APD8100 - Special accounting schemes: Introduction

Scope of this section

This section provides guidance on special accounting schemes for APD. You should read it in conjunction with Notice 551 Special accounting schemes for Air Passenger Duty.

Law and regulations

The primary law covering special accounting schemes is contained in the:

• Finance Act 1994 section 39.

The secondary legislation can be found in the:

• Aircraft Operators (Accounts and Records) Regulations 1994 (SI 1994 No 1737) regulation 5;
• Air Passenger Duty (Extended Schemes) Regulations 1995(SI 1995 No 1216).

Background

The regulations relating to special accounting schemes changed from 1 June 1995. The Air Passenger Duty (Extended Schemes) Regulations 1995 extended the use of special schemes to enable a calculation to be made to include all exemptions from duty of persons carried on an aircraft, whether they fall within the definition of not being passengers or within the definition of passengers who are not chargeable passengers.

The Finance Act 1994 was amended by the Finance Act 2000 to reflect the introduction of the revised duty rate structure. The effect of this is to allow the inclusion of the rate structure in special accounting schemes.

Why are special schemes needed?

Special schemes are needed because some aircraft operators are unable to account for all their exemptions on a transaction basis using their current systems.

More specifically, aircraft operators may need a scheme if:

• they need to refer to additional information, not shown on the same or conjunction tickets, to identify exemptions accurately;
• transaction-based accounting would be impractical because of the number or complexity of tickets involved; or
• they cannot render an accurate return by the due date and need to declare a provisional figure to be adjusted later.

In all cases, aircraft operators must demonstrate that there is a genuine need for a scheme.