Upper Tribunal Hands Down Landfill Tax Judgment
The Upper Tribunal has handed down its decision in Singleton Birch & Anor v HMRC [2025] UKUT 72 (TCC) - the first appellate decision to consider the interpretation of the Landfill Tax (Qualifying Material) Order 2011 (‘QMO’).
The appeal concerned the disposal at landfill of the ‘FCC waste’, which itself was the result of the treatment of a ‘ferrous chloride waste’ with air pollution control residues (‘APCR’). The ferrous chloride waste resulted from titanium dioxide production, was acidic, and needed to be treated with an alkaline material before it could be disposed of at a non-hazardous landfill. The APRC was a hazardous alkaline material containing calcium which resulted from the incineration process at energy from waste facilities. The treatment of the ferrous chloride waste with a waste material such as the APRC, rather than a new commercially purchased alkaline had environmental benefits in treating one waste with another. The resulting FCC waste was non-hazardous.
The issue for the Upper Tribunal was whether the FCC waste consisted entirely of ‘calcium based reaction wastes from titanium dioxide production,’ which was the relevant description in the QMO. If it was, then the FCC waste could be landfilled at the lower rate of landfill tax. The Upper Tribunal concluded that due to the large proportion of non-reactive material in the APCR used to treat the ferrous chloride waste, which remained present in the FCC waste, the FCC wate was not entirely calcium based reaction wastes from titanium dioxide production. The environmental benefits of the process used by the appellants was not sufficient to displace that conclusion
The decision will be of interest to those considering the relevance of the environmental purpose of landfill tax and the QMO to the interpretation of the QMO.
Akash Nawbatt KC and Colm Kelly appeared for the appellant taxpayers instructed by David Pickstone and Anastasia Nourescu at Stewarts.
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