Commentary on Sections Part 3 - Taxable Disposals Made at Authorised Landfill Sites Chapter 3 – Relief from Tax Sections 29 to 31 – Using material in approved site restoration work, Site restoration work: procedure on application for approval and Site restoration work: variation of approval
60.The use of material in site restoration is a specified landfill site activity, and so is to be treated as a taxable disposal (see section 8(3)(i)). These provisions provide for the disposal to be relieved from tax if the material consists of qualifying material and is used to restore an authorised landfill site (or part of it) to another use. However, they require landfill site operators to seek approval for the restoration work beforehand in order to be able to claim the relief. The use of material for site restoration without WRA approval will not benefit from the relief. It is anticipated that these provisions will enable WRA to fully assess material used for site restoration and to ensure that the relief is not open to abuse.
61.Section 29 provides that WRA may approve the carrying out of restoration work at an authorised landfill site.; However, before doing so, WRA will need to be satisfied that the site restoration is required by an environmental permit or planning permission relating to the site. Only the amount of material required to comply with the permit or permission will benefit from the relief.
62.Whilst the landfill site operator must apply to WRA for approval before the restoration work begins, the operator need not wait for WRA’s approval before beginning site restoration. A landfill site operator might decide, for example, to proceed without approval in order to take advantage of good weather conditions or the availability of suitable material. However, the landfill site operator would be doing so at the operator’s own risk, as there would be no guarantee that WRA would approve the application for approval, so as to enable site restoration relief to be claimed.
63.Section 30 provides for occasions when WRA requires further information in order to make a decision on whether to approve an application to carry out site restoration and sets out the parameters of how this will work in practice. The WRA and landfill site operator may agree to extend a period of time specified by this section.
64.Section 31 recognises that the requirements of the site restoration in the environmental permit or planning permission may change and allows WRA to vary the site restoration approval. A variation may be made as a result of an application by a landfill site operator or may be initiated by WRA. If WRA varies the site restoration approval on its own initiative, it must issue a notice setting out the details of that variation to the landfill site operator. A variation to the site restoration approval does not affect the landfill site operator’s ability to claim relief for restoration work that was carried out in accordance with the approval before it was varied.