Packaging / Advertising & Office

Recently, the Spanish legislature has approved a new tax on single-use, non-reusable plastic packaging, which will take effect from January 1, 2023. The new tax is wide-ranging, levied at 0.45 euros per kilogram of non-recyclable plastic packaging, and is expected to generate around 724 million euros a year for the government.

This tax rate is similar to the new plastic packaging tax approved in Italy, which is also expected to come into effect on January 1, 2023.

However, compared to the plastic packaging tax already in effect in the UK from 1 April 2022, there are still bigger differences.

The new tax will affect most industrial and consumer goods businesses: applies to the manufacture, import and living area purchases of non-recyclable plastic packaging that end up in the Spanish market; covers (empty) packaging material itself and transactions in packaging products; applies to primary, Secondary and tertiary packaging.