By John Dyne, Managing Director
Landfill Tax regulations in the United Kingdom have become a quagmire of complexity, plaguing operators with convoluted procedures, resulting in costly mistakes and errors. But it goes beyond that in some cases.
We deal with a number of these assessment cases and in one such case, we encountered a situation where the prevailing guidance (back in the day) relating to the testing regime was so flawed it needed to be fundamentally corrected in its next iteration.
However, prior to our engagement, our client had been assessed on the basis of flawed guidance. No one including the decision maker had seemed to have spotted this!
What are the consequences of errors?
In the context of Landfill Levy, these errors can result in incorrect assessments of multiple millions of pounds and I wonder how many millions have been incorrectly assessed that went unchallenged during the same period.
The consequences of these mistakes and errors extend far beyond mere operational setbacks. Operators are facing substantial financial losses due to penalties, interest, legal fees, and unexpected tax liabilities arising from unintentional non-compliance (or flawed assessments!).
Unveiling flaws in the guidance (whilst satisfying for me) just rubs salt into the wounds, especially in cases where operators may have been wrongly assessed.
The purpose of Landfill Tax is to incentivise and encourage sustainable waste management but that is being undermined due to the unnecessary burden placed on operators and errors in assessments simply compound the problem.
The simple message is this, if faced with a revenue assessment for Landfill Tax, seek specialist advice immediately.
Contact John Dyne for advice.