Value Added Tax Act 1994

7 Place of supply

(1) This section shall apply (subject to sections 14 and 18) for determining, for the purposes of this Act, whether goods or services are supplied in the United Kingdom.

(2) Subject to the following provisions of this section, if the supply of any goods does not involve their removal from or to the United Kingdom they shall be treated as supplied in the United Kingdom if they are in the United Kingdom and otherwise shall be treated as supplied outside the United Kingdom.

(3) Goods shall be treated—

(a) as supplied in the United Kingdom where their supply involves their installation or assembly at a place in the United Kingdom to which they are removed; and

(b) as supplied outside the United Kingdom where their supply involves their installation or assembly at a place outside the United Kingdom to which they are removed.

(4) Goods whose place of supply is not determined under any of the preceding provisions of this section shall be treated as supplied in the United Kingdom where—

(a) the supply involves the removal of the goods to the United Kingdom by or under the directions of the person who supplies them;

(b) the supply is a transaction in pursuance of which the goods are acquired in the United Kingdom from another member State by a person who is not a taxable person;

(c) the supplier—

(i) is liable to be registered under Schedule 2; or

(ii) would be so liable if he were not already registered under this Act or liable to be registered under Schedule 1; and

(d) the supply is neither a supply of goods consisting in a new means of transport nor anything which is treated as a supply for the purposes of this Act by virtue only of paragraph 5(1) or 6 of Schedule 4.

(5) Goods whose place of supply is not determined under any of the preceding provisions of this section and which do not consist in a new means of transport shall be treated as supplied outside the United Kingdom where—

(a) the supply involves the removal of the goods, by or under the directions of the person who supplies them, to another member State;

(b) the person who makes the supply is taxable in another member State; and

(c) provisions of the law of that member State corresponding, in relation to that member State, to the provisions made by subsection (4) above make that person liable to VAT on the supply;

but this subsection shall not apply in relation to any supply in a case where the liability mentioned in paragraph (c) above depends on the exercise by any person of an option in the United Kingdom corresponding to such an option as is mentioned in paragraph 1(2) of Schedule 2 unless that person has given, and has not withdrawn, a notification to the Commissioners that he wishes his supplies to be treated as taking place outside the United Kingdom where they are supplies in relation to which the other requirements of this subsection are satisfied.

(6) Goods whose place of supply is not determined under any of the preceding provisions of this section shall be treated as supplied in the United Kingdom where—

(a) their supply involves their being imported from a place outside the member States; and

(b) the person who supplies them is the person by whom, or under whose directions, they are so imported.

(7) Goods whose place of supply is not determined under any of the preceding provisions of this section but whose supply involves their removal to or from the United Kingdom shall be treated—

(a) as supplied in the United Kingdom where their supply involves their removal from the United Kingdom without also involving their previous removal to the United Kingdom; and

(b) as supplied outside the United Kingdom in any other case.

(8) For the purposes of the preceding provisions of this section, where goods, in the course of their removal from a place in the United Kingdom to another place in the United Kingdom, leave and re-enter the United Kingdom the removal shall not be treated as a removal from or to the United Kingdom.

(9) The Commissioners may by regulations provide that a notification for the purposes of subsection (5) above is not to be given or withdrawn except in such circumstances, and in such form and manner, as may be prescribed.

(10) A supply of services shall be treated as made—

(a) in the United Kingdom if the supplier belongs in the United Kingdom; and

(b) in another country (and not in the United Kingdom) if the supplier belongs in that other country.

(11) The Treasury may by order provide, in relation to goods or services generally or to particular goods or services specified in the order, for varying the rules for determining where a supply of goods or services is made.