Finance Act, 1992

Intra-Community acquisition of goods.

168.—The Principal Act is hereby amended by the insertion of the following section after section 3:

“3A. (1) In this Act ‘intra-Community acquisition of goods’ means the acquisition of—

(a) movable goods, other than new means of transport, supplied by a person registered for value-added tax in a Member State to a person in another Member State (other than an individual who is not a taxable person or who is not entitled to elect to be a taxable person) and which have been dispatched or transported from the territory of a Member State to the territory of another Member State as a result of such supply, or

(b) new means of transport dispatched or transported from the territory of a Member State to the territory of another Member State.

(2) (a) The place where an intra-Community acquisition of goods occurs shall be deemed to be the place where the goods are when the dispatch or transportation ends.

(b) Without prejudice to paragraph (a), when the person acquiring the goods quotes his value-added tax registration number for the purpose of the acquisition, the place where an intra-Community acquisition of goods occurs shall be deemed to be within the territory of the Member State which issued that registration number.

(3) For the purposes of this section—

(a) a supply in the territory of another Member State shall be deemed to have arisen where, under similar circumstances, a supply would have arisen in the State under section 3, and

(b) a person shall be deemed to be a taxable person or a person who is entitled to elect to be a taxable person in another Member State where, under similar circumstances, the person would be a taxable person or entitled to elect to be a taxable person in the State in accordance with section 8.

(4) Where goods are dispatched or transported from outside the Community to a person in the State who is not registered for tax and who is not an individual, and value-added tax referred to in Council Directive No. 77/388/EEC of 17 May 1977 is chargeable on the importation of the said goods into another Member State then, for the purposes of subsection (1), the person shall be deemed to be registered for value-added tax in that other Member State and the goods shall be deemed to have been dispatched or transported from that other Member State.”.