Know exactly what you owe HMRC - before the quarter ends. At around £223 per tonne for 2025-26, PPT adds up faster than most distributors expect. Packlah tracks your exposure automatically, from the same SKU catalogue that powers your EPR fees.
| SKU | Plastic kg | Recycled % | Status | PPT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EL-1247 | 624 | 12% | Taxable | £139 |
| EL-2103 | 1,840 | 32% | Exempt | £0 |
| EL-2204 | 312 | 0% | Taxable | £70 |
| EL-3110 | 1,140 | 28% | Taxable | £254 |
| EL-3018 | 880 | 45% | Exempt | £0 |
Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT) is a UK tax on plastic packaging components that are manufactured in or imported into the UK. It came into force on 1 April 2022, administered by HMRC - separate from EPR, which goes to DEFRA and PackUK.
The rate applies to components that contain less than 30% recycled plastic by weight. Hit that 30% threshold and you're exempt from PPT entirely - the tax drops to zero on those components. That's a meaningful financial decision buried inside what looks like a procurement choice.
You're required to register with HMRC if you place 10 or more tonnes of plastic packaging on the UK market in any rolling 12-month period. The threshold sounds generous until you're tracking it across dozens of SKUs with mixed plastic and non-plastic components - at which point most people end up with a spreadsheet that's three months out of date.
Returns are quarterly, on calendar quarters ending March, June, September, and December. Payment is due on the last working day of the month after the quarter closes. Four separate submissions to HMRC per year, each requiring accurate tonnage data for every applicable packaging component.
EPR is annual or bi-annual. PPT is four HMRC submissions a year. Each one requires fresh tonnage data and carries a deadline. Miss one and you're exposed to penalties, not just a late fee.
At £223 per tonne, a distributor placing 50 tonnes of unrecycled plastic packaging annually is looking at over £11,000 in PPT. That's before any EPR obligation. Knowing your number per SKU is the difference between pricing correctly and absorbing a cost you didn't model.
Switching a component to 30%+ recycled content removes the PPT liability entirely. But that same switch has EPR implications too. You can't optimise one in isolation.
PPT returns need accurate weight data per plastic component, per quarter. Packlah pulls this from your live SKU catalogue - the same data you've already entered for EPR. At quarter end, you get a return-ready summary in the format HMRC expects, with a deadline reminder in advance.
| Category | Tonnes | PPT |
|---|---|---|
| Total plastic packaging | 51.9 | - |
| Taxable (≤29% recycled) | 37.7 | £8,420 |
| Exempt (≥30% recycled) | 14.2 | £0 |
| Excluded categories | 0.0 | £0 |
| Net PPT due | £8,420 | |
The 30% recycled content threshold is a hard line. Cross it and a component becomes PPT-exempt. Packlah lets you model the impact of switching components to higher recycled content: how much PPT would disappear, what that means for your cost per unit, and how the change flows through to your EPR fees too.
| Scenario | PPT/qtr | EPR/yr | Total impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Today | £8,420 | £24,847 | - |
| EL-3110 → 35% | £8,166 | £24,610 | -£1,253/yr |
| All taxable SKUs → 30% | £0 | £21,420 | -£37,107/yr |
The 10-tonne registration threshold catches businesses off-guard - especially if you're growing or have recently added new product lines. Packlah tracks your running plastic tonnage across all SKUs on a rolling 12-month basis and flags when you're approaching the threshold.
| Month | Plastic added | Rolling 12m | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2026 | 0.4 t | 5.1 t | - |
| Feb 2026 | 0.6 t | 5.5 t | +8% |
| Mar 2026 | 0.8 t | 6.0 t | +9% |
| Apr 2026 | 0.8 t | 6.8 t | +13% |
HMRC and DEFRA are two different bodies, two different submission processes, two different deadlines. But the underlying data is the same: your packaging components, their materials, their weights, their recycled content. Enter it once in Packlah and both liabilities are calculated from a single source of truth.
| SKU | EPR/yr | PPT/yr | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| EL-1247 | £516 | £556 | £1,072 |
| EL-2103 | £534 | £0 | £534 |
| EL-2204 | £312 | £280 | £592 |
| EL-3110 | £580 | £1,016 | £1,596 |
| Total compliance cost | £3,794 | ||