E-commerce's other tax bill: packaging, plastic and the letter you did not expect
Nextica Law & Tax handles the digital business's tax duties that are not the European VAT ones: extended producer responsibility for packaging under RD 1055/2022, with joining a collective scheme and reporting the packaging placed on the market —including the box and the filling each order ships in—; the excise duty on non-reusable plastic packaging under Law 7/2022 when manufacturing, acquiring within the Union or importing, with its specific bookkeeping; and corporate income tax and withholdings for a business with suppliers and platforms outside Spain.
It thinks its tax exposure is European VAT. The first letter it receives comes from a packaging scheme.
What's included
1. Determining whether the company places packaging on the national market for the first time, which in e-commerce is almost always yes.
2. Inventorying the shipping packaging —box, tape, filling and bag— as well as the product packaging, because shipping adds a category of its own.
3. Registering in the relevant register and joining a collective scheme, or setting up an individual one.
4. Periodic reporting of the quantities placed on the market, with the data circuit built so it can actually be produced.
5. Analysing whether non-reusable plastic packaging is manufactured, acquired within the Union or imported, and settling the excise duty where it applies.
6. Keeping the specific books or records that duty requires, which is what gets discovered late.
7. Fitting this into the rest of the digital business's tax calendar
corporate income tax, withholdings and payments to foreign technology providers.
YOU ONLY SELL ONLINE AND YOU ARE A PACKER TOO
It is the sector's most frequent surprise, and it arrives as a letter once the liability has been building for months.
Failing to register or report the packaging placed on the market
extended producer responsibility reaches whoever first places packaging on the national market, and in e-commerce the box, tape, filling and bag of the shipment are packaging even if the product inside was already packed by someone else.
RD 1055/2022Confusing the packaging obligation with the tax
the first is a waste management obligation and the second is a duty on manufacturing, acquiring within the Union or importing non-reusable plastic packaging. You can be caught by both, by one or by neither.
Law 7/2022Not keeping the duty's specific books or records
it is a separate formal obligation, usually discovered when several years of history already have to be reconstructed.
Law 7/2022Frequently asked questions
I only sell online. Am I a 'packer' too?
Very probably yes, and it is the sector's most common surprise. Extended producer responsibility under RD 1055/2022 reaches whoever first places packaging on the national market, and e-commerce shipping adds a category of its own: the box, the tape, the filling and the bag each order goes out in are packaging, even if the product inside was already packed by someone else. The typical obligations are registering in the relevant register, joining a collective scheme or setting up an individual one, and periodically reporting the quantities placed on the market.
How is the plastic tax different from the packaging obligation?
They are two different things that arrive together and always get confused. Extended producer responsibility is a waste management obligation: financing the collection and treatment of what you place on the market. The tax on non-reusable plastic packaging under Law 7/2022 is a national tax on the manufacture, intra-EU acquisition and import of that kind of packaging, with its own returns and a duty to keep specific books or records. You can be caught by both, by one or by neither, and it is worth knowing which before someone asks.
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