Two separate UK packaging compliance regimes. One set of packaging data. If you're a UK food packaging distributor, you've probably heard both acronyms. They sound similar, they both involve your packaging, and they both cost money. But they're different legal obligations with different regulators, different thresholds, and different calculation logic.
EPR is a fee paid to PackUK based on how much packaging you put onto the UK market, across all materials. PPT is a separate tax paid to HMRC on plastic packaging that contains less than 30% recycled content. You can be caught by one, both, or neither - and hitting an exemption in one does nothing to your liability in the other.
| EPR | PPT | |
|---|---|---|
| Materials covered | All packaging (paper, plastic, glass, steel, aluminium, fibre composite, wood, other) | Plastic packaging only |
| Regulator | PackUK / DEFRA | HMRC |
| Scheme name | Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) | Plastic Packaging Tax |
| Cadence | Annual (small producers), bi-annual (large producers) | Quarterly returns |
| Liability trigger | £1m turnover + 25 tonnes packaging handled per year (small); £2m + 50t (large) | 10 tonnes of plastic packaging in any rolling 12-month period |
| Rate basis | Fee per tonne by material category, modulated up or down by recyclability | Flat rate per tonne - currently around £223/t (2025-26, CPI-indexed) |
| Exemption mechanism | Below turnover and tonnage thresholds | Hit 30% recycled content on a component, or stay under 10t/year |
| Submission portal | PackUK reporting service | HMRC Government Gateway |
| Payment recipient | PackUK | HMRC |
| In force since | April 2025 | April 2022 |
Note: the £223/t PPT rate is a placeholder based on publicly available 2025-26 figures. Check HMRC for the current indexed rate before filing.
The overlap is at the data layer. Both regimes need you to know what you handle: which packaging, what materials, what volumes. If you've built an accurate SKU catalogue with material breakdowns and annual tonnages, you've done the hard work for both calculations.
That's where the overlap ends. EPR fees land with PackUK; PPT lands with HMRC. They're separate quarterly and annual obligations, filed via different portals, assessed against different thresholds, and calculated using different rate structures. Paying one does not reduce, offset, or count toward the other.
The filing cadence is also different. PPT runs quarterly, so you're returning to HMRC four times a year. EPR runs annually for small producers and bi-annually for large ones, so it demands a bigger review less often. If you're a distributor sitting above the large-producer threshold, you'll be running two EPR submissions and four PPT returns per year - against the same underlying data.
The rate logic also works differently. EPR fees are modulated: DEFRA grades each material by how recyclable it is, and your fee per tonne goes up or down accordingly. PPT is a flat tax on plastic components that miss the 30% recycled content threshold - no gradation, no modulation. Either the component qualifies or it doesn't.
No. The thresholds are completely separate. EPR exemption kicks in if you're below £1m turnover or below 25 tonnes of all packaging. PPT exemption kicks in if you're below 10 tonnes of plastic specifically, or if your plastic components clear 30% recycled content. A small producer sitting below the EPR threshold can still be fully liable for PPT.
No. They are separate liabilities. There is no offset, credit, or deduction between them. You calculate your EPR fees against PackUK's rate table. You calculate your PPT liability against HMRC's rate. You pay both. Nothing in either scheme's legislation creates a link between the two.
Yes - but the mechanisms are different. For PPT, clearing 30% recycled plastic content is a binary exemption: that component falls out of the tax entirely. For EPR, recyclability affects your modulated fee rate rather than triggering an outright exemption. If you're making sourcing decisions for PPT, those same decisions will generally push your EPR fees down too.