Dear Mr Sanders,
Thank you for your enquiry below.
I would firstly point out that any decision on using rebated diesel in a vehicle is a two part question. The first thing is to establish that it (the vehicle) is either an agricultural, special, or unlicensed vehicle. The guidance on what each type of vehicle is can be found at the bottom of
this guidance.
The Memorandum of Agreement at Section 9 of
Excise Notice 75 sets out how we define agriculture and forestry and some of the activities we accept within those definitions.
- Maintenance of existing Farm and Forestry tracks, ditches and associated infrastructure (e.g farm pipelines).
You may use rebated fuel for ditch clearing and drainage but only if it is done for the benefit of land used for agriculture, horticulture, or forestry. The MOA allows for the use of road plans for the repair of unsealed tracks, but that would not extend to laying of tarmac or new roads within a forestry enterprise as that would be regarded as putting in place the infrastructure to allow forestry activity, and not a forestry activity in itself.
2) Timber extraction, brash clearance and scrub clearance/land reclamation for agricultural use.
The MOA explains that you cannot use rebated fuel if you are cutting down trees or vegetation on wasteland. The clearance of the land is not an agricultural or forestry purpose, even if it is the intention that the land will then be used for an agricultural or forestry purpose.
3) Recovery of bogged agricultural or forestry equipment.
No.
4) maintenance of existing agricultural and forestry structures.
The MOA states that the “construction of buildings or other structures used for purposes relating to agriculture, horticulture and forestry “ are not accepted as falling within the definition. As such, the maintenance of those buildings and structures would not be allowed.
5) loading of agriculture spreading equipment such as line or dung spreaders with agricultural inputs.
It would be helpful to have sight of the piece of machinery involved. The act of spreading agricultural inputs would be accepted as an agricultural activity so the vehicle (if it’s the right type of vehicle) can do that. But loading the machine sounds like it falls on the haulage side of the activity and can’t therefore use rebated diesel.
6) The movement of topsoil uphill to combat soil erosion in agriculture
Yes, if it’s te same piece of agricultural land. If this is the haulage of top soil from one place to another, and the person doing the haulage is not involved in the agricultural activity of raking in or spreading the top soil then it is not an agricultural activity, it is haulage.
7) The restoration of hedgerows and rewilding operations
The restoration of hedgerows could only qualify if they are used in agriculture – and that means they are there to contain livestock. But hedgerows around a crop field don’t serve any useful agricultural purpose. The rewilding operation would not meet the definition of agriculture because although they relate to nature, it is not an agricultural activity.
8) Maintenance and improvement of existing nature reserves, reed beds and moorland.
As with 7, this is not an agricultural activity however, the government is looking at certain aspects of land maintenance and, if anything changes, EN75 will be updated accordingly. Please refer to Excise Notic e75 when it is published at 1 April, or come back to me with this question.
Lastly could you confirm if machinery utilized solely for outside forestry or agricultural use can be utilised for other works when it returns to its place of usual storage. (E.g machine returns from a Forest and is used to load a lorry for a day or two in the yard before being sent back out to a agricultural operation).
The revised legislation will state that “An agricultural vehicle that is primarily kept for use within sub-paragraph (1) at a time when it is used for any other purpose on private land where it is ordinarily kept.”
So, provided it is an agricultural vehicle, that is primarily used for agricultural or forestry purposes, it can be used for any other purpose on the land where it is normally kept.
Paul Hutton - Senior Policy Advisor
Fuel Duty – Excise & Environmental Taxes Policy Delivery – Customer Strategy & Tax Design
HMRC, 3W Ralli Quays, 3 Stanley St, Salford, M60 9LA.
u missed off about beaver dams?
