Subject to certain conditions, and provided a certificate from the HMRC has been issued, waste generated from the clean up of contaminated land, and disposed of to landfill, has always been exempt from the imposition of landfill tax. The rationale behind this exemption was to provide an incentive for the clean up of contaminated land.
Although it is Government policy to provide assistance for the clean up of contaminated land, the landfill tax exemption for waste originating from the clean up of contaminated land undermines a separate Government objective – the reduction of environmental damage from the landfilling of waste.
In a move aimed at addressing this inconsistency and to encourage non-landfill waste management options for dealing with contaminated land, such as decontaminating the waste on site, the Government has introduced the Landfill Tax (Material from Contaminated Land) (Phasing out of Exemption) Order 2008.
The Order will amend sections 43A, 43B and 54(1) of the Finance Act 1996 in order to phase out the exemption from landfill tax on the disposal of material from the clean-up of contaminated land at landfill sites, with the exemption to be completely withdrawn from 1st April 2012. In order to phase out the exemption the new Order dictates that applications for exemption certificates must be made by 1st December 2008. Any existing exemption certificates, issued following an application made before 1st December 2008, will cease to be valid from 1st April 2012.
HMRC has amended its Notice LFT2 Reclamation of contaminated land in order to inform those affected by the removal of the exemption.
The text of the new Regulations, an explanatory memorandum and the updated HMRC Notice, is available via the links below:-
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2008/pdf/uksi_20082669_en.pdf
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2008/em/uksiem_20082669_en.pdf
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