Questions and Answers

Question One: Marketing and Management Company
"XXX is a M&M company. We are not the owner on any logs as they cross the port gate – they are the legal property of our suppliers until paid for on the 20th of the following month. Could the log owner rather than XXX be invoiced by Integral?"

Answer: For a sale where XXX is identified by the Mill as the log owner just prior to the log crossing the mill gate, or by the Marshalling company as the owner just after the wharf gate, then Integral will send XXX an invoice for the levy.

XXX may not be the actual log owner at these points, but as the Levy Board can’t reliably get Forest Owner data at this point, the organisation identified by the data collection agent (mill or marshalling company), will receive the Levy invoice generated by Integral. XXX has a legal right (via the Levy Order- Section 6(4)) to obtain the levy from the Forest Owner. The order states this may be a deduction from the payment for the harvested material.

Note: If you are using PSLog, this system has been modified to make this easy and transparent.
PSLog when invoicing the work done for a forest owner, will have a line on that invoice called “Commodity Levy”. By activating that option, it will invoice the Forest Owner for the levy, via the invoice for the harvesting/marketing services. In practice, it is expected Marketing and Management companies will invoice the Forest Owner for the Levy in advance of receiving an invoice from Integral for that volume.

If you are using an alternative system, we recommend you identify the Levy Component as a separate item. It should not be included in any fee – as this can become subject to negotiation.

Question Two: Forest Owner
"Where stumpage was sold before the levy implementation date (1st January 2014), and the stumpage sale agreement did not openly address the levy in the negotiation, who is ultimately liable to pay the levy if this wood goes past a levy data collection point after 1st January 2014?"

Answer: Depends on exactly what was sold: The rights to cut the trees, or the trees themselves.

Under the levy order Section 3, Interpretation, the forest owner means the owner of the trees whether or not the cutting rights have been granted to another person. So the Forest Owner will be liable for the levy even though they sold the cutting rights possibly months before the levy was imposed, if the trees pass a levy data collection point after Jan 1st 2014.

However, if the sale contract makes it clear the trees themselves have been sold (such as under a forestry right), as opposed to just the cutting right, then the owner of the trees is the new owner, and he is liable for the levy, not the original owner.