DMBM537440 - Debt and return pursuit: Climate Change Levy: Who is liable to pay the debt? The tax representative
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Taxpayers not resident in the UK who
- make taxable supplies as gas or electricity utilities or
- receive or intend to receive taxable supplies of solid fuel or Light Petroleum Gas (LPG) from outside the UK
are liable to register for CCL and are liable to pay the levy due.
To secure payment of levy due, we may require the taxable person to appoint a tax representative who is liable jointly and severally with the taxable person for levy due.
Paragraph 115 (3) of Schedule 6 to the Finance Act 2000, provides:
A person who is or has been the tax representative of a non-resident taxpayer shall be personally liable
(a) in respect of any failure while he is or was the non-resident taxpayer's tax representative to secure compliance with, or the discharge of, any obligation or liability to which sub- paragraph (2) applies and
(b) in respect of anything done in the course of, or for purposes connected with, acting on the non-resident taxpayer's behalf,
as if the obligations and liabilities to which sub-paragraph (2) applies were imposed jointly and severally on the tax representative and the non-resident taxpayer.
As a matter of policy take civil recovery action against a CCL representative only when action against the registered person is exhausted and a debt for which the CCL representative is liable remains unpaid.
The Enforcement and Insolvency Service (EIS) requires verification of the CCL representative's status (normally, a letter signed by the authorised officer confirming his official representative status).
The provision for mutual assistance between Member States of the European Union in the recovery of tax debts does not currently extend to the collection of CCL.