Summary of HMRC Plastic Packaging Tax Guidance (Jan 2022).

It seems to have taken a while for HMRC to sort out some useful guidance for the Plastic Packaging Tax that comes into effect from April 2022.

Affected business who will have to register will:

• Import or manufacture more than 10 tonnes of plastic packaging.
• Affected businesses will have to work out whether their (packaging) products contain more than 30% recycled content.
• (Packaging) products with less than 30% recycled content will be taxed at a rate of £200/t.
• Businesses can pass on this cost, just as they do with VAT.

That is the (very) short version but there are hundreds of questions to work out what is in and what is out.

We started with these pages:

• Get your business ready for the Plastic Packaging Tax
• Further Information for businesses

A new hub was added in November with most of the links that you are likely to need on the .gov.uk website:

• Check if you need to register for Plastic Packaging Tax

This contains links with the following titles:

1. Work out which packaging is subject to Plastic Packaging Tax
2. Decide if you need to register for Plastic Packaging Tax
3. How to work out the weight of packaging for Plastic Packaging Tax
4. When you must register for Plastic Packaging Tax
5. Register for Plastic Packaging Tax
6. Record keeping and accounts for Plastic Packaging Tax & due diligence
   and
   https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-make-due-diligence-checks-for-plastic-packaging-tax
7. Claim a credit or defer paying Plastic Packaging Tax
8. Completing your Plastic Packaging Tax return

There are also a few other pages that are not indexed. I can only assume that somebody has a twisted sense of humour

• Examples of tests and calculations for Plastic Packaging Tax - Examples of threshold calculations, composites calculations, recycled content calculations.

• Packaging in and out of scope of Plastic Packaging Tax - Examples of what to include / exclude

• Check which plastic packaging is exempt or excluded from Plastic Packaging Tax - Examples of packaging that is included in your calculations and those that can be excluded.
  • There are 4 exempt categories
  • Long term storage, packaging that is integral to the goods, ‘reused for the presentation of goods’ (point of sale displays). NB the HMRC definitions may not match the definitions that DEFRA use, so do check! – see ‘packaging in and out of scope’, above, for specific examples.

• Register a group of companies for Plastic Packaging Tax Groups of companies can opt to manage their packaging tax centrally. This page contains the details that you might find useful.