Registering, making returns and Compliance

Accounting periods for SLfT are quarterly and aligned to current Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) environmental reporting periods.

The SLfT accounting periods are as follows:

• Quarter 1 – 1 April – 30 June
• Quarter 2 – 1 July – 30 September
• Quarter 3 – 1 October – 31 December
• Quarter 4 – 1 January – 31 March

Operators will need to file a self-assessed return, with payment, within 44 days of the quarter end of each accounting period. If your existing agreement with HMRC is for different accounting periods, you will not be able to use these for SLfT returns.

You should contact HMRC on Tel: 03000 592 688 or in writing to:

HM Revenue & Customs

Central Collection Unit (LFT)

Alexander House

21 Victoria Avenue

Southend

SS99 1AS

If you have landfill sites in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK then you will need to register and account for the two taxes separately – with Scottish landfill sites subject to SLfT rates, legislation and guidance, submitted using the Revenue Scotland online portal. You should continue to pay and send your UK Landfill Tax returns on landfill sites elsewhere in the UK to HMRC.

SLfT is a separate tax from UK Landfill Tax and has its own rates. Guidance on the rates is available at SLfT2002.

Revenue Scotland will seek, wherever possible, to engage, encourage and inform those who are subject to SLfT legislation so as to secure compliance. Where breaches of the criminal law arise, Revenue Scotland will work with SEPA, Police Scotland and the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) to ensure that all offenders are dealt with in a proportionate manner by undertaking the appropriate enforcement action.

Revenue Scotland will come down hard on those who deliberately fail to comply, using all the sanctions at its disposal. These include civil penalties and prosecutions.

Revenue Scotland also has the power to take robust action to counteract tax avoidance, including under the general anti-avoidance rule for devolved taxes.

SLfT liability applies to anyone that deposits material to land by way of waste whether they have an authorisation or not. If they do not have an authorisation then SEPA, on behalf of Revenue Scotland, will assess the site and establish the tax liability. The liability will fall to the person (including corporate person) carrying out the activity. The tax liability will be in addition to environmental penalties and/or criminal proceedings.

Revenue Scotland will have an on-going data-sharing arrangement with SEPA.

Following the submission of a waste data return to SEPA, SEPA will share that data with Revenue Scotland. Revenue Scotland will use this data as part of its compliance checks on the associated tax returns for the same period. It should be noted that as this is a self-assessed tax, it remains the taxpayer’s responsibility to explain how the waste return relates to the tax return.

You will be able to make amendments to your return up to a year after the filing date.

You could be charged a penalty for not submitting a return or paying SLfT on time. You may also be charged a penalty for errors on your return, understating your tax liability, concealing or destroying documentation relevant to a tax investigation, obstructing an investigation or for failing to register or de-register for tax purposes.

You will be charged interest on any unpaid tax or penalties. Revenue Scotland will also repay any tax due with interest subject to conditions that will be set out in the regulations.

The SLfT return data will be stored securely in Revenue Scotland’s systems. Protected taxpayer information enjoys special legislative protection.

Where there are no taxable activities being carried out, operators do not need to register. As soon as there is an intention to carry out taxable activity, a Landfill Operator must advise Revenue Scotland within 30 days of forming that intention.

a) For restoration already underway and agreed with HMRC, the authorisation by HMRC has no legal effect after 31 Mar 15. See the ‘Forms’ section of SLfT area of our website for details of how to notify us of your intention to continue restoration on or after 1 April 2015

(b) For restoration commencing on or after 1 April 2015, see the ‘Forms’ section of the SLfT area of our website for details of how to notify us of your intention to commence restoration.

‘Information Area’ is a term used by HMRC in relation to UK LFT. For SLfT these areas are called Non-Disposal Areas. Any agreement with HMRC regarding these areas will have lapsed from 1 April 2015 and will not be applicable to SLfT.

If you wish us to designate a Non-Disposal Area for SLfT – Please follow the guidance in the ‘Forms’ section of the SLfT area of our website.

Any agreement with HMRC was for the purposes of UK LFT and will not apply to SLfT.

If you wish to apply for a water discount for SLfT, please follow the guidance in the ‘Forms’ section of the SLfT part of our website.

Unless you have received written authorisation from us to apply a water discount to waste brought to you for disposal you should charge the full amount of waste deposited at the applicable rate.

There is guidance for waste producers in the ‘Forms’ area of our website explaining how they can apply for a water discount for SLfT

HMRC specified methods are not applicable to SLfT. Revenue Scotland has not specified any alternative methods for weighing waste and expects landfill operators to use a weighbridge to weigh all waste. We can charge you a penalty for failing to use a weighbridge. This is explained further in our guidance at SLfT2008.

In exceptional circumstances you can ask us to agree an alternative method of calculating the weight of waste. This is explained in our guidance at SLfT2009 and guidance on the application process is in the ‘Forms’ section of the SLfT area of our website.