Find out what we’re doing around Landfill Disposals Tax (LDT) from one of our team at the Welsh Revenue Authority (WRA).
We’re responsible for collecting and managing LDT on behalf of Welsh Government. And we work with Natural Resources Wales on some of this activity. Here one of our team members, Jenna Powell, explains more about the team’s role in raising revenue for Wales.
Tell us about your role
I’m the LDT lead technical caseworker in the operations team. I manage 2 customer relationship managers based in north and south Wales. Together, we support 17 registered Welsh landfill site operators who, combined, cover 23 registered landfill sites in Wales.
Tell us more about your team’s role
We’re here to help landfill site operators in Wales to pay the right amount of LDT at the right time. Before we started administering the tax, we visited each site to meet with their team. We explained our new digital tax system to help them file tax returns.
We now work with them daily to help with any questions. This includes supporting with applications for tax reliefs; tax opinions, general queries and filing quarterly tax returns.
How do you work with Natural Resources Wales?
Using powers in the Tax Collection and Management (Wales) Act 2016 (TCMA) legislation, which allows us to collect and manage LDT in Wales, we delegated some functions to Natural Resources Wales.
Natural Resources Wales has an LDT team made up of a team leader and two other members based in Monmouth and Bangor. They sit operationally separate from Natural Resources Wales’ core business.
How does the relationship work?
Members of the WRA and Natural Resources Wales often work together, combining the expertise and understanding of the waste sector that Natural Resources Wales offer with our tax expertise. This is essential to supporting the WRA’s approach to managing and collecting tax. For example, working together, we’ve been able to work with Welsh Government to make changes to legislation, as explained in our Corporate Plan under ‘Our Approach’.
How does your work fit into the wider Welsh Government agenda?
LDT can help change behaviour. It can help encourage greater prevention, re-use, recycling and recovery of waste and therefore reduce the amount of waste going into landfill sites. This helps supports the Welsh Government’s ‘Towards Zero Waste’ strategy, which promotes an approach to dealing with waste in Wales that’s beneficial to our environment, economy and communities.
What do you like most about the role?
During our first year, we collected and managed LDT of £44 million by working closely with landfill site operators. I feel proud to work in an organisation, where the money we help raise will ultimately help fund public services across Wales.