Plastic Tax: Italy

The plastic tax in Italy was introduced by the Budget Law 2020 (Law No. 160/2019) and intended to come into force in July 2020. Nevertheless, the date of enforcement was subject to several postponements due to the bursting of the Covid-19 pandemic: first the date was moved to 1 January 2021, then to 1 July 2021 and again to 1 January 2022. 

 

Former, the Budget Law 2022 (Law no. 234/2021) imposed the plastic tax to come into effect in Italy at January 2023: no further deferrals were foreseen until November 2022, so for the time being it was believed that January 2023 will be the effective date of entry into force.

 

With the draft of Budget law for 2023, the Council of Ministers, held on Nov. 22. 2022, has provided the deferral of Plastic Tax to January 2024. In the meantime, with the law No. 197 of 29 December 2022 (so called Budget Law 2023) the entry into force of the Plastic Tax has been deferred to 1 January 2024. 

  

Last UPDATE of May 2024: Most recently, the EU Plastic Tax is postponed again to July 2026 by the Italian Government and Sugar Tax is postponed to July 2025.​

 

Article 1, paragraphs 634 – 658, of Law No. 160/2019 lays down the subjective and objective requirements, scope of application of the plastic tax, as well as obligations and penalties applicable. Moreover, the draft of the implementing measure of the Customs and Monopolies Agency has been published: Although this does not constitute a definitive document, it already allows a partial understanding of the concrete and operative aspects of daily relevance, such as the detailed content of the quarterly declaration and the reimbursement modalities. 

 

In Italy, the plastic tax is intended as a measure to discourage the consumption of single-use plastic products named “MACSI”, which is the acronym for Manufatti in plastica con singolo impiego, i.e. Single-Use Plastic Manufactures. 

 

The determination of the person liable to pay the plastic tax is based on where the MACSI are produced, on where they are consumed, as well as on the nature of the person (i.e. whether the person is a private consumer or not). 

 

More in detail, the liable taxpayer is:

 

In this regard, it is relevant to mention that there is the possibility to ask for a refund on the amount of tax paid on the purchase of MACSI which is eventually not intended for the domestic market. 

 

The tax consists of a charge of EUR 0.45 for each kilogram of plastic contained in the single-use product, i.e. MACSI.

 

Law 160/2019 defines MACSI as those manufactured products that possess two key features:

 

This definition gathers end products for the closure and marketing of other manufactured products, but also semi-finished products used in the production of MACSI and preforms, which are the result of the moulding of PET and are intended to become containers by a blowing process. Therefore, taxation occurs at each stage of MACSI production, as the tax is not only levied on the finished Single-Use product and thus consumption thereof, but also on the semi-finished product and the preform. 

 

In this regard, the Law (Article 1, paragraph 644 of Law No. 160/2019) permits the indication of the quantities of the plastic materials contained in MACSI used for the realization of other MACSI, thus resulting in the deduction from the tax base of such plastic amounts on which the tax has already been paid by other liable parties.

Several parties did not welcome the introduction of plastic tax, arguing that a maneuver of this magnitude, especially in a context of increasing inflationary pressure, leads to further price increases and job losses, with negative repercussions on both the plastics industry and the beverage sector. With reference to the latter, it was Assobibe, the Italian association of soft drinks producers, that protested most strongly against the introduction of the plastic tax. The reason is that although consumption shows a positive trend after 2020, it is still far from pre-pandemic levels. Compared to 2019, overall purchases have decreased by 6 percent. For 2022, only a slight drop in consumption (-0.4 percent) is currently forecast, but if the contagions resume after the summer and new restrictions become necessary, the estimated drop in sales could reach as much as 2.3 percent. 

 

The actual concern is that if this contraction were to be immediately followed by the entry into force of the plastic tax in January 2024 as updated by law now, the overall decline would be far sharper, thus resulting in excessive damage to the industry.

 

The possibility of exclusion is strictly regulated. Indeed, the only plastic articles intended for single use that are excluded from the scope of the plastic tax are MACSI that are certified as compostable, MACSI that do constitute medical devices and other MACSI used to contain and protect medicinal preparations. In addition, there is a minimum exemption threshold of EUR 25, meaning that if the tax due does not exceed this threshold, neither the declaration nor the payment are required.

The applicable sanctions are to be distinguished according to the following cases:

 

Law No. 160/2019 sets the obligation to submit the declaration and pay the tax to the Italian customs and monopolies agency at quarterly intervals. The deadline for both filing of the declaration and settlement of the tax due is the end of the month following the closing of the quarter. The appointment of a tax representative in Italy for liable non-resident entities is in any case mandatory in order to properly file the declaration and pay the plastic tax.

 

Draft of quarterly declaration forms have been published, showing the list of requested information to be rather extended. For instance, EU purchasers and transferors will have to indicate the quantity (in kg or number of products) and the total number of invoices related to the total purchased MACSI, specifying the total kg of virgin and recycled plastic raw material contained. 

 

As far as the refunding procedure is concerned, the drafted implementing document of the customs and monopolies agency provides useful insights. The formal request for refund must be submitted by the transferor or exporter and copies of both purchase invoices proving the tax has been paid and the documentation proving the export or intra-EU transfer of the MACSI must be necessarily attached.