Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) taxes have seen an exponential growth in the past four years, alongside increasing awareness of ecological and conservation agendas. Alongside e-invoicing mandates, Kofax has been monitoring the ESG landscape in Europe and beyond. Today, it forms a part of our wider solution, and Kofax supports plastic tax initiatives in the United Kingdom and Spain today.

Germany has also been considering an imposition of the plastic tax. The levy which was to be enforced on the use of single-use plastic tax in Germany will now, however, be delayed to 1 January 2025. The initiative, referred to as EWKFondG, is Germany’s take on the EU Single-Use Plastic Directive, which is in the process of being translated into German domestic legislation.

The tax will be imposed on specific items, including containers, cups and drink holders, wet wipes and bags and will be charged on a per kilogram basis, which provides it with a similar infrastructure to plastic taxes operational today. Businesses must report annually on impacted products and calculate tax payable.

Kofax will consider its obligations in respect of the tax.

Kofax is also currently occupied following the upcoming B2B e-invoicing mandate in Germany. You can read more about that here.