7. 3. Statement: The Landfill Disposals Tax (Wales) Bill

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:14 pm on 29 November 2016.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 4:14, 29 November 2016

I thank Jenny Rathbone for the welcome she’s given to the Bill. The tax evasion point she makes at the beginning is one we’ve touched on a number of times this afternoon. In some ways, as she says, it’s understandable. Stamp duty land tax is quite hard to evade because the house is there for everybody to see. Waste is much, much more open to evasion behaviour. I could use the time of the Assembly this afternoon—but I won’t, because I’m sure it’ll come up in front of the Finance Committee—in talking about the way in which the quantity of water that is added to waste is used as a way to evade tax that otherwise should’ve been paid and how we’re going to use this Bill to try to bear down on that.

The points that were made about packaging and local authorities are, to be frank, not really part of this Bill. On the point I made earlier in responding to the very first set of questions about a revenue-sharing possibility where Natural Resources Wales takes action that leads to activity that is currently not being properly policed being policed, and where that leads to tax being paid, that they should have a share of that, well, I think local authorities would be in the same relationship.