Circular of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the State Administration of Taxation of the M

                                                                                Finance and Taxation (2018) No. 117 2018-10-25

Department of Finance (Bureau) and Department of Environmental Protection (Bureau) of Provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and Municipalities separately under the State Administration of Taxation Bureau of Taxation of provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and municipalities separately under the State Administration of Taxation Bureau of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Finance Bureau and Environmental Protection Bureau:

In order to ensure the effective implementation of the Environmental Protection Tax Law of the People's Republic of China and its implementing Regulations, the following notices are hereby made concerning the collection of environmental protection tax:

I. The application of taxable pollutants

The particulate matter in the exhaust gas produced by combustion shall be subject to environmental protection tax in accordance with soot. The discharge of dust, industrial dust and other particulate matter, except for soot dust, asbestos dust, glass wool dust and carbon black dust, shall be subject to environmental protection tax in accordance with general dust.

2. On the application of tax relief

Domestic waste incineration power plants, domestic waste landfilling sites and domestic waste composting plants established according to law are places for centralized treatment of domestic waste, and where the discharge of taxable pollutants does not exceed the discharge standards stipulated by the state and local authorities, they shall be exempted from environmental protection tax according to law. Where the concentration value of taxable air pollutants and water pollutants discharged from any of the discharge outlets or the concentration value of taxable air pollutants discharged from no discharge outlet exceeds the pollutant discharge standards prescribed by the State or the local authorities, the environmental protection tax shall not be reduced according to law.

3.Monitoring and calculation of the amount of taxable pollutants discharged

(1) Where taxpayers are required to install automatic monitoring equipment for pollutants and connect with the competent department of ecological environment according to regulations, when the automatic monitoring equipment fails, equipment maintenance, starting and stopping the furnace, and shutdown, etc., The data status should be marked in accordance with relevant laws and regulations and the "Technical Specification for Continuous Monitoring of fixed Pollution Sources flue Gas (SO2, NOx, Particulate Matter) Emissions" (HJ75-2017), "Technical Specification for Data Validity Discrimination of Water Pollution Sources Online Monitoring System" (HJ/T356-2007) and other provisions. In addition, the pollutant emissions in the period of missing data and invalid data are modified and replaced, and the taxable pollutant emissions are calculated according to the marked and processed automatic monitoring data. Where the relevant taxpayers fail to provide the automatic monitoring data in line with the state regulations and monitoring standards for the current month, the amount of taxable pollutants discharged shall be calculated according to the pollutant discharge coefficient and the material balance calculation method. The method for monitoring and calculating the amount of taxable pollutants discharged by taxpayers in industries included in the management of pollutant emission permits shall be implemented in accordance with the requirements of the management of pollutant emission permits.

Taxpayers who take the initiative to install and use automatic monitoring equipment for pollutants in line with state regulations and monitoring standards, but are not connected with the competent department of ecological environment, may calculate the amount of taxable pollutants according to the automatic monitoring data; Where the automatic monitoring data conforming to the State regulations and monitoring standards cannot be provided, the amount of taxable pollutants discharged shall be calculated according to the monitoring data conforming to the monitoring standards issued by the monitoring institution or the pollutant discharge coefficient or the material balance calculation method.

(2) Where a taxpayer entrusts a monitoring institution to monitor the discharge of taxable pollutants, it shall formulate a monitoring plan in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State, and submit the monitoring data and materials to the competent department of ecological environment in a timely manner. The monitoring items, methods, time limits and frequency carried out by the monitoring institutions shall conform to the relevant provisions of the State and the requirements of monitoring standards. The monitoring report issued by the monitoring institution shall include the types and concentration values of the taxable water pollutants and the flow rate of sewage; Types, concentration values, emission rates and flue gases of taxable air pollutants; Information such as pollutant discharge standards and discharge concentration limits implemented. The monitoring institutions shall be responsible for the authenticity and legality of the monitoring data, and shall be investigated for legal responsibility in accordance with relevant laws and regulations if the monitoring data are found to be falsified.

Taxpayers who adopt the method of entrusted monitoring and have no monitoring data in that month within the prescribed monitoring time limit may continue to use the latest monitoring data to calculate the amount of taxable pollutants discharged, but may not continue to use monitoring data across quarters. Taxpayers who apply for exemption or reduction of environmental protection tax using the monitoring data issued by the monitoring institutions shall obtain the monitoring data of the month in which the declaration is made; If there is no monitoring data in the current month, the environmental protection tax shall not be reduced or exempted. Where the monitored concentration value of the pollutant is lower than the detection limit of the pollutant specified by the competent department of ecological and environmental protection, the discharge of the pollutant shall be regarded as zero, unless there are special management requirements. Where the competent department of ecological environment or the competent department of measurement discovers that the entrusted monitoring data are distorted or fraudulent, the tax authorities shall calculate the amount of taxable pollutants in accordance with the supervisory monitoring data or the pollutant discharge coefficient or the material balance calculation method within the same tax payment period.

(3) where taxable atmospheric pollutants are discharged unorganized in the process of construction, loading, unloading and stockpiling of goods, the amount of taxable pollutants discharged shall be calculated in accordance with the pollutant discharge coefficient and the material balance calculation method prescribed by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment; Where the pollutant discharge coefficient and material balance calculation method prescribed by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment cannot be calculated, the discharge of taxable pollutants shall be verified and calculated according to the sampling calculation method prescribed by the competent ecological and environmental departments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government.

(4) Taxpayers who are subject to administrative penalties for environmental violations shall, according to relevant laws and regulations and penalty information, calculate the amount of taxable pollutants discharged in the period to which the violations belong. Where the competent department of ecological environment finds that the information declared by the taxpayer is wrong, it shall notify the tax authorities to deal with it.

Iv. Coordination on environmental protection tax collection and management

Tax and ecological environment authorities at all levels should accelerate the construction and improvement of tax-related information sharing platforms, further standardize the data items, exchange frequency and data format of tax-related information exchange, and improve the timeliness and accuracy of tax-related information exchange, so as to ensure the smooth operation of environmental protection tax collection and management.

Ministry of Ecology and Environment, State Administration of Finance and Taxation

October 25, 2018