Order of the State Council
(No. 693)
The Regulation on the Implementation of the Environmental Protection Tax Law of the People's Republic of China is hereby issued, and shall come into force on January 1, 2018.
Premier: Li Keqiang
December 25, 2017

Regulation on the Implementation of the Environmental Protection Tax Law of China 

Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1 This Regulation is developed in accordance with the Environmental Protection Tax Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the “Environmental Protection Tax Law”).
Article 2 The specific scope of “other solid waste” as referred to in the Table of Taxable Items and Amount of Environmental Protection Tax attached to the Environmental Protection Tax Law shall be determined according to the procedures as specified in paragraph 2 of Article 6 of the Environmental Protection Tax Law.
Article 3 “Urban and rural centralized sewage treatment places” as referred to in paragraph 1 of Article 5, and item (3) of paragraph 1 of Article 12 of the Environmental Protection Tax Law means the places that provide the public with domestic sewage treatment services, excluding the places that provide sewage treatment services for enterprises, public institutions and other producers and distributors within industrial parks, development zones and other industry cluster regions, and the sewage treatment places built by enterprises, public institutions and other producers and distributors for their own use.
Article 4 The livestock and poultry farms that reach the scale standards determined by the provincial people's governments and havepollutant discharge outlets shall pay environmental protection tax according to the law. The comprehensive utilization and harmless treatment of livestock and poultry waste conducted according to the law do not fall within the scope of directly discharging pollutants to the environment, and thus shall not be subject to environmental protection tax.
Chapter II Taxation Basis
Article 5 The taxation basis for taxable solid waste shall be determined on the basis of the discharges of solid waste. The discharges of solid waste shall be the balance after deducting the storage quantity, disposal quantity, and comprehensive utilization quantity of taxable solid waste in the current period from the output of taxable solid waste in the current period.
“Storage quantity and disposal quantity of solid waste” as referred to in the preceding paragraph means the quantity of solid waste stored or disposed of at the facilities or places that meet the national and local environmental protection standards; and the “quantity of comprehensive utilization of solid waste” means the quantity of solid waste utilized in a comprehensive manner in accordance with the requirements for the comprehensive utilization of resources of the development and reform administrative department and the industry and information technology administrative department of the State Council and the national and local environmental protection standards.
Article 6 Where a taxpayer falls under any of the following circumstances, the output of its taxable solid waste in the current period shall be taken as the discharges of solid waste:
(1) Illegally dumping taxable solid waste.
(2) Filing false tax returns.
Article 7 The taxable basis for taxable air pollutants and water pollutants shall be determined on the basis of the pollution equivalent converted from pollutant discharges.
Where a taxpayer falls under any of the following circumstances, the output of its taxable air pollutants and water pollutants in the current period shall be taken as the discharges of pollutants:
(1) Failing to legally install and use automatic monitoring equipment for pollutants, or failing to interconnect automatic monitoring equipment for pollutants with the monitoring equipment of the environmental protection administrative department.
(2) Destroying or moving or changing without authorization the automatic monitoring equipment for pollutants.
(3) Tampering with or forging pollutant monitoring data.
(4) Illegally discharging taxable pollutants through underground pipelines, seepage wells, seepage pits, pouring, or discharging after dilution, or by improperly operating pollution prevention and control facilities or other means.
(5) Filing false tax returns.
Article 8 Where taxable pollutants are discharged from two or more discharge outlets, the environmental protection tax on the taxable pollutants discharged from each discharge outlet shall be calculated and collected respectively. Where a taxpayer holds a pollutant discharge license, its pollutant discharge outlets shall be determined according to those specified in the pollutant discharge license.
Article 9 Where the monitoring data obtained by a taxpayer that falls under the circumstance as specified in item (2) of Article 10 of the Environmental Protection Tax Law from monitoring pollutants on its own initiative complies with the relevant provisions and monitoring specifications of the state, such data shall be deemed as the monitoring data issued by the monitoring institution as specified in item (2) of Article 10 of the Environmental Protection Tax Law.
Chapter III Tax Reduction and Exemption
Article 10 “Concentration of the taxable air pollutants or water pollutants” as referred to in Article 13 of the Environmental Protection Tax Law means the average of the hourlyaverage concentration of the taxable air pollutants or the average of the dailyaverage concentrationof the taxable water pollutants automatically monitored by the automatic monitoring equipment for pollutants installed and used by a taxpayer in the current month, or the average concentration of taxable air pollutants or taxable water pollutants monitored by the monitoring institution in the current month.
Where environmental protection tax is collected at a reduced rate in accordance with the provisions of Article 13 of the Environmental Protection Tax Law, neither the hourly average concentration of the taxable air pollutants or the dailyaverage concentration of the taxable water pollutants as specified in the preceding paragraph, nor the concentration of the taxable air pollutants or taxable water pollutants monitored each time by the monitoring institution in the current month shall exceed the pollutant discharge standard as prescribed by the state or the local area.
Article 11 Where environmental protection tax is collected at a reduced rate in accordance with the provisions of Article 13 of the Environmental Protection Tax Law, the relevant environmental protection taxes on different taxable pollutants discharged from each discharge outlet shall be calculated respectively.
Chapter IV Tax Collection Administration
Article 12 Tax authorities shall perform the duties of accepting the filing of environmental protection tax returns, comparing tax-related information and organizing the payment of relevant taxes to the state treasury, among others.
Environmental protection administrative departments shall take charge of the monitoring and administration of taxable pollutants according to the law, and develop and improve pollutant monitoring specifications.
Article 13 Local people's governments at or above the county level shall strengthen the leadership of the administration of collection of environmental protection tax, and coordinate and solve major issues arising during the administration of collection of environmental protection tax in a timely manner.
Article 14 The taxation and environmental protection administrative departments of the State Council shall develop the technical standards for tax-related information sharing platforms and the specifications for data collection, storage, transmission, inquiry and use.
Article 15 Environmental protection administrative departments shall, through tax-related information sharing platforms, submit to tax authorities the following information obtained during the supervision and administration of environmental protection:
(1) Names and unified social credit codes of pollutant discharging entities, pollutant discharge outlets, varieties of pollutants discharged and other basic information.
(2) Pollutant discharge data of pollutant discharging entities (including pollutant discharges, the concentrations of air pollutants and water pollutants and other data).
(3) Violations of environmental laws by pollutant discharging entities and administrative penalties thereon.
(4) Review opinions on the abnormal data materials on the filing of tax returns by any taxpayer or on taxpayers' failure to file tax returns within a prescribed time limit of which the tax authorities request review.
(5) Other information that shall be submitted as decided through consultation with tax authorities.
Article 16 Tax authorities shall, through the tax-related information sharing platforms, submit the following tax-related information on environmental protection to the environmental protection administrative departments:
(1) Basic information on taxpayers.
(2) Information on filing of tax returns.
(3) Information on payment of taxes into the state treasury, amount of tax relief, taxes in arrears, and doubtful risk points, among others.
(4) Taxpayers' violations of tax laws and the imposition of administrative penalties thereon.
(5) Information on the abnormal data materials on the filing of tax returns by any taxpayer or taxpayers' failure to file tax returns within a prescribed time limit.
(6) Other information that shall be submitted as decided through consultation with environmental protection administrative departments.
Article 17 “Places of discharge of taxable pollutants” as referred to in Article 17 of the Environmental Protection Tax Law means:
(1) the places where the discharge outlets of taxable air pollutants and taxable water pollutants are located;
(2) the place where taxable solid waste is generated; and
(3) the place where taxable noise is produced.
Article 18 Where taxpayers discharge taxable pollutants across regions and tax authorities have disputes over the jurisdiction of tax collection, all parties to the disputes shall settle such disputes through consultation under the principle of being conducive to tax collection administration; and if consensus cannot be reached through consultation, relevant matters shall be reported to their common superior tax authorities for decision-making.
Article 19 Tax authorities shall identify taxpayers based on the information on the pollutant discharging entities submitted by the environmental protection administrative departments according to the law.
Where the corresponding information of a taxpayer is not included in the information on pollutant discharging entities submitted by the environmental protection administrative department, the tax authority shall identify the taxpayer when the taxpayer files environmental protection tax returns for the first time, and submit the relevant information to the environmental protection administrative department.
Article 20 Where an environmental protection administrative department finds the taxable pollutant discharge information declared by a taxpayer or the applicable pollution discharging coefficient and materials balance method is wrong, it shall be notified to the tax authority for handling.
Article 21 Where the pollutant discharge data declared by a taxpayer is inconsistent with the relevant data submitted by the environmental protection administrative department, the taxation basis for taxable pollutants shall be determined on the basis of the data submitted by the environmental protection administrative department.
Article 22 “The data materials on the filing of tax returns by any taxpayer are abnormal” as referred to in paragraph 2 of Article 20 of the Environmental Protection Tax Law shall include but not be limited to the following circumstances:
(1) The taxable pollutant discharges declared by the taxpayer in the current period are obviously lower than those in the same period of the previous year, without a good reason
(2) The pollutant discharges of a unit product of the taxpayer are obviously lower than those of a taxpayer of the same kind, without a good reason.
Article 23 Tax authorities and environmental protection administrative departments shall provide taxpayers with guidance, training and consultation services related to the payment of environmental protection tax free of charge.
Article 24 Tax authorities shall conduct the tax inspection of environmental protection tax according to the law, and environmental protection administrative departments shall give support thereto.
Article 25 Taxpayers shall, in accordance with the relevant provisions on tax collection administration, properly keep relevant materials on the monitoring and administration of taxable pollutants.
Chapter V Supplementary Provisions
Article 26 This Regulation shall come into force on January 1, 2018. The Regulation on the Administration of Collection and Use of the Funds for Discharge of Pollutants issued by the State Council on January 2, 2003, shall be repealed concurrently.