HMRC has completed consultation and announced on 13th September 2017 that it is set to introduce new legislation in the spring of 2018 which will extend landfill tax to include waste disposal not at registered landfill sites.
This is designed to ensure that illegal waste deposits do pay the same level of tax as those legally disposed of to landfill. This will be in addition to a fine which may be up to 100% of the landfill tax, resulting in a 200% tax rate. More information is available here.
From our own discussions with the Environment Agency it is clear that it is its intention to use this legislation to clamp down on what they see as inappropriate use of the Cl:aire Definition of Waste, Code of Practice. Excavated soils which are re-used on a development site, in accordance with the code are not treated as waste and are therefore not subject to landfill tax. The EA has witnessed what it considers to be widespread abuse of the code, including import of soils prior to a DoWCoP submission to the EA. In the latter cases the soils would be classified as waste and automatically subject to the landfill tax irrespective of whether or not the soils were subsequently re-use under a waste recovery permit or exemption.
Don’t fall foul of the law or incur punitive tax charges and fines – speak to your local office who will put you in touch with one of in-house experts who can advise you. Visit DoWCoP here.