The Customs (Northern Ireland) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020

Retention of domestic goods status

26.—(1) Goods do not cease to be domestic goods when exported from the United Kingdom as a result of their removal from Northern Ireland if they are goods mentioned in paragraphs (2) to (5).

(2) Goods which remain outside the United Kingdom for a temporary period and are—

(a) motor road vehicles registered in the United Kingdom or the Isle of Man;

(b) packaging, pallets and similar equipment, excluding containers, used for transportation and owned by a person established in the United Kingdom or the Isle of Man; or

(c) non-commercial goods or personal gifts on export which—

(i) are carried as part of the baggage which accompanies an individual when departing from the United Kingdom; and

(ii) are not goods which were supplied without payment of excise duty in an export shop in the United Kingdom, in accordance with the Excise Goods (Export Shops) Regulations 2000(1), or in the Isle of Man, in accordance with equivalent legislation which is in force in the Isle of Man.

(3) Goods in respect of which regulation 3 (duty free stores) of the Excise Goods (Aircraft and Ship’s Stores) Regulations 2015(2) applies.

(4) Goods which are zero-rated for value added tax in accordance with section 30 of, and Group 8 (transport) of Schedule 8 (zero-rating) to, the Value Added Tax Act 1994(3) and are stores within the meaning of section 1 (interpretation) of CEMA 1979(4).

(5) Goods which are—

(a) qualifying Northern Ireland goods;

(b) removed from Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland and merely pass through the Republic of Ireland before arriving in Great Britain;

(c) itemised in a travel document issued in the United Kingdom which specifies the destination of the goods; and

(d) immediately before their removal from Northern Ireland were not moved in the manner described in paragraph (6).

(6) The manner of movement is that the goods—

(a) are loaded for export outside Northern Ireland; and

(b) enter Northern Ireland and are either not unloaded there or are unloaded there but for an avoidance purpose.

(7) For the purposes of paragraph (6)(b) goods are unloaded in Northern Ireland for an avoidance purpose if it is reasonable to conclude that the main purpose, or one of the main purposes, of unloading the goods there was to secure the application of paragraph (5).

(1)

S.I. 2000/645. Relevant amending and modifying instruments are S.I. 2004/1003 and2010/593.

(2)

S.I. 2015/368.

(3)

1994 c. 23. Section 30 is amended by section 28 of the Finance Act 1995 (c. 4) and section 29 of the Finance Act 1996 (c. 8). Group 8 of Schedule 8 is amended by paragraph 285(d) of Schedule 1 to the Corporation Tax Act 2010 (c. 4), sections 21 and 22 of the Finance (No. 3) Act 2010 (c. 33) and S.I. 1994/3014, 1995/653, 1995/3039, 1999/1820, 2001/753, 2002/456, 2002/1173, 2006/1750, 2011/1043, 2011/2085 and 2019/73. Section 30 and Group 8 of Schedule 8 are to be amended by paragraphs 29 and 94 of Schedule 8 to the Act (VAT amendments connected with withdrawal from EU) on a date to be appointed.

(4)

“CEMA 1979” is defined by section 37(1) to the Act as “the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979” (c. 2).