KontorBund — Note
Germany's plastic packaging taxLast checked 5 October 2026
kontorbund.com/notes/de-plastic-packaging-tax.html
Germany's plastic packaging tax (Kunststoffverpackungsteuer) — €550 per tonne from 1 July 2027
The short version
On 5 October 2026 the German press reported a draft Kunststoffverpackungsteuergesetz: an excise duty of €550 per tonne of the plastic contained in packaging, planned to start on 1 July 2027. It would cover plastic packaging and films and composite packaging with more than 5% plastic, and it would arise at manufacture, at bringing the packaging into Germany or at import. Packaging made from recycled plastic could be exempted on application. It is not law. The government intends to push it through as a Formulierungshilfe amendment to the 2027 budget-accompanying law, and eight organisations — among them the retail association HDE, the circular-economy association BDE and the customs and finance union BDZ — have written to the Chancellery asking for that route to be stopped. It is separate from your VerpackG duties and separate from the EU's €0.80/kg plastic contribution.
Where the file stands
One thing has to come before everything else on this page: there is no statute. There is no published bill text we can link you to, no Bundestag procedure number and no entry in the Bundesgesetzblatt. Everything below comes from reporting on 5 October 2026 on a draft that rests on a decision of the federal government of July 2026 — and in a file moving this fast, the dates move too. This box is what we update first.
| Stage | Where it is on 5 October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Draft | This is where the file is. A draft Kunststoffverpackungsteuergesetz has been reported, based on a decision of the federal government of July 2026. We have the contents through the press, not from an official publication. |
| In the Bundestag | Not yet. The reported plan is a Formulierungshilfe to the CDU/CSU and SPD factions, to be introduced as an amendment to the already-running Haushaltsbegleitgesetz 2027. No reading, no committee referral and no official draft publication reported so far. |
| Adopted | No. Nothing has been passed, and the associations behind the letter of objection are trying to keep it that way — at least on this route. |
| In force | Planned for 1 July 2027 if it passes as drafted. Nothing is payable before then, and nothing is due from you now. |
What the draft says
This is the substance as reported. Where a figure or a phrase comes from the draft itself, we quote it; where it is the reporting's summary, we say so.
- The rate
- €550 per 1,000 kilograms of plastic contained in the packaging — that is €0.55 per kilogram. The draft wording quoted in the reporting: "Sie beträgt für 1.000 Kilogramm Kunststoff 550,00 Euro"
- What the tax is measured on
- The weight of the plastic the packaging contains — not the weight of the parcel, not the total weight of the packaging, and not the order value.
- What is caught
- Plastic packaging and films, and composite packaging whose plastic content is more than 5% ("Kunststoffverpackungen/-folien sowie Verbundverpackungen, sofern der Kunststoffanteil mehr als 5 Prozent beträgt"). The reporting names films, transport and packaging materials, closures, lids and plastic capsules among the items covered.
- When the tax arises
- At manufacture, at bringing the packaging into Germany (Verbringen) or at import. One of the reports qualifies its list as "among other things" at manufacture or import, so the draft may carry further taxable events we cannot see.
- Recycled plastic
- "Kunststoffverpackungen, die aus recyceltem Kunststoff hergestellt wurden, können auf Antrag von der Steuer entlastet werden" — packaging made from recycled plastic can be exempted on application. How the recycled content is evidenced is not in the reporting.
- Private individuals
- People acting privately are to remain tax-free when they pass on affected products ("Privatpersonen bleiben bei der Weitergabe der betroffenen Produkte steuerfrei").
- How much packaging
- The draft reckons with roughly three million tonnes of plastic packaging taxed per year at the start, a figure it expects to fall over time. One report, quoting the draft's reasoning, puts plastic packaging waste arising in Germany in 2023 at the same roughly three million tonnes.
- What it is for
- Two stated purposes: an incentive to reduce the consumption of plastic packaging ("Anreize … den Verbrauch von Kunststoffverpackungen zu verringern"), and "zur weiteren Konsolidierung des Bundeshaushalts" — further consolidation of the federal budget.
- From when
- 1 July 2027.
- On what basis
- A decision of the federal government of July 2026, according to the reporting. We have not seen that decision, and none of the reports we read names the ministry that drafted the text, so we are no more precise than that.
How it is meant to pass — the Formulierungshilfe
This is the part the trade associations are objecting to, and it is worth understanding because it decides how much warning you get.
A Formulierungshilfe is a text a ministry drafts for the governing parliamentary factions so that they can table it under their own name. It is not a government bill, so it does not enter the process as one. What the reporting describes — on the letter writers' own account, which is where the information comes from — is a chain rather than a bill: the Federal Ministry of Finance sends the text to the Bundestag's Budget Committee, from there it goes to the CDU/CSU and SPD factions, and it is then introduced as an amendment (Änderungsantrag) to the Haushaltsbegleitgesetz 2027 — the law that accompanies the 2027 budget and is already running through parliament.
In other words, instead of its own bill with its own first reading, its own committee stage with expert hearings and its own passage through both houses, the substance rides along inside a budget statute. The reporting notes that this is the same route chosen for the planned sugar tax draft. For the associations on the other side, that is exactly the problem: they are asking for an independent, transparent and open-ended procedure, with an assessment of the economic, administrative and ecological consequences and the involvement of the Nationaler Normenkontrollrat — the advisory body that reviews the compliance-cost burden of federal legislation.
Why the route matters to you
A standalone bill gives you a published draft, a consultation window and a committee timetable to read. An amendment inside a budget law gives you neither: it can be tabled and passed to a budget timetable, and the first official text you can read may be one that is already through the Bundestag. That is the reason to watch the Budget Committee's documents rather than the draft itself, and the reason the associations are asking for a separate procedure at all.
The letter to the Chancellery, and the objections
Eight organisations have written to the Chancellery Minister Nina Warken (CDU) asking her to stop the fast-track procedure. Among the signatories are the retail association HDE (Handelsverband Deutschland), the waste, water and circular-economy association BDE and the customs and finance union BDZ. One report lists the food industry association, the retail association and the plastic packaging industry among those warning of legislation "im Schnellverfahren".
Two reactions from the environment and industry side
- Deutsche Umwelthilfe — welcomes it, wants it different
- Environmental Action Germany welcomes the approach, but wants it limited to single-use packaging: the duty should on no account hit reusable (Mehrweg) packaging. It also argues it should be extended to paper, card and board and to metals such as aluminium and tinplate.
- Plastics Europe Deutschland — open questions
- The plastics association criticises open points of implementation. Its managing director Christine Bunte described the draft not as a mature law but as a "nationales Steuerexperiment" — a national tax experiment.
Read together, the two tells you where the argument is: the environmental side thinks the base is too narrow and wants it to reach more materials; the industry side thinks the design is not settled. Neither of them is arguing about whether the money is needed — the draft's own second purpose, budget consolidation, is not in dispute in what we have read.
What it is expected to raise — and the numbers that disagree
Two revenue forecasts are circulating for the same draft, and they do not match. We print both rather than pick one.
| Source | 2027 | From 2028 |
|---|---|---|
| dpa, as reported by ZEIT and AD HOC NEWS | €805 million of additional revenue in 2027 | just under €1.5 billion a year |
| The Federal Ministry of Finance's own expectation, as reported by Welt (via dts) | €670 million in 2027 | €1.505 billion in the first full year 2028 |
Both are forecasts for a tax that does not exist, produced at a moment when the exemption for recycled content, the treatment of reusable packaging and the definition of the base are still open. What they agree on is the order of magnitude — around €1.5 billion a year once the tax runs for a full year — and that the first part-year, starting on 1 July 2027, is roughly half of that. For scale: the EU contribution described below costs the German budget a similar amount.
This is not the EU's €0.80 per kilogram
The German draft is regularly described as a "Plastiksteuer", which is also what people call the EU contribution that has existed since 2021. They are two different instruments, with different debtors and different bases.
- What the EU contribution is
- Since 1 January 2021 the EU budget has a revenue source based on non-recycled plastic packaging waste: a uniform call rate of €0.80 per kilogram applied to the weight of plastic packaging waste that is not recycled.
- Who pays it
- The member states, not businesses directly. It is calculated from the waste data they already report, and it is for each member state to decide how it raises the money — the Commission's own page frames it as leaving member states the choice of the most suitable policies.
- Germany's share
- Around €1.4 billion a year, which Germany has so far paid from the federal budget rather than charging the producers responsible for the non-recycled plastic — that is the reporting's account, which it attributes to Deutsche Umwelthilfe. The draft tax is the change to that arrangement.
- How they differ
- Different debtors (member states pay the EU contribution; the draft tax would fall on businesses), a different base (plastic contained in packaging in the draft, non-recycled plastic packaging waste for the EU contribution) and a different rate (€0.55/kg in the draft against €0.80/kg for the EU contribution). The German rate is the lower of the two and the base is a different one, so the draft is not a direct pass-through of the EU contribution — and nothing in the reporting suggests it repeals it.
What it means for a small seller shipping to Germany
Nothing to pay, nothing to file, and nothing to change in your shop today. What is worth doing now is the part that takes time to find out: how much plastic is in the packaging you send to Germany, and who would be the taxable person if this comes in. Both answers come from your suppliers, not from us.
Everyday items in a parcel that contain plastic
- Plastic mailers and shipping bags — polyethylene and similar films. Essentially all plastic.
- Films and liners used as inner packaging: bags, sleeves, shrink film, the film window on a card-backed product.
- Stretch and pallet wrap, and the film on a wrapped pallet in a transport load.
- Packing tape — most tapes are a plastic film (polypropylene, PVC) with an adhesive layer.
- Cushioning and fill: air cushions, bubble wrap, foam-in-place and moulded foam, unless it is paper-based.
- Closures and small parts: lids, caps, screw caps, capsules, tamper bands, zip closures, plastic strapping and clips.
- Composites: a padded envelope with a plastic bubble layer, a carton with a plastic window or a plastic coating, labels and seals. This is where the 5% line in the draft does the work — whether an item is caught depends on the share the plastic has in its total weight, and a light cardboard item with a small plastic element can be closer to that line than it looks.
Putting a number on the draft rate
The draft's rate is €550 per tonne of plastic contained, so the arithmetic per item is: plastic weight in kilograms × €0.55. Our own arithmetic, not the draft's:
| Plastic in the packaging of one order | At €550 per tonne |
|---|---|
| 10 g — a light film bag | About 0.6 cents |
| 30 g — a poly mailer | About 1.7 cents |
| 100 g — mailer, tape and air cushions together | About 5.5 cents |
| A tonne of plastic across a year's parcels — some 33,000 mailers at 30 g | €550 |
Individually that is small change. It becomes a real number at volume, and it becomes a bigger number if the plastic share of what you ship is high — which is exactly what the draft says it wants, since the point of a Verbrauchsteuer is to make the taxed material more expensive than the alternative.
What to ask, and whom
- Your packaging supplier — the plastic weight per item
- Ask for it in writing, per item: grams of plastic contained, and whether the item is a composite and what its plastic share is. That is the number the draft's base is measured on, and it is the number you would have to report somewhere. It is also the only way to compare a plastic mailer with a paper alternative on anything other than guesswork.
- Your packaging supplier — recycled content
- The exemption in the draft is on application ("auf Antrag"), so it needs evidence, and it needs it from whoever makes the packaging. Ask now whether they can document recycled content per item, and how, rather than in the month before the tax starts.
- Your dual system — what your contract price actually is
- A dual-system fee is a licence fee for collection and recovery, not a tax, and nothing in the reporting suggests it merges with this. Ask what your contract says about taxes and duties on packaging, so that the answer is on file before a price conversation with a customer or a supplier.
- Your tax adviser — who the taxable person would be
- The reported taxable events include import and bringing packaging into Germany. That is the door through which a foreign seller's packaging could be caught — but whether the outsider shipping in is the debtor, or the supplier who sold them the packaging, is not something any of the reporting we read establishes. Do not assume it is your supplier, and do not assume it is you. Ask the question by name: Kunststoffverpackungsteuer, Steuerschuldner bei Einfuhr oder Verbringen.
Don't price it in yet
The exemptions, the taxable person, the Formulierungshilfe route and even the July 2027 date are all still in play, and the revenue forecasts quoted above contradict each other by €135 million for the same year. If a supplier now quotes you a "plastic tax surcharge", ask for the statutory basis. There isn't one yet.
What is still open
The list we will close as the file moves, in the order it is likely to matter:
- Whether it becomes law at all, and on which route — the amendment to the Haushaltsbegleitgesetz 2027, or a standalone procedure with the review the associations are demanding.
- Who the taxable person is for packaging a foreign seller imports or brings into Germany. This is the question a small cross-border seller needs answered first, and we have not seen it answered anywhere.
- Whether reusable packaging is caught. Deutsche Umwelthilfe's demand that the tax must not hit Mehrweg is a position, not a rule — and it suggests the point is not settled in the draft.
- How the recycled-content exemption is proved administratively: what evidence, from whom, and whether a mass-balance or certificate approach is used.
- The base in detail: how the plastic content of a composite is determined and by whom, and whether packaging reused or refilled is treated as newly taxed.
- The revenue figure: €805 million against €670 million for 2027. One of them is wrong, or they were written at different moments.
- The interaction with the EU own resource, if any. The draft does not repeal it, and it does not, on anything we have read, credit it.
Sources
No primary law exists to cite, so this page rests on the reporting of 5 October 2026, plus the Commission page for the EU contribution. We have read each of these; where two of them disagree, the page says so and prints both.
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AD HOC NEWS — Plastiksteuer ab 2027: Koalition plant 550 Euro je Tonne Kunststoff (5 October 2026, with dpa) Source for the rate and that the tax is measured on the plastic contained, the scope including the >5% composite threshold and the named items, the taxable events of manufacture, Verbringen and import, the recycled-plastic exemption on application, the exemption for private individuals passing products on, the three million tonnes, the €805 million for 2027 and just under €1.5 billion a year from 2028, and the reactions of Deutsche Umwelthilfe and Plastics Europe Deutschland including Christine Bunte's "nationales Steuerexperiment"
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DIE ZEIT — Kunststoff: Regierungsfraktionen planen neue Steuer auf Plastik (5 October 2026) Source for the government decision of July 2026 as the draft's basis, the draft's stated purposes and the "Konsolidierung des Bundeshaushalts" wording, the three million tonnes of plastic packaging waste in 2023, the EU contribution at 80 cents per kilogram and Germany's roughly €1.4 billion a year paid from the federal budget (attributed to Deutsche Umwelthilfe), the letter to Chancellery Minister Nina Warken and the demand for a standalone procedure with an assessment including the Nationaler Normenkontrollrat, and the sectors behind the letter
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LUDWIGSBURG24 — Bundesregierung plant Plastiksteuer ab Juli 2027 (dts, citing Welt, 5 October 2026) Source for the 1 July 2027 start date, the base weight of plastic and the draft's wording "für 1.000 Kilogramm Kunststoff 550,00 Euro", the finance ministry's expectation of €670 million in 2027 and €1.505 billion in the first full year 2028, the eight organisations including HDE, BDE and BDZ, the quoted demand to stop the Schnellverfahren, and the route via a Formulierungshilfe to the CDU/CSU and SPD factions — the same route as the planned sugar tax draft
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European Commission (DG BUDG) — Plastics own resource Official. Source for the EU contribution being in place since 1 January 2021, the uniform call rate of €0.80 per kilogram on the weight of plastic packaging waste that is not recycled, that it is calculated from member states' reported waste data, and that it is for member states to choose the policies with which they reduce plastic packaging waste
Help us keep this page honest
Two things would improve this page more than anything we can find ourselves: the text of the draft, if it reaches you — a Formulierungshilfe circulated to the factions, or a committee document — and what your packaging supplier says when you ask for the plastic weight and the recycled content per item. A supplier's datasheet is worth more to this file than another press summary.
Nothing here is legal advice, and nothing here is a bill you can act on. If you ship to Germany and want to follow this one, the Germany desk is where the duties that already exist are set out, and #quotes-and-costs on our Discord is where this file gets updated.