In this report for Zero Waste Scotland, Eunomia presents the Business & Regulatory Impact Assessment of the Scotland Landfill Tax Bill 2012.
The Coalition Government committed to implementing recommendations from the Calman Commission, that sought to devolve power over certain fiscal instruments. This included the transfer of legislative responsibility to Scotland to set the level of Landfill Tax.
The Scottish Government has been given the ability to set the level of landfill tax from 2014/15. The UK wide landfill tax will be disapplied to Scotland in April 2015. Eunomia were commissioned to carry out a study looking at the potential options for a Scottish specific landfill tax. This report considers options for varying the landfill tax with respect to the rest of the UK. It also considers the impact this would have on waste policy, and Scotland’s goal of achieving a Zero Waste Society.
In October 2012, the Scottish Government set out a range of questions in a Consultation Document. Most of these were related to changes in the detail of the structure and design. The intention, for the most part, is to maintain a similar tax to the one currently in place across the UK.
This report informs the Business & Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) that the Scottish Government is required to undertake before any policy decision. The report follows on from a Partial BRIA published in October 2012, that included the following options:
- No landfill tax to apply in Scotland.
- Maintain the same landfill tax system as the rest of the UK, set at the same tax rates.
- Maintain the same system as the rest of the UK, but implement a non-self assessment model.
The report defines the second option as the baseline. The costs and benefits of the other two options are subsequently measured against this option.
This report is available free of charge. Please provide a few details about yourself and one of the team will email you the full report shortly.
