Waste management firm ordered to pay £9.4m waste tax bill
Wetherby waste management group Augean has been handed its final waste tax bill for its Northern arm.
The listed firm has been issued with a final assessment and payment demand from HMRC for Augean North for a total amount of £9.4m, £10.1m including interest, covering the period from August 2014 to August 2017. HMRC is considering whether penalties may be appropriate.
It is also to receive the assessment for its Augean South business. The bills relate to the assessment value in an investigation launched by HMRC on whether the company paid sufficient land fill tax in relation to its treatment and disposal of hazardous waste.
Augean said: “Whilst the Group acknowledges the positive and welcome move to issue the final assessment for Augean North Ltd, we still believe that this assessment is without merit and maintain our position based on the legal advice received and independent reviews of our systems.
“The Group will take all appropriate legal channels to challenge the assessment received and seek to mitigate payment of the tax until these legal appeals have concluded.”
It said the scale of the Augean North assessment should not be used to compare with the pre-assessment notification of £45.1m received in April 2018 as the Group has yet to receive the final assessment for Augean South and will issue a further announcement once it does.
