# 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
Debtors' prison
Smuggling
Black market
Unreported employment
Corporate
Tax inversion
Transfer mispricing
Base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS)
Double Irish
Dutch Sandwich
Single Malt
CAIA
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
Eco-tariff
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
Resource rent
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
ATTAC
Currency transaction tax
European Union Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB)
Global minimum corporate tax rate
Robin Hood tax
Tobin tax
Spahn tax
Tax equalization
Tax treaty
Exchange of Information
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.“