Customs formalities

Law 7/2022, of April 8, on waste and contaminated soils for a circular economy has established, in Chapter I of its Title VII, the special tax on non-reusable plastic packaging, including the import as a taxable event whose entry into force occurred on January 1, 2023.

For this reason, the relevant changes have been made to the import system to enable the management of this tax, as follows:

• The taxable event of the tax is the release for free circulation, so the provisions below are applicable to the declarations submitted for any of the following regimes : 40, 42, 61, 63, 44, 49 and 07.
• The tax rate is 0.45 euros per net Kg declared in box 47.
• In box 47 (settlement) the following will be recorded:
  • Tribute class: 1PL
  • The tax base will indicate the net kg of non-recycled plastic (with two decimals) contained in:
    • Non-reusable packaging (if the packaging is reusable or, if not, all the plastic is recycled, nothing will be declared in this box) (art. 68.1.a).
    • Semi-finished plastic products intended for obtaining the packaging referred to in the previous section, such as preforms or thermoplastic sheets (art. 68.1.b).
    • Products containing plastic intended to allow the closure, marketing or presentation of non-reusable packaging (art. 68.1.c).
• The kg of plastic corresponding to non-subject assumptions of article 73 will not be declared.
• The exemption assumptions provided for in article 75 must be declared using one of the following codes in box 37.2 :
  • 1P1: code for the exemption provided for in article 75 letter a.
  • 1P2: code for the exemption provided for in article 75 letter b.
  • 1P3: code for the exemption provided for in article 75 letter c.
  • 1P4: code for exemption letter provided for in article 75 letter f. 
  • 1P5: code for exemption letter provided for in article 75 letter g.

When declaring any of the above exemption codes, the kg of non-recycled plastic must be declared in box 47.

Different exemption codes can be declared in the same item.

• Particularity of the exemption established for imports of up to 5 kg per month of non-reusable packaging provided for in article 68.1.a (75 f). If more than 5 kg net are imported in a calendar month, the tax must be settled on all the kg imported in that month (i.e., including the first 5 kg) as follows:
  • If in a single DUA the set of consignments for which the exemption code 1P4 is declared exceeds 5 kg, the DUA will be rejected.
  • If the set of items with the exemption code 1P4 is less than 5 kg, but there are previous DUA Ss in the same month that cause, together, this limit to be exceeded, the The importer must not declare the exemption key (so that the declared kg will be settled in DUA ) and must communicate this circumstance to customs.
• The net kg of recycled plastic contained in the products included in the target scope of the tax must be declared in box 44 together with the recycled plastic certificate or the manufacturer's responsible declaration (only for 2023) . The following codes will be used for this:
  • 1135 IPNR Certified recycled plastic.
  • 1055 IPNR Manufacturer's responsible declaration

The information corresponding to these codes must be declared with the following structure:

1135 Certificate reference (alphanumeric, minimum 2 characters), separator: and net weight in kg (with 2 decimal places)

1055 Declaration reference (alphanumeric, minimum 2 characters), separator: and net weight in kgs (with 2 decimals)

• Since registration is not necessary for importers there is no obligation to declare any code for these purposes.