2015 Bag Tax
You must charge if you employ 250 or more full-time equivalent employees (in total and not just in retail roles). The number of full-time equivalent employees is the number of total hours contracted to work by all employees divided by the number of hours worked by a single full-time employee. A full-time staff member who worked all year counts as 1 employee. Part-time and seasonal staff, and those who did not work the full year, are counted as fractions of 1 employee.
You must charge if you:
- sell goods in England
- deliver goods to England
People with fewer than 250 full-time equivalent employees don’t have to charge. If your store is part of a franchise or symbol group (sharing a brand and products) you only count employees in your business. You don’t count the franchise or symbol group as a whole.
For example, if you own 10 stores in a symbol group and have more than 250 employees in total, you’ll have to charge for carrier bags. But if you’re part of a symbol group and own 2 stores with 15 employees, you don’t have to charge.
When the reporting year runs
The reporting year runs from:
- 5 October 2015 to 6 April 2016
- 7 April to 6 April from 2016 onwards
#SayNoToPlastic