Calculate and set wastewater levy

Do you discharge wastewater into a body of water? Then you have to pay a levy to the respective federal state. For this purpose, you should submit the declarations (forms) required for the assessment of the levy to the responsible office.

In Germany, a wastewater tax is levied on the discharge of wastewater (sewage and stormwater) into surface waters or groundwater on the basis of federal and supplementary state law. The wastewater levy is collected by the individual states.

The competent body is determined by state law regulation of the individual federal states.

Required documentation varies depending on the discharge requirement for wastewater and/or stormwater.

Possible required documents for wastewater:

• Levy declaration for small dischargers
• Declaration of monitoring values
• Declaration of lower monitoring values as well as the resulting measurement results
• For industrial dischargers: application for deduction of pre-pollution

Possible required documents for precipitation water:

• Declaration of discharge for precipitation water

The designation and execution of the individual forms differs in the individual federal states. In general terms, there are the following declarations/forms.

• Declaration for precipitation water
• Declaration for small dischargers
• Declaration of monitoring values (§ 6 Abs. 1 AbwAG)
• Declaration of lower monitoring values (§ 4 Abs. 5 AbwAG)
• For industrial dischargers: Application for deduction of pre-pollution (§ 4 Abs. 3 AbwAG)
• If applicable, link to aforementioned forms: Federal state specific
• Online procedure possible: State-specific

Anyone who discharges wastewater into a body of water is liable for the levy.

Persons liable to pay the levy for stormwater and/or small discharges shall submit a levy declaration to the competent body annually.

• Declarations of monitoring values shall be submitted not later than 1 month before the beginning of the assessment period (calendar year)
• Declarations of lower values according to are to be submitted 2 weeks before the period applied for

The processing time depends on the quality and volume of the applications and documents submitted.

A levy is payable to the respective federal state for the discharge of wastewater.

The amount of the levy depends on the number of pollution units (ZSE) determined and the levy rate on which it is based.

Further information can be found on the website of the Hessian Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection, Agriculture and Consumer Protection.