Article 18 of the 2012 Finance Act has established an exceptional tax, due in 2012, on companies subject to the greenhouse gas emission allowance system intended to finance the purchase of new allowances for new installations. The taxpayers of the tax, due as from 1 January 2012, are legal entities which:
- exploit one or several installations the activity of which comes under one of the categories provided for by appendix I of directive 2003/87/EC of the 13 October 2003 (oil refining, production of cast iron, steel, paper, glass, ammonia, etc.),
- and received pursuant to the period between the 1 January 2008 and the 31 December 2012, at least 60,000 greenhouse gas emission allowances.
The rate of the tax will be set by Ministerial decision within the limits of 0.03% and 0.07%. The tax base is established by the total amount (VAT excluded) of deliveries of goods and services made in 2011 by taxpayers. The tax will be capped at a sum equal to the product of the total number of emission allowances allocated from the 1 January 2008 to the 31 December 2012, by 6.18 Euros.
The declaration will be made on the appendix to the CA3 declaration of the month of March, or the first quarter of 2012 or pursuant to the third month that follows the allocation date of the allowances, for companies that are allocated an allowance after the 1 January 2012 and payment of the tax will be made simultaneously.
