73.These sections of the Act and these notes should be read in conjunction with Part 3, Chapter 3 of TCMA and the relevant explanatory notes (paragraphs 46 and 47), which accompany TCMA.
74.Section 39 places a duty on the operator of an authorised landfill site at which taxable disposals are made to make a tax return in respect of each accounting period. The return must contain an assessment of the amount of tax chargeable on the operator and a declaration that the information they have provided is correct and complete to the best of the operator’s knowledge.
75.Tax returns must be submitted along with any payment of tax no later than the last working day of the month that follows the month in which the accounting period ends, unless this date is varied under section 40. For example, if an accounting period ends on the 30 June, a tax return must be submitted and payment of tax made by the last working day in July.
76.For registered landfill site operators, the first accounting period begins on the day on which they begin to carry out taxable operations (or, if later, the day on which they become registered) and ends on the day notified to them by WRA. From then on, their accounting periods will be each subsequent period of 3 months (unless those periods are varied under section 40).
77.For landfill site operators that have not registered, the first accounting period begins on the day on which they begin to carry out taxable operations and runs until the end of the calendar quarter in which they begin to do so (or, if sooner, the day before the day on which they become registered). From then on, the accounting periods will be every calendar quarter (a period of 3 months ending with 31 March, 30 June, 30 September or 31 December).
78.Section 40 provides WRA with the power to vary the duration of an accounting period and the filing date for a tax return. Any such variation is to be made by issuing a notice to the landfill site operator.
79.Section 41 provides that the tax chargeable on a taxable disposal made at an authorised landfill site is chargeable in respect of the accounting period in which the disposal is made. There is one exception to this rule, however: if a landfill site operator issues a landfill invoice in respect of a disposal within 14 days beginning with the day the disposal is made, the tax then becomes chargeable in respect of the accounting period in which the invoice is issued. So, for example, where a landfill site operator’s accounting periods are calendar quarters and a taxable disposal is made on 28 June for which a landfill invoice is issued on 1 July, the accounting period for the tax on that disposal will be the calendar quarter ending 30 September, rather than the calendar quarter ending 30 June. Schedule 3 sets out the information that needs to be contained in a landfill invoice. The Welsh Ministers have the power to make regulations to amend Schedule 3.