Revenue Scotland has made important amendments to how the tax regime will be administered, having launched a “more prescriptive” consultation in June to satisfy waste processors and landfill operators.
The scope of the consultation included finalising the methodology for loss on ignition tests for waste fines – which are due to be made mandatory for any Scottish operator attempting to submit them at the lower £2.65 per tonne rate of landfill tax from October 2016.
Operators must achieve an LOI result of 10% or less for a waste load to be deemed taxable at the lower rate. The rule was established in England and Wales in April this year.
As a result of feedback from 10 respondents to its latest consultation, Revenue Scotland has confirmed that the minimum sample size has been raised from 5g to 20g of fines to ensure they are representative of the entire load.
In addition, it has also removed the requirement for recording moisture loss during the initial drying process of the LOI test to ensure consistency with the rest of the UK, and removed the need for operators to report the ‘geographical origin’ of the waste as part of pre-acceptance checks as reporting would be too onerous on material recycling facilities (MRFs).
Crucially, the tax body has also amended its classification of waste fines which qualify for the £2.65 tax band.
It now acknowledges that fines material originating from mixed waste inputs may qualify for the lower tax rate if they have been subjected to a satisfactory treatment process, which puts it in line the rest of the country.
Clarification
Revenue Scotland has stated this is a ‘clarification’ rather than an amendment – though correspondence between the organisation and skip hire association UROC in April suggests the Government had not initially intended to allow mixed waste inputs to be taxed at the lower bracket (see letsrecycle.com story).
Commenting on the changes, UROC’s Jenny Watts said the association was “pleased” that industry recommendations had been taken on board.
She said: “UROC is pleased that RS and SEPA took on board the representations we made on behalf of the sector in Scotland and have amended the draft guidance to reflect the concerns and recommendations for change that we submitted in our roundtable meeting with the regulators and the formal response to the consultation.”
Stakeholders
Revenue Scotland said: “Revenue Scotland would like to thank all those who took the time and effort to respond to this consultation, and those who took part in the initial stakeholder focus group held in June.
“The evidence and operational insight provided by this input will help us to develop and implement a waste fines regime in Scotland that provides taxpayers with clear supporting guidance for the statutory requirements of the new Qualifying Material Order.”
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