Tax Law and Environmental Protection in Portugal

Abstract

The author seeks to analyse the contribution of tax law to environmental protection. Starting from tax law built around the concept of the tax, and environmental protection understood as legal protection ensured not only by environmental law but also by the classical branches of law, he concludes that environmental tax law tends to be more a form of economic tax law than tax law tout court. Turning to ecological protection instruments, he concludes that, although the levies most appropriate for applying the polluter-pays principle are bilateral charges or fees, due to the indivisibility of many environmental costs, it is ultimately unilateral charges or taxes that are considered suitable. In Portugal, however, taxes that may be regarded as environmental taxes show very weak ecological performance, since, given the amount of revenue they generate, they are entirely dominated by fiscal purposes. More environmentally friendly, however, are tax benefits — whether granted to certain operators or for specific environmental operations, or in the form of environmental patronage, where particular importance is attached to patronage in favour of cultural heritage.