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Environmental protection tax implementation enterprises will face up to five times the fine and bear criminal responsibility for tax evasion

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core tip: from January 1 this year, China's first "green tax law" - the environmental protection tax law of the people's Republic of China, has been implemented. For air pollutants, water pollutants, solid waste and noise, In the past, the Environmental Protection Department collected the pollution discharge fee, but now the tax department collects the environmental protection tax

[China Packaging News] since January 1 this year, China's first "green tax law" - the environmental protection tax law of the people's Republic of China has been implemented. For air pollutants, water pollutants, solid waste and noise, in the past, the Environmental Protection Department collected pollution charges, but now the tax department collects environmental protection taxes

what impact will this change bring to enterprises and society? How will the environmental protection tax be levied? How is the preparation for collection? Extensive surveys were conducted in many regions and enterprises

forced enterprises to transform and upgrade

improved the coordination mechanism of major technology and equipment

less emissions and taxes, and the power of enterprises to save energy and reduce emissions has increased greatly

located in Laicheng District, Laiwu City, central Shandong Province, the northern zone is an iron and steel and chemical production industrial zone, and the southern mountain area is a cement production concentration area, which is not only a key area of environmental governance, but also a key area of environmental tax collection. At the end of December 2017, the environmental protection tax was about to be levied. Laicheng branch of Laiwu Local Taxation Bureau organized personnel to investigate these key enterprises to understand the energy conservation and emission reduction of enterprises

"when the environmental protection tax law was reviewed and approved in December 2016, we began to ponder how to strengthen energy conservation and emission reduction and strive to pay less taxes." In Lianyun Cement Co., Ltd., Li Yong, the manager of the production department, pointed to a row of cement abrasive units and said that the company had invested 20million yuan in technological transformation in the past year, reducing the discharge of stains by half. At the same time, 18 large bag dust collectors with better dust collection effect were newly installed at the existing 18 sewage discharge points, and the dust collection efficiency was increased from 98% to 99.9%

Jiuyang group is an iron and steel enterprise with an annual output value of 20billion yuan, and it is also a major emitter. "The introduction of environmental protection tax is to force enterprises to transform and upgrade and promote the transformation of old and new kinetic energy, which is consistent with our development ideas." Xu Yingqiang, the chairman of the company, said that the company eliminated 1million tons of backward production capacity and added 1.5 million tons of special steel production capacity. At the same time, environmental protection and energy-saving equipment were accelerated to ensure that compared with the original sewage charges, less sewage and less taxes were paid

"the environmental protection tax establishes a positive emission reduction incentive mechanism of more emissions and more taxes, less emissions and less taxes, no emissions and no taxes, and high current risk and low risk and less taxes, which is conducive to guiding enterprises to increase energy conservation and emission reduction." Caizili, director of the property and behavior tax department of the State Administration of Taxation, introduced that on the one hand, the environmental protection tax is levied according to the emissions of pollution factors with the same degree of harm. The more emissions, the more taxes; On the other hand, the environmental protection tax sets differentiated pollution equivalent values for pollution factors with different degrees of harm, so as to realize more taxes on high-risk pollution factors

taking air pollutants as an example, the same amount of harmful "formaldehyde" is discharged, and the environmental protection tax is 24 times that of ordinary "soot". This policy treatment is conducive to guiding enterprises to improve their processes and reduce the emission of pollutants, especially high-risk pollutants

according to Article 13 of the environmental protection tax law, if the concentration of taxable air pollutants or water pollutants discharged by taxpayers is lower than 30% of the emission standard, the environmental protection tax shall be levied at a reduced rate of 75%; If it is lower than 50% of the emission standard, the environmental protection tax shall be levied at a reduced rate of 50%

this collection mechanism has brought about a change in the development thinking of enterprises, and energy conservation and emission reduction has become a "profitable" thing

"we began to carry out ultra-low emission transformation in 2016, and the transformation of four units was completed in July 2017. The emission of smoke, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides was further reduced, and the tax cost could be reduced by about 1.5 million yuan per year." Yong Xuemei, head of Finance Department of Huaneng Yantai Power Generation Co., Ltd., said

with the full levy of environmental protection tax, some large emitters expressed concern about the operating costs, but also recognized the flexible tax reduction mechanism of environmental protection tax. Deng Shengli, the chief financial officer of Jiangxi Tianhang Chemical Co., Ltd., said, "levying environmental protection tax will make enterprises face certain pressure in the short term. However, as enterprises strengthen energy conservation and emission reduction, adjust the industrial structure of enterprises, and promote product transformation and upgrading, they can reduce tax costs and ultimately achieve a win-win situation for enterprises and society."

"from the perspective of the requirements of establishing a green tax system, China has long lacked special taxes for pollution emissions and damage to the ecological environment, which limits the correction of tax on pollution and damage to the environment and weakens the ecological environment protection role of tax." Liu Shangxi, President of the Chinese Academy of financial Sciences, believes that the imposition of environmental protection tax increases the means of the government to protect the environment, is conducive to forming a joint force with other means of protecting the ecological environment, and gives play to the synergy of environmental governance. Through the legislative process of environmental protection tax, it also enhances the social awareness of environmental protection and strengthens the role of enterprises in pollution control and emission reduction

determine the tax amount according to local conditions

all taxes are left to local finance to mobilize local enthusiasm for pollution control

in addition to paying attention to the collection mechanism of environmental protection tax, enterprises and society are also very concerned about the specific collection amount of environmental protection tax

Cai Zili said that in accordance with the principle of Institutional Shift and the requirements of adjusting measures to local conditions, the environmental protection tax has adopted a dynamic adjustment mechanism of "the state sets the bottom line, and the local can rise" in determining the specific tax amount

specifically, the tax law takes the current air and water pollutant discharge fee collection standard as the lower limit of unit tax, and authorizes the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government to comprehensively consider the local environmental carrying capacity, the current situation of pollutant discharge and the requirements of economic, social and ecological development goals, "floating the applicable tax" to meet the actual needs of environmental governance in different regions

the lower limit of tax prescribed by the environmental protection tax law is: 1.2 yuan per pollution equivalent of air pollutants and 1.4 yuan per pollution equivalent of water pollutants; The upper limit of tax is no more than 10 times of the minimum standard

all provinces have issued tax standards in line with the actual situation of the region in accordance with the authorization of the tax law. Taking the Beijing Tianjin Hebei region, where environmental problems are more prominent, as an example, Beijing has determined the applicable tax in this region according to the upper limit of 10 times, that is, the applicable tax for air and water pollutants is 12 yuan and 14 yuan per pollution equivalent respectively; Hebei Province has determined the applicable tax for most of the water pollutants in the 13 counties around Beijing according to 8 times the minimum standard. It is worth mentioning that the voting draft implemented by Beijing in accordance with the upper limit of the environmental protection tax law was unanimously approved

Liaoning, Jilin, Jiangxi, Shaanxi and other provinces have implemented the minimum standard, that is, 1.2 yuan and 1.4 yuan per pollution equivalent respectively

Hu Qiang, director of Jiangxi Provincial Department of finance, said that the adoption of the minimum value stipulated by the state is mainly due to the fact that Jiangxi's economic and social development is still in an underdeveloped stage, which is conducive to promoting the innovative development, transformation and upgrading of enterprises. In the future, it may be appropriately adjusted according to the provincial environmental quality indicators and the actual collection of environmental protection tax according to legal procedures

some other provinces have adopted moderate taxes. For example, Jiangsu stipulates that the taxes for air and water pollutants are 4.8 yuan and 5.6 yuan per pollution equivalent respectively, and Sichuan is 3.9 yuan and 2.8 yuan respectively. Yunnan Province stipulates that this year's tax is 1.2 yuan for air pollutants and 1.4 yuan for water pollutants; From January 2019, the implementation tax will be increased to 2.8 yuan for air pollutants and 3.5 yuan for water pollutants

in order to promote local protection and improvement of the environment and increase investment in environmental protection, the State Council decided that all environmental protection taxes should be regarded as local income. Previously, the revenue division principle of 1:9 sharing between the central and local governments was implemented after the sewage charge was levied

"as local revenue, environmental protection tax can mobilize local enthusiasm and enable local governments to prevent and control environmental pollution more effectively." Lu Kun, director of the third division of tax administration of Beijing Local Taxation Bureau, said that in 2016, Beijing's sewage charge revenue was 613 million yuan, but the investment in air pollution control reached 16.56 billion yuan, and the investment in water resources protection reached 17.66 billion yuan, which was far higher than the amount of sewage charges. Determining the tax standard from a high level fully reflects the principle of "Whoever pollutes, who governs", which is conducive to strengthening polluters

the rigidity of tax law enforcement is strengthened

enterprises that evade taxes will face the highest fines and promote the transformation and upgrading of many industries, and even bear criminal penalties

from sewage charges to environmental protection taxes is not a simple name change, but an all-round change from system design to specific implementation

"tax is more rigid than fee." Wang Gang, the environmental protection director of Huaneng Dalian Power Plant, first felt that the illegal cost had increased

according to the law of our country, if an enterprise is found to have evaded taxes, the tax authorities will pursue the taxes and late fees that the enterprise did not pay or underpaid, and impose a fine of more than 50% and less than 5 times the corresponding taxes. If a crime is constituted, it will also be investigated for criminal responsibility. "Especially for listed companies, once there is a negative tax, it will seriously affect the company's share price, and the cost of violating the tax law is higher." Wang Gang said

previously, the regulations on the administration of the collection and use of pollutant discharge fees only provided for a fine of less than three times and ordered the suspension of production and business for rectification, which was significantly insufficient in the actual implementation of the false report, concealment, refusal to pay and other circumstances of enterprises' pollutant discharge fees

"the difference between 'fee' and 'tax' reflects that the central government has increased its determination and efforts to speed up the construction of ecological civilization." Sun Shuliang, director of Laizhou Local Taxation Bureau in Shandong Province, said that the greatest significance of the environmental protection tax law is that it establishes the principle of "polluter pays" in the form of law. The tax department strictly enforces the law according to the legal provisions, and paying more taxes for more emissions has become a restrictive factor for the rigidity of enterprise production

not only that, the transformation from "fee" to "tax" also has great institutional significance. "Charging and tax collection are both fiscal behaviors of the government, but they are different in nature. Charges with tax nature should be transformed into taxes, which helps to standardize the government revenue system and optimize the fiscal revenue structure." Cai Zili said

in terms of tax collection and management, the pollution discharge fee is changed to environmental protection tax, and the collection department is changed from environmental protection department to tax authority. Due to the considerable professionalism of environmental monitoring, it is a huge challenge for the tax department. "Sometimes when calculating the quantity of a pollutant, it is impossible to write down a single page of A4 paper." Zhan Jun, director of the safety and environmental protection department of yishanhua Petrochemical Co., Ltd., said

"environmental protection tax takes pollutants as the tax object, which cannot be directly audited and taxed, and is significantly different from other taxes." Cai Zili said that pollutant emissions are instantaneous, hidden and mobile. The collection of environmental protection tax has high professional and technical requirements for pollutant emission monitoring, which cannot be separated from the cooperation of environmental protection departments. To this end, all parties in the environmental protection tax law have scientifically set up a new tax collection and management mechanism of "tax collection and management, enterprise declaration, environmental protection and monitoring of mechanical properties of metals and nonmetals at the same time, information sharing, and collaborative governance"

in July 2017, the State Administration of Taxation and the Ministry of environmental protection signed the memorandum on the coordination mechanism of environmental protection tax collection and management, strengthening departmental cooperation and clarifying the division of responsibilities. The Ministry of finance, the State Administration of Taxation and the Ministry of environmental protection subsequently jointly issued a notice requiring all localities to comprehensively