Finance Act 1993

45 Customers to account for tax on supplies of gold etc

(1) After section 37B of the [1983 c. 55.] Value Added Tax Act 1983 there shall be inserted the following section—

“37C Customers to account for tax on supplies of gold etc

(1) Where any person makes a supply of gold to another person and that supply is a taxable supply but not a zero-rated supply, the supply shall be treated for the purposes of Schedule 1 to this Act—

(a) as a taxable supply of that other person (as well as a taxable supply of the person who makes it); and

(b) in so far as that other person is supplied in connection with the carrying on by him of any business, as a supply made by him in the course or furtherance of that business;

but nothing in paragraph (b) above shall require any supply to be disregarded for the purposes of that Schedule on the grounds that it is a supply of capital assets of that other person’s business.

(2) Where a taxable person makes a supply of gold to a person who—

(a) is himself a taxable person at the time when the supply is made; and

(b) is supplied in connection with the carrying on by him of any business,

it shall be for the person supplied, on the supplier’s behalf, to account for and pay tax on the supply, and not for the supplier.

(3) So much of this Act and of any other enactment or any subordinate legislation as has effect for the purposes of, or in connection with, the enforcement of any obligation to account for and pay value added tax shall apply for the purposes of this section in relation to any person who is required under subsection (2) above to account for and pay any tax as if that tax were tax on a supply made by him.

(4) Section 5(1) to (5) above shall not apply for determining when any supply of gold is to be treated as taking place.

(5) References in this section to a supply of gold are references to—

(a) any supply of goods consisting in gold, including gold coins, or

(b) any supply of goods containing gold where the consideration for the supply (apart from any tax) is, or is equivalent to, an amount which does not exceed, or exceeds by no more than a negligible amount, the open market value of the gold contained in the goods.

(6) The Treasury may by order provide for this section to apply, as it applies to the supplies specified in subsection (5) above, to such other supplies of—

(a) goods consisting in or containing any precious or semi-precious metal or stones; or

(b) services relating to, or to anything containing, any precious or semi-precious metal or stones,

as may be specified or described in the order.”

(2) In section 5(9) of that Act (power to modify time of supply)—

(a) in the words before paragraph (a), after “4 above” there shall be inserted “or 37C(4) below”; and

(b) in the words after paragraph (b), before “a supply of services” there shall be inserted “a supply to which section 37C below applies or there is”.

(3) Subsection (1) above, so far as it makes provision in relation to supplies of gold, shall have effect in relation to supplies made on or after 1st April 1993, but section 5 of that Act shall be disregarded in determining the time of any supply for the purposes of this subsection.