is mainly because of the special characteristics of this type of tax. VAT is a tax levied on all products (with few exceptions), and it is deductible for many producers, but not for households. Correspondingly, it does not influence relative prices in the same way that the environmental taxes do through specific environmental tax bases. Also excluded are taxes on the extraction of oil and gas. These taxes are often designed to capture the resource rent and the related payments should be classified as property income.
3.5. Statistical unit
The statistical units are the institutional units General Government (S.13) and Institutions of the EU (S.212).
3.6. Statistical population
The target population is all units of general government sector and institutions of the EU.
3.7. Reference area
Ireland.
3.8. Coverage - Time
Annual data are available from 1995 to 2022
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Million Euro
The data refer to the calendar year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
The data collection on environmental taxes by economic activity is part of the EU Regulation N° 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2011 (Regulation (EU) No 691/2011). This Regulation provides a framework for the development of various types of environmental accounts. Environmental taxes by economic activity are included in Annex II of this Regulation.
The national tax lists are collected by Eurostat as a complement of table 9 of the ESA 2010 (European system of accounts) transmission programme. National Accounts are compiled in accordance with the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010) adopted in the form of a Council Regulation dated 21 May 2013, No 549/2013 and published in the Official Journal L 174 of the 26/06/2013. A consolidated version is available on http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32013R0549&from=EN
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
All information supplied to the CSO is treated as strictly confidential. The Statistics Act, 1993 sets stringent confidentiality standards: Information collected may be used only for statistical purposes, and no details that might be related to an identifiable person or business undertaking may be divulged to any other government department or body.
These national statistical confidentiality provisions are reinforced by the following EU legislation:
A statistical release on Environment Taxes is published on the CSO website annually: https://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/environmentaccounts/environmenttaxes/
Quality report published on CSO website: https://www.cso.ie/en/methods/qualityreports/environmenttaxes/
The estimation is based on maintaining overall environment tax amounts from the NTL as control totals throughout the estimation procedure. The procedure itself follows the guidelines set out in the Eurostat publication, “Environmental taxes A statistical Guide, 2013 edition”. The estimation procedure has been coded in SAS, this approach ensures the data and programming are maintained separately (unlike an Excel based solution). Thus new data that might involve revisions can be readily incorporated without contaminating the procedural aspects of the estimation. Accordingly the estimates are considered reliable. Data processing is based on good quality data sources such as CSO national accounts data and the CSO Business Energy Use survey.
11.1. Quality assurance
Quality assurance is set out in the quality report: https://www.cso.ie/en/methods/qualityreports/environmenttaxes/. This follows the general standard setout by the CSO for methods and quality.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Overall data are of very good quality. Data are collected from reliable sources applying high standards with regard to the methodology.
Environmental policy aims to reach environmental and sustainable development goals. Policy makers use incentive-based tools to ensure that environmental solutions are found at least cost, for correcting externalities and/or raising revenues for specific purposes. Accordingly, detailed environment tax data are needed to enable policy makers assess the environmental impact of a certain tax, such as the reduction in pollution resulting from the introduction of a new tax, and more importantly assess the proportion of overall tax burden that is environmental. This release provides key data within the overall framework of environment statistics that contributes to addressing these needs for Ireland.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Not available.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not available.
12.3. Completeness
The data are complete.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
Not applicable.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The main data sources are the NTL, the Use Table from Supply-Use Tables (SUT) compiled by National Accounts and CSO Business Energy Use (BEU) survey data. All these data sources are aggregate data. Environment Taxes are then estimated by a process that involves applying a NACE breakdown to NTL aggregates using NACE distribution keys obtained from SUT and BEU data for the relevant year. The distribution key applied depends on the particular type of tax. Significantly, only relevant products (rows) are selected from the UT to create weights for distributing NTL aggregate tax amounts. For example, for certain energy taxes Electricity and Gas (NACE 35) production is the row of the table chosen to compute weights to distribute the aggregate amount of tax across each industry using that product.
As stated the estimation is based on maintaining overall environment tax amounts from the NTL as control totals throughout the estimation procedure. The procedure itself follows the guidelines set out in the Eurostat publication, “Environmental taxes A statistical Guide, 2013 edition”. The Irish specific estimation procedure has been coded in SAS, this approach ensures the data and programming are maintained separately (unlike an Excel based solution). Thus new data that might involve revisions can be readily incorporated without contaminating the procedural aspects of the estimation. Accordingly the estimates are considered reliable and the overall accuracy is considered to be good.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
There is no non-sampling error.
13.3.1. Coverage error
Not applicable.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not applicable.
13.3.2. Measurement error
Not applicable.
13.3.3. Non response error
Not applicable.
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.4. Processing error
Not applicable.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
Ireland submits data to Eurostat by the Regulation deadline of T+16 months. Eurostat disseminates data within about 24 months of the end of the reference year. Ireland normally publishes a national statistical release within 12 months of the reference year.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
The national statistical release is published within 12 months of the reference year.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
The Eurostat dataset is published within 24 months of the reference year.
14.2. Punctuality
The data are submitted to Eurostat in advance of the Regulation deadline of 30th April Y+2.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
The data are submitted to Eurostat in advance of the Regulation deadline of 30th April Y+2.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Only national level data are compiled by Ireland. However, use of this Eurostat manual and the checks by Eurostat naturally enhance the comparability between countries.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Comparability over time is high as the methodology for environmental taxes follows a well-defined standard. Comparable time series are available starting with 1995 reference year. Comparability over time is maintained via the use of the National Tax List for overall tax figures.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Annually from 1995 to 2022.
15.2.2. Comparability - over time detailed
Tax type
Reference period
Reasons for breaks
Energy
1995-2022
No Breaks
Transport
1995-2022
No Breaks
Polution and Resuorce
1995-2022
No Breaks
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Not applicable.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not applicable.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable.
15.3.2.1. Coherence - National Accounts detailed
Tax type
Discrepancy
Size of discrepancy
Reasons
Energy
Revision to PSO Levy
€123 million
National Accounts to revise in their Sept return
Energy
Revision to NORA Levy
€25.7 million
National Accounts to revise in their Sept return
Energy
Revision to Duty on hydrocarbons
€3.1 million
National Accounts to revise in their Sept return
Energy
Revision to Carbon Tax
€2.9 million
National Accounts to revise in their Sept return
Energy
Revision to Carbon Credits
€2.4 million
National Accounts to revise in their Sept return
Transport
Revision to Vehicle and Driving Licence Expenses
€11.3 million
National Accounts to revise in their Sept return
Transport
Revision to Vehicle Registration Tax
€3.1 million
National Accounts to revise in their Sept return
15.4. Coherence - internal
The data reported are internally coherent.
N/A
17.1. Data revision - policy
Revisions to the aggregate figures are made annually in line with revisions to the NTL. Revisions to the NACE distribution are made as more up to date Use tables become available.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Revisions are made annually in line with revisions to the NTL and NACE disaggregation data sources.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Revisions to NTL Environment Taxes were around €132 million (downwards) in 2022. Total Environment Taxes were around €4,395 million. The revisions were about 3% of the total.
In addition, revisions were made to the sector breakdown of ETS CO2 Taxes. The revised distribution is based on a change in methodology such that the NACE distribution is based on ETS data on verified emissions and free allocation of emission permits by sector in Ireland. This method/data revision was carried out for 2012-2021 and the main impacts were:
a significant reduction in energy taxes assigned to households for most years from 2012-2021,
a significant increase in energy taxes assigned to NACE D for all years between 2013 and 2021.
a reduction in energy taxes assigned to NACE G & I-U in most years from 2012-2021
changes to NACE H energy taxes
minor changes to other NACE sectors
17.2.2. Status of data
These figures for 1995-2022 are final.
18.1. Source data
The primary data source is Ireland's national tax list transmitted every year to Eurostat as a complement of table 9 of the ESA 2010 transmission programme.
18.1.1. Source data detailed
Tax Name/ESA Code
Source data for compiling tax revenue by payer
Energy taxes
D2122C Duty on imported hydrocarbon oil products
Peresonal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) data & Business Energy Use survey data
D214A Electricity Tax D214A Duty on domestic hydrocarbon oil products
Supply and USe Tables (SUT) & PCE data
D29H Public Service Obligation Levy
SUT
D214L National Oil Reserves Agency levy
SUT
D214L Carbon Tax
SUT
Transport taxes
D214D Vehicle Registration Tax D214D National Car Test (NCT) levy
SUT PCE data
D59F Vehicle & driving licence expenses
SUT
D214H Air Travel Tax
SUT
D29B Motor tax (business)
SUT
D59D Motor tax (households)
SUT
Pollution taxes
D214L Plastic bag levy
SUT
D29F Landfill Levy
SUT
Resource taxes
D51E Fisheries levy
SUT
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annual
18.3. Data collection
The NTL is provided by CSO Government Accounts Division annually.
18.4. Data validation
Data validation is carried out through validity checks against previous years and in cooperation with Eurostat.
18.5. Data compilation
The starting point for the estimation is the total amount of taxes paid in the National Tax List (NTL) that are classified as environment taxes.
For non-fuel ETEA taxes, the NTL tax base headings are associated with NACE Rev 2. product headings. The identification of individual tax bases by type of tax was accomplished jointly by National Account Division and Environment Division in CSO. For each tax the associated NACE Rev 2. product manufactured or service delivered that is primarily responsible for the tax burden is identified. The corresponding row in the Use Table (UT) is extracted and weights for each NACE Rev. 2 industry involved in making this product or delivering this service are computed and applied to the NTL figures.
Fuel taxes are designated as a type of Energy tax. Estimates of fuel taxes follow along similar lines to non-fuel taxes outlined above subject to a few notable differences. Firstly, the business versus household distribution of a Fuel tax is computed from Personal Consumption Expenditure data. For their own purposes PCE within the National Accounts separately allocate fuel taxes to businesses or households. We take the relative proportions of these amounts and apply it to each tax. The business portion of the tax is then estimated using CSO Business Energy Use survey data on fuel use by NACE.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
Not applicable.
18.5.2. Use of imputation methods
For non-fuel ETEA taxes, the NTL tax base headings are associated with NACE Rev 2. product headings. The identification of individual tax bases by type of tax was accomplished jointly by National Account Division and Environment Division in CSO. For each tax the associated NACE Rev 2. product manufactured or service delivered that is primarily responsible for the tax burden is identified. The corresponding row in the Use Table (UT) is extracted and weights for each NACE Rev. 2 industry involved in making this product or delivering this service are computed and applied to the NTL figures.
Fuel taxes are designated as a type of Energy tax. Estimates of fuel taxes follow along similar lines to non-fuel taxes outlined above subject to a few notable differences. Firstly, the business versus household distribution of a Fuel tax is computed from Personal Consumption Expenditure data. For their own purposes PCE within the National Accounts separately allocate fuel taxes to businesses or households. We take the relative proportions of these amounts and apply it to each tax. The business portion of the tax is then estimated using CSO Business Energy Use survey data on fuel use by NACE.
18.5.3. Compilation of estimations
Supply and Use data is projected for years where it is not available using a simple moving average model.
18.5.4. Compilation of revenue payable by non-residents
We take the Use table weighting for exports amount of tax and further allocate it according to overseas tourism numbers of tourist to (tourist+buiness).
18.5.5. Compilation of revenue broken down by payer for years before 2008
To comply with the spirit of EU Regulation (EU) 691/2011 we have endeavoured to make available a continuous series of environment tax estimates from 2000 onward. To facilitate this it has been necessary to compile the UTs for 2000 to 2007 under the NACE Rev. 2 classification as UTs for those years are currently only published in Ireland under the older NACE Rev. 1.1 classification of economic activity. Firstly, values for activity codes headings with a one-to-one match are copied directly, about two thirds of all matches were of this type. Where mismatches occur two methods are adopted. Specifically, many-to-one matches from NACE Rev. 1.1 to Rev 2. are simple aggregations. For one-to-many activity code headings matched from Rev. 1.1 to Rev 2 a split of the Rev. 1.1 amount was needed. The weights used to allocate the single NACE Rev. 1.1 amount in the UT to many NACE Rev 2 amounts was derived from the corresponding split of the United Kingdom’s UT for relevant year. Because of the two-way structure of the UT the allocation was applied both row wise and column wise to arrive at a valid two-way allocation. This highly intricate procedure was programmed in SAS to ensure the structure of the two-way transformations applied were identical across all years 2000-2007, in other words only the within year weights changed from year to year. The resulting NACE Rev. 2 UT was then used as described earlier to compile the environment taxes estimates for the years 2000 to 2007. Backcasting was also required for the year 1995 to 1999. These years were generated using a time series model. Specifically we applied curvilinear time trend (PROC Forecast in SAS) to each reversed NACE Rev. 2 sub-series within the energy and transport tax categories. These values were then proportionately adjusted so that the within year totals for that tax category agreed with the value in the NTL.
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable.
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
Not applicable.
Environmental tax statistics are part of the environmental accounts which constitute a satellite account to national accounts. Environmental tax revenue series display total tax revenue by category of environmental taxes: energy taxes, transport taxes and the sum of pollution and resource taxes.
Definition of an environmental tax (Regulation (EU) N° 691/2011)
An environmental tax is 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 ESA 2010 as a tax. Only payments that are identified as taxes in the national accounts can be considered as environmental taxes. Other types of payments to government are not considered. Environmental tax statistics rely on the tax definition of the national accounts as a reference because this improves international comparability of the statistics, and allows integration of the tax data with the national accounts and with systems of environmental and economic accounting. (See also the "ESA 2010 Manual of Government Deficit and Debt" which contains Eurostat decisions on recording of taxes and social contributions).
In order to define environmental taxes precisely and to ensure international comparability, a list of tax bases was established. All taxes defined as such in the national accounts and relying on the tax bases listed below comply with the definition of an environmental tax.
Energy (including fuel for transport)
- Energy products for transport purposes
· Unleaded petrol
· Leaded petrol
· Diesel
· Other energy products for transport purposes (e.g. LPG, natural gas, kerosene or fuel oil)
- Energy products for stationary purposes
· Light fuel oil
· Heavy fuel oil
· Natural gas
· Coal
· Coke
· Biofuels
· Electricity consumption and production
· District heat consumption and production
· Other energy products for stationary use
- Greenhouse gases
· Carbon content of fuels
· Emissions of greenhouse gases (including proceeds from emission permits recorded as taxes in the national accounts)
Transport (excluding fuel for transport)
- Motor vehicles import or sale (one off taxes)
- Registration or use of motor vehicles, recurrent (e.g. yearly taxes)
- Road use (e.g. motorway taxes)
- Congestion charges and city tolls (if taxes in national accounts)
- Other means of transport (ships, airplanes, railways, etc.)
- Flights and flight tickets
- Vehicle insurance (excludes general insurance taxes)
Pollution
- Measured or estimated emissions to air
· Measured or estimated NOx emissions
· Measured or estimated SOx emissions
· Other measured or estimated emissions to air (excluding CO2)
- Ozone depleting substances (e.g. CFCs or halons)
- Measured or estimated effluents to water
· Measured or estimated effluents of oxydisable matter (BOD, COD)
· Other measured or estimated effluents to water
· Effluent collection and treatment, fixed annual taxes
- Non-point sources of water pollution
· Pesticides (based on e.g. chemical content, price or volume)
· Artificial fertilisers (based on e.g. phosphorus or nitrogen content or price)
- Harvesting of biological resources (e.g. timber, hunted and fished species)
- Extraction of raw materials (e.g. minerals, oil and gas)
- Landscape changes and cutting of trees
Value added type taxes (VAT) are excluded from the definition of environmental taxes. This is mainly because of the special characteristics of this type of tax. VAT is a tax levied on all products (with few exceptions), and it is deductible for many producers, but not for households. Correspondingly, it does not influence relative prices in the same way that the environmental taxes do through specific environmental tax bases. Also excluded are taxes on the extraction of oil and gas. These taxes are often designed to capture the resource rent and the related payments should be classified as property income.
The statistical units are the institutional units General Government (S.13) and Institutions of the EU (S.212).
The target population is all units of general government sector and institutions of the EU.
Ireland.
The data refer to the calendar year.
The main data sources are the NTL, the Use Table from Supply-Use Tables (SUT) compiled by National Accounts and CSO Business Energy Use (BEU) survey data. All these data sources are aggregate data. Environment Taxes are then estimated by a process that involves applying a NACE breakdown to NTL aggregates using NACE distribution keys obtained from SUT and BEU data for the relevant year. The distribution key applied depends on the particular type of tax. Significantly, only relevant products (rows) are selected from the UT to create weights for distributing NTL aggregate tax amounts. For example, for certain energy taxes Electricity and Gas (NACE 35) production is the row of the table chosen to compute weights to distribute the aggregate amount of tax across each industry using that product.
As stated the estimation is based on maintaining overall environment tax amounts from the NTL as control totals throughout the estimation procedure. The procedure itself follows the guidelines set out in the Eurostat publication, “Environmental taxes A statistical Guide, 2013 edition”. The Irish specific estimation procedure has been coded in SAS, this approach ensures the data and programming are maintained separately (unlike an Excel based solution). Thus new data that might involve revisions can be readily incorporated without contaminating the procedural aspects of the estimation. Accordingly the estimates are considered reliable and the overall accuracy is considered to be good.
Million Euro
The starting point for the estimation is the total amount of taxes paid in the National Tax List (NTL) that are classified as environment taxes.
For non-fuel ETEA taxes, the NTL tax base headings are associated with NACE Rev 2. product headings. The identification of individual tax bases by type of tax was accomplished jointly by National Account Division and Environment Division in CSO. For each tax the associated NACE Rev 2. product manufactured or service delivered that is primarily responsible for the tax burden is identified. The corresponding row in the Use Table (UT) is extracted and weights for each NACE Rev. 2 industry involved in making this product or delivering this service are computed and applied to the NTL figures.
Fuel taxes are designated as a type of Energy tax. Estimates of fuel taxes follow along similar lines to non-fuel taxes outlined above subject to a few notable differences. Firstly, the business versus household distribution of a Fuel tax is computed from Personal Consumption Expenditure data. For their own purposes PCE within the National Accounts separately allocate fuel taxes to businesses or households. We take the relative proportions of these amounts and apply it to each tax. The business portion of the tax is then estimated using CSO Business Energy Use survey data on fuel use by NACE.
The primary data source is Ireland's national tax list transmitted every year to Eurostat as a complement of table 9 of the ESA 2010 transmission programme.
Annual
Ireland submits data to Eurostat by the Regulation deadline of T+16 months. Eurostat disseminates data within about 24 months of the end of the reference year. Ireland normally publishes a national statistical release within 12 months of the reference year.
Only national level data are compiled by Ireland. However, use of this Eurostat manual and the checks by Eurostat naturally enhance the comparability between countries.
Comparability over time is high as the methodology for environmental taxes follows a well-defined standard. Comparable time series are available starting with 1995 reference year. Comparability over time is maintained via the use of the National Tax List for overall tax figures.
