It’s not a subsidy, but a hold back from taxation. It’s usually in these country’s national security interests, let alone environmental interest, to push away from gas and oil given that they are often imported from hostile nations. America doesn’t really have that same problem, but Denmark and China do.
If you think of it from the American perspective maybe, but imagine there was a 100% tax on cars, ok, that’s definitely not just a revenue thing anymore but trying to restrict people from driving. Now make that 100% tax less for EVs, then you have more people driving around in EVs.
In America, cars and gasoline are ridiculously cheap, so the EV tax break comes from real tax revenue, rather than a tax designed to actually limit consumption. But in Norway and Denmark, where cars are taxed harshly, I doubt they say much revenue drop at all as EVs probably spurred people to buy cars who otherwise wouldn’t have.
>I like pedantry as much as the next person but that feels like a pointless distinction here.
One is a payment you receive, the other is a bill you don't receive. They can be similar to your bottom line, but they are definitely not the same thing especially if there is a middle area where you wouldn't have paid the extra tax anyway, so you aren't even getting an advantage.
It's still the same concept though. One is a bill you pay and other is free money you receive. There are all sorts of reasons for the bill you pay to be different based upon different criteria, that's not the same as getting free money directly.
If you have electric heating (resistive or heat pump, doesn't matter), you will pay €0.01 / kWh in energy tax for all electricity consumed above 4000 kWh per year.
The 4000 kWh is the "expected average" consumption for a household for a year, and of those you pay the full energy tax, which is currently DKK 0.9 / kWh including 25% VAT.
If you drive an EV, you can also get a refund for the energy tax of the electricity used to charge your car, provided you have an approved EV charger with a supported energy meter, which is most of the common chargers. You will need to enter into an agreement with a "charging company" to apply for the refund, so no individual refunds.
This of course doesn't apply if you have reduced energy tax, as you're not paying energy tax in the first place (except the first 4000 kWh)
Why €0.01 ? It's the minimum energy tax allowed by the EU, and i assume it's to avoid some spreadsheet breaking somewhere if it was 0.
Except when they do. They make all sorts of deals with commercial users and such, it's not a big deal to make exceptions for certain levels of home usage.
