CCLG15065 - Assessments and Penalties: Officer's assessments

Officers can, subject to the policy on when and when not to assess which is explained below, issue assessments where an energy supplier has declared the wrong liability to CCL or has made an error in respect of a claim to credit. There can be no officer's assessment unless the energy supplier has made a return or the Department has issued a central assessment, which is issued in the absence of a return.

It is also important to remember that both over and under declarations should be treated on an equitable basis. The objective of our assessment policy is to achieve a proper result in terms of the right tax at the right time. Where an energy supplier has made both over and under declarations, for the same period, the assessment should give the energy supplier credit for the errors in his favour. Officers should not, in such cases, assess only for under declarations and advise energy suppliers to deal with over declarations by error correction action. Net overdeclarations of climate change levy should not however, be set-off against VAT or other debts

An officer's assessment should be explained to the energy supplier by an appropriate covering letter and any necessary supporting schedule or schedules. The covering letter should make clear the statutory basis of the assessment. For example, if an energy supplier has failed to account for levy on certain taxable supplies made in the period, the assessment should explain why it is being raised and that the levy is due.