Westmill Solar Co-operative Limited
Fair Tax Mark Statement (March 2025)
This statement of Fair Tax compliance was compiled in partnership with the Fair Tax Foundation (“FTF”) and certifies that Westmill Solar Co-operative Limited (“the Society”) meets the standards and requirements of the FTF’s Solely UK-based Business Standard for the Fair Tax Mark certification.
Tax Policy
The Society is committed to paying all the taxes it owes in accordance with the spirit of all tax laws that apply to its operations. We believe paying our taxes in this way is the clearest indication we can give of being responsible participants in society. We will fulfil our commitment to paying the appropriate taxes that we owe by seeking to pay the right amount of tax, in the right place, and at the right time. We aim to do this by ensuring we report our tax affairs in ways that reflect the economic reality of the transactions that we undertake during the course of our trade.
We will not seek to use those options made available in tax law, or the allowances and reliefs that it provides, in ways that are contrary to the spirit of the law. Nor will we undertake specific transactions with the sole or main aim of securing tax advantages that would otherwise not be available to us based on the reality of the trade that we undertake. The Society will never undertake transactions that would require notification to HM Revenue & Customs under the Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes Regulations or participate in any arrangement to which it might be reasonably anticipated that the UK’s General Anti-Abuse Rule might apply.
We believe tax havens undermine the UK’s tax system. As a result, while we may trade with customers and suppliers genuinely located in places considered to be tax havens, we will not make use of those places to secure a tax advantage, and nor will we take advantage of the secrecy that many such jurisdictions provide for transactions recorded within them.
Our accounts and tax filings will be prepared in compliance with this policy and we will seek to provide all the information that users, including HM Revenue & Customs, might need to properly appraise our tax position.
The Society’s Secretary shall be responsible for overseeing the application of this policy; and the board of directors will review this policy annually to ensure that it is complied with.
Our Tax Information
In 2023, the Society’s surplus before tax was £201,415. The corporation tax expected on this surplus would be £47,333 (23.50%). In fact, the actual current tax charge was £97,981 (48.64%). The reason behind the Society’s current tax charge being higher than what would be expected is due to the following tax adjustment:
Adjustments to prior periods (-6.38%)
Adjustments to tax charges in prior periods are quite common and can arise for a number of reasons.
Sometimes the tax charge for the previous year was calculated for the accounts before the corporation tax return had been finalised and submitted to HMRC, due to the different deadlines for both the accounts and the tax return. This is then updated the year after to reflect any changes between the tax in the accounts and the actual tax charge that was submitted. Other times, we may currently be correcting a mistake from a previous year(s), which is then adjusted for in the current year’s tax charge.
Expenses not deductible and effect of capital allowances (+31.52%)
Some expenses, although entirely appropriate for inclusion in our accounts, are not allowed as a deduction against taxable income when calculating our tax liability. An example of such an expense is depreciation – which is subject to capital allowances instead. This is because, the treatment of fixed assets is different for accounting and tax purposes. For accounting purposes, fixed assets are depreciated over their useful economic lives. For tax, there are specific rules on what can be claimed and when (capital allowances). These differences can create tax adjustments. However, these tax adjustments are only timing differences, as eventually, the total depreciation charged in the accounts will match the total capital allowances claimed in the tax returns. As at the year ended 31 December 2023, we have not made a provision in our accounts in relation to these timing differences (i.e. no deferred tax has been accounted for).