Duty of disclosure: Companies must report specific tax benefits relating to energy and electricity to the main customs office:

The new “regulation on implementation of the EU legal obligations for publication, information and transparency in the energy and electricity tax act” (EnSTransV) goes into force as of July 1st, 2016. It applies to companies that have taken advantage of certain tax benefits regarding the energy and electricity tax law. In future, a duty of disclosure and/or declaration comes into force for claimed benefits and must be divulged to the main customs office responsible. With this EU regulation now in force there is an obligation to lay open state aids granted within the EU that exceed EUR 500,000 per calendar year.

Here are some examples for frequently used tax benefits which are subject to the Energy and Electricity transparency regulation (EnSTransV):

Tax relief for the combined generation of power and heat (Article 53a)
Tax relief in accordance with Article 9b and 10 of the German electricity tax act for companies in the manufacturing sector using electricity for operational purposes
The declaration must be made for the first time by 30.06.2017 and applies to the period from 01.07.2016 to 31.12.2016, provided that no request for exemption from the duty of disclosure and/or declaration has been granted. Thereafter, by the end of June at the very latest for each respective previous year in which a claim for tax exemption or reduction was made or a tax relief was paid out, there exists a fundamental obligation to submit a disclosure or declaration.