Guidance

Aggregates Levy assessments, interest, penalties and appeals

Find out about assessments, interest charges and penalties for incorrect returns and late payments and how to appeal.

From:
HM Revenue & Customs
Published
9 February 2017

If you register late

If you register late, HMRC may charge you a penalty unless you have a reasonable excuse.

You should register within 30 days of commercially exploiting aggregate or intending to.

If you send a late or incorrect return

If you do not send correct returns and pay the levy on time, we’ll send you an assessment of how much you owe. If your actual figures are not available, we’ll consider all the facts and make a decision about how much levy you owe.

We’ll issue an assessment if either:

  • you do not submit returns
  • your returns look incomplete or inaccurate because:
    • you have not kept or produced any records
    • your accounts and records look incomplete or inaccurate

Time limits for issuing assessments

We can issue assessments within 2 years of the end of the relevant accounting period.

If the 2 year time limit has passed, we can issue an assessment within one year of us getting the information to issue it. We cannot issue an assessment more than 4 years after the end of the accounting period unless there is fraud or dishonesty.

We can extend the period we assess to 20 years in cases of fraud or dishonesty. You must pay an assessment of levy immediately. We’ll recover assessments as a debt if you do not.

Interest charges on unpaid levy

We’ll charge interest on the whole amount we assess if we make an assessment of levy because:

  • you did not declare enough levy on a return
  • a previous assessment of levy was too low

We’ll apply interest from the day after the date the levy was due for payment to the day before the date on the assessment.

If you pay too much levy

If you pay too much levy because of our mistake, we’ll repay you. We’ll also pay you interest for the applicable period. You must claim the interest within 4 years of us agreeing to repay levy to you.

Penalties

When we charge a fixed penalty

We may charge a fixed penalty of £250 if you do not:

  • register at the correct time
  • tell us about changes to your registration details
  • tell us that you no longer need to be registered
  • report extraction of exempt aggregate to us when you do not have to register
  • send a return or payment by the due date
  • keep records

We may charge a fixed penalty of £300 if you do not produce records when we ask for them. We may follow this with a daily penalty of up to £60 for each day that you continue not to produce them.

We may also charge a fixed penalty of £10,000 if you do not ask us to approve a tax representative and you are not resident in the UK.

When we charge a non-fixed penalty

We may charge a penalty of up to 100% of levy you owe if you:

We may charge a penalty of up to 30% of potential lost revenue if we have sent you an assessment that is not enough, and you do not tell us.

When we charge an industrial and agricultural processes relief penalty

We may charge a penalty of 105% of the levy involved to anyone who declares incorrectly that aggregate will be used in a relieved industrial or agricultural process. In cases of dishonesty, the penalty may be double the amount of levy involved.

Controlled goods agreement

The following paragraph does not apply in Scotland.

If you do not pay levy due, a bailiff or HMRC officer may visit your premises and ‘take control of goods’. We can sell these if you do not pay the debt. We may leave the goods with you if you agree not to remove or sell them. If you break a controlled goods agreement (walking possession agreement in Northern Ireland), we may charge a penalty of half the debt due.

If we need you to provide a security

We may need you to provide a security for payment of the levy as a condition of carrying out taxable activities. It is a criminal offence to continue to carry out taxable activities if we have asked you for security and you have not provided it.

Penalty interest

We may charge penalty interest on the amount involved if you do not pay on time:

  • the levy due on a return or an assessment
  • a penalty
  • interest

Penalty interest accrues daily and is charged at 10 percentage points above the rate of ordinary interest. Each month we’ll add the interest charged to the existing debt, and charge interest on the total amount in the following month while the debt remains unpaid.

If you disagree

If you do not agree with an assessment, interest charge or penalty, you can ask for a review or can appeal against it.

Published 9 February 2017
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