[4] Note – the figures of £1.1 million, £2.2 million and £17.2 million for 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22 can be estimated from the statistics by differencing the net ADS statistics published for March 2023 with the net ADS statistics published for March 2022.
Table 15 shows that the Devolved Taxes figure for LBTT in Revenue Scotland’s accounts and the Net LBTT figure taken from the published statistics (adjusted for ADS reclaims in previous years, as discussed above) can broadly be reconciled. There are some other reasons for differences, but these are generally more minor and it is not practical to adjust the statistics for all possible differences.
The most significant of these is the impact of the accounting accruals process which attributes revenue in the first two months of the accounting year (April and May) to the previous financial year if the effective date of the relevant transaction was before 1 April. For every financial year there is revenue coming in from April and May of the following year (accruals) and revenue subtracted (reverse accruals) from April and May of the year in question which was included in the accounts of the previous year.
The accruals and reverse accruals often roughly cancel out, but for 2015/16, 2019/20 and 2020/21 there were more noticeable difference which in turn resulted in more significant differences between Net LBTT and Devolved Taxes figure for LBTT in Table 15.
For 2015/16, no LBTT revenue where the tax returns were received in April or May 2015 were accrued into 2014/15 in the annual accounts (as LBTT was only introduced in April 2015), but 2015/16 included some revenue for returns received in April and May 2016 with effective dates before 1 April 2016.
For 2019-20, accruals from April and May 2020 (into 2019/20) were reduced as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which significantly impacted LBTT revenue in late March and April/May 2020. This resulted in a lower figure in the accounts (£597.4 million) than in the net figure shown in Table 15 (£604.2 million), a difference of nearly £7 million.
The opposite effect is seen for 2020/21 where the accrual into the accounts (from April/May 2021 into 2020/21) outweighs the accrual from April/May 2020 into 2019/20. In this case the figure in the accounts for 2020/21 (£517.4 million) is around £7 million more than the net figure in Table 15 (£510.9 million).
Appendix B (ii) – comparison of SLfT statistics with published accounts
Table 16: Comparison of SLfT declared due reported in Revenue Scotland statistics with SLfT revenue reported in the Revenue Scotland Annual Report and Financial Statements
Table 16 compares the SLfT declared due reported in Revenue Scotland Official Statistics with the SLfT revenue figures reported in Revenue Scotland’s Annual Report.
These statistics are reported in relation to the quarter in which the landfill disposal took place. For example, if a landfill operator submits an SLfT tax return in August 2018 relating to the quarter April - June 2018, the tax declared due is reported against that quarter (i.e. April - June 2018). Landfill operators have 12 months from the relevant date to amend their tax return and Revenue Scotland SLfT Statistics are revised up to 12 months after the quarter in question. If additional tax is declared, or identified through Revenue Scotland compliance activities, after this 12 month period, the statistics are not revised. This is to minimise the risk of disclosing Protected Taxpayer Information by updating tonnages and revenues by quarter, potentially showing changes relating only to single operators, or very small numbers of operators.
The Annual Report (accounts) reports revenue against the year in which the revenue was realised, with accrual adjustments in April and May. Unlike the statistics, any additional revenue (or reductions in revenue) realised during a financial year (but potentially relating to earlier years) will be reported as revenue in the accounts during that year and may lead to a difference between SLfT reported in the statistics and the accounts.