The latest tax rates – which are currently the same for all areas across the UK – are: for standard rate material £91.35 and lower rate (‘inert’) material (qualifying fines with a loss of ignition of 10% or lower) £2.90 per tonne.
| Landfill Tax £ per tonne (England) |
From 1 April 2020 | From 1 April 2019 | From 1 April 2018 | From 1 April 2017 | From 1 April 2016 |
| Standard rate | 94.15 | 91.35 | 88.95 | 86.10 | 84.40 |
| Lower rate | 3.00 | 2.90 | 2.80 | 2.70 | 2.65 |
The increase is in line with the Retail Prices Index (RPI), rounded to the nearest 5 pence, confirmed by the Treasury in the Autumn 2018 Budget.
HMRC has also lined up a further rise in the standard tax rate from 1 April 2020 when it will jump £3 to £94.15 per tonne (see above table).
Landfill Tax
Landfill Tax is charged on material disposed of at a landfill site or an unauthorised waste site. As such, said the Treasury, it encourages “efforts to minimise the amount of material produced and the use of non-landfill waste management options, which may include recycling, composting and recovery”.
The tax was first introduced on 1 October 1996 to encourage waste producers and the waste management industry to switch to more sustainable alternatives for disposing of material.
There is a lower rate of tax (which applies to less polluting qualifying materials covered by two Treasury Orders) and a standard rate (which applies to all other taxable material disposed of at authorised landfill sites).
Previously, the Landfill Tax applied across the UK but from 1 April 2015 it was devolved in Scotland and from 1 April 2018 in Wales.
According to the Office for Budget Responsibility Landfill Tax is likely to have raised around £0.9 billion in 2018-19. Around 77.9% of this total from UK government landfill tax, with the remaining 17.1% and 5.1% coming from the Scottish landfill tax and Welsh landfill disposals tax respectively.
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