The possibility of introducing a kerosene tax on domestic flights in Germany

The subject of this legal opinion is the permissibility of introducing taxation of aviation gasoline used on domestic flights. Currently, aviation gasoline intended for use in commercial aviation is exempt from mineral oil tax pursuant to Section 4 I No. 3) of the Mineral Oil Tax Act, with the result that air transport has a clear tax advantage over other modes of transport. Whereas in the past Community law prescribed that this tax exemption be retained, the new Energy Products Directive 2003/96 now allows Member States to remove this exemption for domestic flights. Against this background, we considered the legal permissibility of taxing kerosene used on domestic flights,204 taking into account all the relevant legal frameworks. Three different possibilities for designing a tax scheme of this kind were considered.  (Translation of the text 12/2005!)