Steering tax
# Steering tax

Part of a series on :

Taxation :

An aspect of fiscal policy :

Policies

Government revenue

Property tax equalization

Tax revenue

Non-tax revenue

Tax law

Tax bracket

Flat tax

Tax threshold

Exemption

Credit

Deduction

Tax shift

Tax cut

Tax holiday

Tax amnesty

Tax advantage

Tax incentive

Tax reform

Tax harmonization

Tax competition

Tax withholding

Double taxation

Representation

Unions

Medical savings account :

Economics

General Theory

Price effect

Excess burden

Tax incidence

Laffer curve

Optimal tax

Theories

Optimal capital income taxation

Distribution of Tax

Tax rate

Flat

Progressive

Regressive

Proportional :

Collection

Revenue service

Revenue stamp

Tax assessment

Taxable income

Tax lien

Tax refund

Tax shield

Tax residence

Tax preparation

Tax investigation

Tax shelter

Tax collector

Private tax collection

Tax farming :

Noncompliance

General

Tax avoidance

Repatriation tax avoidance

Tax evasion

Tax resistance

Tax shelter

Smuggling

Black market

Unreported employment

Corporate

Tax inversion

Transfer mispricing

Base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS)

Double Irish

Dutch Sandwich

Single Malt

CAIA/Green Jersey

Locations

Tax havens

Corporate havens

Offshore financial centres (OFCs)

Offshore magic circle

Conduit and sink OFCs

Financial centres

Financial Secrecy Index

Major examples

Ireland as a tax haven

Ireland v Commission

Leprechaun economics

Liechtenstein tax affair

Luxembourg Leaks

Offshore Leaks

Paradise Papers

Panama Papers

Swiss Leaks

United States as a tax haven

Panama as a tax haven :

Types

Direct

Indirect

Per unit

Ad valorem

Aviation

Airport improvement

Landing

Solidarity

Capital gains

Expatriation

Consumption

Departure

Hotel

Sales

Stamp

Television

Tourist

Value-added

Dividend

Environmental tax

Carbon

Landfill

Natural resources consumption

Severance

Steering

Stumpage

Excise

Alcohol

Cigarette

Fat

Meat

Sin

Sugary drink

Tobacco

General

Georgist

Gift

Gross receipts

Hypothecated

Income

Inheritance (estate)

Land value

Luxury

Payroll

Pigouvian

Property

Single

Surtax

Turnover

Use

User charge/fee

Congestion

Fuel

Road/GNSS

Toll

Vehicle miles traveled

Corporate profit

Excess profits

Windfall

Negative (income)

Wealth :

International

Financial transaction tax

Currency transaction tax

European Union Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB)

Global minimum corporate tax rate

Tobin tax

Spahn tax

Tax equalization

Tax treaty

Permanent establishment

Transfer pricing

European Union FTT

Foreign revenue rule :

Trade

Custom

Duty

Tariff

Import

Export

Tariff war

Free trade

Free-trade zone

Trade agreement

ATA Carnet :

Research

Academic

Mihir A. Desai

Dhammika Dharmapala

James R. Hines Jr.

Ronen Palan

Joel Slemrod

Gabriel Zucman

Advocacy groups

Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)

Oxfam (UK)

Tax Foundation (US)

Tax Justice Network (TJN)

Tax Policy Center (US) :

Religious

Church tax

Eight per thousand

Teind

Tithe

Fiscus Judaicus

Leibzoll

Temple tax

Tolerance tax

Jizya

Kharaj

Khums

Nisab

Zakat :

By country

All Countries

List of countries by tax rates

Tax revenue to GDP ratio

Tax rates in Europe

Individual Countries

Albania

Algeria

Argentina

Armenia

Australia

Azerbaijan

Bangladesh

Bhutan

Brazil

Bulgaria

BVI

Canada

China

Colombia

Croatia

Denmark

Finland

France

Germany

Greece

Hong Kong

Iceland

India

Indonesia

Iran

Ireland

Israel

Italy

Japan

Kazakhstan

Lithuania

Malta

Morocco

Namibia

Netherlands

New Zealand

Norway

Pakistan

Palestine

Peru

Philippines

Poland

Portugal

Russia

South Africa

Sri Lanka

Sweden

Switzerland

Taiwan

Tanzania

United Arab Emirates

United Kingdom

United States

Uruguay :

Business portal

 Money portal :

vte :

A steering tax or ecological incentive tax is a tax which aims to change the behaviour of the tax payer, as defined by lawmakers, and not particularly to increase tax revenue. The term is not sharply definable because many tax related laws influence buyer behaviour which is not always a wanted effect (compensation reaction). The Pigovian tax is a special case of a steering tax to avoid negative Externality. An ecological tax reform is often understood to refer to the introduction of a steering tax on energy use, according to the Polluter pays principle.

In other languages incentive taxes (or fees) are known as "de:Lenkungsabgabe" or "Lenkungs-Steuer" (Switzerland). Some of the eco-taxes ("Ökosteuer") in Germany and Austria are also steering taxes, in the sense of the originally intended Eco-social market economy.

The vehicle Excise Duty in Germany is an example of a steering tax. It is formulated in such a way that there is an incentive to invest in a new car which is as low polluting as possible. Cars with larger pollutant emissions pay a high tax compared to less polluting cars. Electric cars are tax free. In Germany and Switzerland it is legally clarified that the tax revenues should be used to promulgate, or "steer", the targeted behaviour change. The increase of earnings may be as long secondary aim as the rule has an objective earning relevance. This means that the tax may be as long be valid as a tax earning can be expected to take place and therefore the steering effect is justified.

If the aim of steering the payer's behaviour is successful, this means that the aim to increase tax revenues will be unsuccessful. The yield of tax revenue is reduced if the tax payers behave in the targeted way. For example, the consumption of cigarettes was quickly significantly reduced in Germany in 2004 by the increase of the tobacco tax.

## Redistribution of steering taxes to consumers and economy

There are also steering taxes like the de:Swiss VOC-fee (Incentive Tax on Volatile Organic Compounds),

which will be completely distributed amongst the population. In this case there is no aim to increase tax revenues at all. The ideal goal of such a refund is the creation of positive incentives: People will be rewarded when they behave in the wanted way. If, for example they reduce the emission of greenhouse gases or environmentally dangerous pollutants and reduce their Ecological footprint, they get back an ecological bonus (German: Ökobonus), because with the consumption of non-taxed environmentally friendly products, they pay less eco-taxes than the Green-Cheque is per capita: The amount of the eco-bonus is independent from the energy consumption of the individual recipients. In the words of a publication of the European Environment Agency: “A Swiss study (INFRAS/ECOPLAN, 1998), which investigated the economic and social impacts of different energy tax schemes, showed that redistributing revenues in the form of a per capita bonus is the most progressive option for an Environmental-tax-reform and creates the most beneficial social effects, although it leads to slightly negative effects on economic development.” The repayment of steering taxes is often named fiscal subsidy. If this is accurate depends if one believes a steering tax is used solely as a direct transfer of public funds to private persons, or if they are seen as a relinquishment of state earnings to realize Fiscal neutrality for this market-based environmental policy instrument. The official wording of the German federal government for such a revenue abstinence is "subsidy related matters of fact".

“The recycling [or redistribution of steering tax-] revenues is especially important for the acceptability, and equity of the tax reforms.” But a difficulty for the political system is, that Opinion polls have shown that the redistribution aspect of eco-taxes “is very poorly understood by a large majority of the population.“

