Companies that operate with plastic are encountering serious doubts about how to apply and pay the new tax on non-recycled packaging. Is this product affected? How do I declare an import? What if the material comes from outside the EU? These are problems that have arisen during the first month of application of the tax in different economic sectors, but especially in distribution and logistics. Those affected, who in their day already raised their voices about the additional costs that the rate would imply, are collectively addressing the Tax Agency, which is resolving dozens of questions, some binding, on a daily basis. There will be no specific regulation, as the sectors demand.
There are clear areas of application of the tax. Fruit or vegetable containers, for example, or the film that covers certain packages of the automobile chain. But there are others where companies do not have anything defined. This is the case of products that could not be marketed without the existence of a container, such as pens or coffee capsules, or those imported from Asia contained in recycled plastic, for which certification is required. In this case, companies are having to resort to their suppliers to be able to prove said recycling, explains Cinta Bosch, sustainability manager of the association of manufacturers and distributors, Aecoc.
Problems have also arisen with companies whose headquarters are in Europe and have a logistics center in Spain. In these cases, the payment of the tax depends on which company issues the invoices, adds Bosch.
The tax rate to be applied is 0.45 euros per kilogram of plastic but in practice, the rate has "tremendous gaps" that generate "chaos" also in the agri-food sector, points out, for its part, the national association of large distribution companies, Anged. Pedro Barato, president of the Asaja agrarian organization, corroborates that, although ranchers and farmers are clear about its application, wineries and bottling companies are the ones who are expressing the most problems.
The Treasury assumes the inconveniences that implementing a new tax entails for companies and is multiplying its efforts to offer all possible information, they explain from the Tax Agency. The Treasury has activated a digital counter, a direct contact tool between the taxpayer and the ministry's technicians to resolve all these doubts. Those affected can request a personal call or schedule it at a certain time. From the department of María Jesús Montero they emphasize that these special assistants are used for various tax issues and that in this case it has been seen as appropriate to activate it to resolve doubts.
The first settlement of the plastic tax can be made from today. However, the Treasury enabled a transitional period so that companies can present the complex, mandatory accounting of the rate. The Tax Agency offers a moratorium, already contemplated in the law itself, of six months.
