Julian Bowden-Williams discusses recent HMRC guidance on waste station transfer 'fines'
When landfill tax (LFT) was introduced in 1996 by John Gummer I’m sure the thought process was quite simple. Bring in an environmental behavioural changing tax (originally at £7 per tonne) for waste disposed to landfill but bring in a lower rate (of £2 per tonne) for less polluting materials. Use the money raised to fund tax cuts elsewhere. What could go wrong?
To answer this one needs to go forward from 1996 and look at the LFT rates since that date. The £7 rate increased to £10 in April 1999 and then by £1 per year reaching £15 by April 2004. The annual increase then became £3 per...
