This study aims to analyze the impact of environmental tax reforms on fiscal revenue. By conducting a comparative analysis of China, Germany, and the United Kingdom, the study explores the implementation effects and fiscal implications of environmental tax reforms in different countries. It selects a sum of eight taxes related to environmental protection in China for panel data on environmental tax revenue. These taxes include the urban maintenance and construction tax, vehicle purchase tax, urban land use tax, resource tax, environmental protection tax (known as the pollutant discharge fee before the 2018 reform), vehicle and vessel tax, ship tonnage tax, and tobacco tax. This selection is analyzed in comparison with environmental taxes in Germany and the United Kingdom, constructing a panel data of 30 observational samples from 2013 to 2022 on the total tax revenue growth rate and environmental tax revenue growth rate in the three countries for empirical analysis. Through linear regression and individual fixed effects model analysis, it was found that the fiscal effects of environmental tax reforms manifest as follows: there is unobservable heterogeneity in environmental taxes across different countries and significant fixed effects between countries. The growth rate of total tax revenue has a significant positive impact on the growth rate of environmental tax revenue. For every 1 percentage point increase in the growth rate of total tax revenue, China’s environmental tax revenue growth rate increases by approximately 0.8489 percentage points, with an average growth in environmental tax revenue of about 0.9797 percentage points. This provides a reference for China to achieve the goal of high-quality economic growth from the perspective of continuous reform and development of environmental taxes.

Due to the deteriorating ecological environment in recent years, many countries have introduced relevant policies to support the development of clean energy. This paper focuses on wind power generation as the subject for examining green R&D diffusion. Many enterprises take advantage of the information asymmetry between them and the government to carry out fake research and development and cheat taxes, resulting in a large loss of fiscal revenue for the state. The aim of the study is to simulate different scenarios for the diffusion of green R&D in China’s wind energy industry under different tax rates, incentives, and penalties. The results of the study show that the state’s ability to increase penalties can inhibit firms’ behavior of camouflaging R&D. Under the current tax incentives, the introduction of green R&D quotas in the electricity market, coupled with strong penalties, can increase the real green R&D capability of enterprises. The government’s implementation of zero R&D tax incentives and strong penalties do not increase firms’ green R&D capabilities. The diffusion effect of green R&D is more significant in the context of strong market demand. This suggests that the introduction of a quota system can encourage firms to accelerate the pace of technological innovation, while a strict regulatory environment is necessary to avoid policy abuse and optimize resource allocation.

To achieve climate goals and promote clean energy, China has introduced preferential VAT policies to promote the development of renewable energy power generation industries, but their actual impact on corporate profitability remains underexplored. This study innovatively applies a DID approach, enhanced with PSM and dynamic modeling, to evaluate the causal effects of VAT incentives on firm ROE. Using panel data from 98 listed power generation companies between 2010 and 2024, this study distinguishes treatment effects across the wind, solar, and hydrogen sectors, revealing significant heterogeneity. Unlike prior studies, it further investigates time-lagged impacts and fiscal efficiency indicators to assess policy sustainability. Results show that VAT incentives significantly enhance ROE for wind and solar firms, while the hydrogen sector exhibits weaker responses. These findings not only confirm the effectiveness of targeted tax incentives but also offer new insights for refining fiscal policies to better support sector-specific transitions toward renewable energy. This study provides empirical evidence for the design of China’s fiscal energy policy to maximize the growth of the renewable energy sector. More broadly, this study provides lessons for global green transition policies, illustrating how well-designed fiscal incentives can support sustainable energy development worldwide.

This study investigates the impact of tax incentives on the financial performance of wind power companies in China, particularly in the context of the global shift towards renewable energy. Wind power has become a key component of China’s clean energy strategy, especially since the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan”, which has fostered industry growth through financial subsidies and tax policies. Despite these efforts, issues such as subsidy misuse have prompted reforms, linking financial support to performance. Using data from 76 listed Chinese wind power companies between 2013 and 2023, this research employs a multiple linear regression model to evaluate the short- and long-term effects of corporate income tax and value-added tax (VAT) incentives on financial performance. Results show that tax incentives significantly enhance long-term financial performance, as indicated by Tobin’s Q, but their impact on short-term measures like return on assets (ROA) is more limited. Firms appear to utilize these incentives primarily for innovation and expansion, contributing to sustained growth rather than immediate gains. The findings suggest that while tax incentives are essential for fostering long-term growth in capital-intensive industries like wind power, they do not significantly enhance short-term financial health. Therefore, policymakers should consider complementing tax incentives with additional mechanisms, such as direct subsidies or low-interest loans, to improve short-term financial stability and operational support. The work substantiates that tax incentives are effective in promoting long-term financial performance but have limited short-term benefits. Future policy frameworks should adopt a more integrated approach, using a combination of tools to support both immediate financial stability and sustainable long-term growth.

In 2018, China adopted the Environmental Protection Tax Law, transitioning from administrative fees to statutory taxes. The law aimed to incentivize enterprises to reduce pollution emissions through economic means, improve environmental quality, and promote the optimization and upgrading of industrial structures for economic development. This study seeks to reveal the mechanisms of the impact of environmental protection tax on regional economic effects, providing policy recommendations for achieving high-quality economic development and ecological environmental protection. The study analyses four key variables—environmental protection tax revenue, regional industrial output value, regional GDP, and regional industrial pollution control investment—from 31 regions in China between 2018 and 2022, forming a sample of 30 observations. A random effects model is constructed and empirically analysed using Python 3.12. The empirical results show that for every additional unit of environmental protection tax, the average expected growth of regional GDP is 0.1043 units. There are significant differences in the economic effects of China’s environmental protection tax on regions, and these differences have random effects. This study provides new insights and empirical evidence for understanding and evaluating the impact of environmental protection taxes on regional economic outcomes, helping policymakers assess current impacts and continue encouraging enterprises to adopt clean production technologies, improve energy efficiency, and promote economic structure optimization and industrial upgrading to support high-quality economic development.

Excessive corporate use of fossil fuels has significantly worsened global air quality. In response, many governments, including China’s, have implemented tax incentives to promote sustainable development, though their effectiveness at the firm level remains unclear. This study empirically examines the relationship between tax incentives and corporate green transition using a panel of 30,483 firm-year observations from Chinese A-share non-financial listed firms spanning 2009–2023. We construct a Green Sustainable Development Performance (GSDP) index based on green patent applications and environmental disclosure and identify innovation investment as the main transmission mechanism. The results show that stronger tax incentives are associated with higher GSDP scores. This relationship is largely driven by innovation: after controlling R&D input, the direct effect of tax incentives declines, while the indirect effect through innovation remains both statistically and economically significant. The effect is more evident in large firms and those in eastern provinces, but weaker in regions with higher financial constraints with limited time lags. The findings offer practical implications for designing targeted, verifiable, and innovation-oriented tax instruments to foster high-quality, sustainable corporate development.