Aggregates Tax and Devolved Taxes Administration (Scotland) Act 2024

7 Commercial exploitation

(1) In this Part a quantity of aggregate is subjected to exploitation if and only if—

(a) it is removed from a site falling within subsection (2),

(b) it becomes the subject of an agreement to supply it to any person,

(c) it is used for construction purposes, or

(d) it is mixed, otherwise than in permitted circumstances, with any material or substance (other than water).

(2) The sites which fall within this subsection are—

(a) the originating site of the aggregate,

(b) any site which is not the originating site of the aggregate but is registered under the name of a person under whose name the originating site is also registered,

(c) any site not falling within paragraph (a) or (b) to which the quantity of aggregate had been removed for the purpose of having an excepted process applied to it on that site, but at which no such process has been applied to it.

(3) In this Part a quantity of aggregate is subjected to commercial exploitation if and only if its exploitation is carried out in the course or furtherance of a business carried on by a person responsible for subjecting it to exploitation (and for the purposes of this subsection “business” includes any activity of the Scottish Administration, a Minister of the Crown, local authority or charity).

(4) But a quantity of aggregate is not subjected to commercial exploitation if its exploitation—

(a) consists in the removal of aggregate from one registered site to another, where both sites are registered under the name of the same person,

(b) consists in or requires the removal of aggregate to a registered site for the purpose of having an excepted process applied to it on that site,

(c) consists in or requires the removal of aggregate to any site for the purpose of having china clay or ball clay extracted or otherwise separated from it on that site, or

(d) has the result that—

(i) without it being subjected to any process involving it being mixed with any other substance or material (other than water), and

(ii) by virtue of it being used for a purpose connected with winning aggregate or other minerals from that site,

it again becomes part of the land at the site from which it was won.

(5) For the purposes of subsection (1)(b), the time when a quantity of aggregate becomes the subject of an agreement to supply it to any person is—

(a) when the agreement is entered into, or

(b) in a case where the quantity of aggregate is not separately identifiable when the agreement is entered into, the time when it is appropriated to the agreement.

(6) But references in this Part to the supply of a quantity of aggregate do not include references to any supply which is effected, or is to be effected, by the transfer or creation of any interest or right in or over land.

(7) For the purposes of this Part, a quantity of aggregate is mixed with any material or substance in permitted circumstances if—

(a) the material or substance with which it is mixed consists wholly of a quantity of taxable aggregate that has not previously been subjected to commercial exploitation in Scotland, and

(b) the mixing takes place on a site which, in a case where it falls within subsection (2) in relation to any part of the aggregate included in the mixture, falls within subsection (2) in relation to every part of it.

(8) For the purposes of this Part, the commercial exploitation of a quantity of aggregate is taken to occur in Scotland if—

(a) the aggregate is in Scotland at the time when it is subjected to exploitation, or

(b) subsection (9) applies.

(9) This subsection applies where a quantity of aggregate is subjected to exploitation under subsection (1)(a) or (b) as a result of the movement of aggregate to Scotland from a place in the rest of the United Kingdom or from United Kingdom waters.

(10) The Scottish Ministers may by regulations modify this Part so as to make further provision about the circumstances in which the exploitation of a quantity of aggregate is taken to occur in Scotland for the purposes of subsection (8).

(11) Subsection (12) applies where, at the time when any aggregate is won from any site, a person (“P”) is in occupation of that site, or both that site and other land, for the purposes of—

(a) the carrying on of any agricultural business, or

(b) the carrying on of any forestry business, or otherwise for the purposes of forestry.

(12) Where this subsection applies, subsection (4)(d) has effect as if—

(a) (where relevant) the reference to the land at the site from which the aggregate was won included P’s other land, and

(b) the words “by virtue of it being used for a purpose connected with winning aggregate or other minerals from that site” were omitted.