Value Added Tax Act 1994

18 Place and time of acquisition or supply. U.K.

(1) Where—

(a) any goods have been removed from a place outside the member States and have entered the territory of the [F1 European Union];

(b) the material time for any acquisition of those goods from another member State or for any supply of those goods is while they are subject to a warehousing regime and before the duty point; and

(c) those goods are not mixed with any dutiable goods which were produced or manufactured in the United Kingdom or acquired from another member State,

then the acquisition or supply mentioned in paragraph (b) above shall be treated for the purposes of this Act as taking place outside the United Kingdom.

[F2 (1A) The Commissioners may by regulations prescribe circumstances in which subsection (1) above shall not apply.]

(2) Subsection (3) below applies where—

(a) any dutiable goods are acquired from another member State; or

(b) any person makes a supply of—

(i) any dutiable goods which were produced or manufactured in the United Kingdom or acquired from another member State; or

(ii) any goods comprising a mixture of goods falling within sub-paragraph (i) above and other goods.

(3) Where this subsection applies and the material time for the acquisition or supply mentioned in subsection (2) above is while the goods in question are subject to a warehousing regime and before the duty point, that acquisition or supply shall be treated for the purposes of this Act as taking place outside the United Kingdom if the material time for any subsequent supply of those goods is also while the goods are subject to the warehousing regime and before the duty point.

(4) Where the material time for any acquisition or supply of any goods in relation to which subsection (3) above applies is while the goods are subject to a warehousing regime and before the duty point but the acquisition or supply nevertheless falls, for the purposes of this Act, to be treated as taking place in the United Kingdom—

(a) that acquisition or supply shall be treated for the purposes of this Act as taking place at the earlier of the following times, that is to say, the time when the goods are removed from the warehousing regime and the duty point; and

(b) in the case of a supply, any VAT payable on the supply shall be paid (subject to any regulations under subsection (5) below)—

(i) at the time when the supply is treated as taking place under paragraph (a) above; and

(ii) by the person by whom the goods are so removed or, as the case may be, together with the duty or agricultural levy, by the person who is required to pay the duty or levy.

[F3 (5) The Commissioners may by regulations make provision for enabling a taxable person to pay the VAT he is required to pay by virtue of paragraph (b) of subsection (4) above at a time later than that provided for by that paragraph.

(5A) Regulations under subsection (5) above may in particular make provision for either or both of the following—

(a) for the taxable person to pay the VAT together with the VAT chargeable on other supplies by him of goods and services;

(b) for the taxable person to pay the VAT together with any duty of excise deferment of which has been granted to him under section 127A of the M1 Customs and Excise Management Act 1979;

and they may make different provision for different descriptions of taxable person and for different descriptions of goods.]

(6) In this section—

• “dutiable goods” means any goods which are subject—

  (a)

  to a duty of excise; or

  (b)

  in accordance with any provision for the time being having effect for transitional purposes in connection with the accession of any State to the [F1 European Union], to any [F4 EU] customs duty or agricultural levy of the [F1 European Union];

• “the duty point”, in relation to any goods, means—

  (a)

  in the case of goods which are subject to a duty of excise, the time when the requirement to pay the duty on those goods takes effect; and

  (b)

  in the case of goods which are not so subject, the time when any [F4 EU] customs debt in respect of duty on the entry of the goods into the territory of the [F1 European Union] would be incurred or, as the case may be, the corresponding time in relation to any such duty or levy as is mentioned in paragraph (b) of the definition of dutiable goods;

• “material time”—

  (a)

  in relation to any acquisition or supply the time of which is determined in accordance with regulations under section 6(14) or 12(3), means such time as may be prescribed for the purpose of this section by those regulations;

  (b)

  in relation to any other acquisition, means the time of the event which, in relation to the acquisition, is the first relevant event for the purposes of taxing it; and

  (c)

  in relation to any other supply, means the time when the supply would be treated as taking place in accordance with subsection (2) of section 6 if paragraph (c) of that subsection were omitted;

• “warehouse” means any warehouse where goods may be stored in any member State without payment of any one or more of the following, that is to say—

  (a)

  [F4 EU] customs duty;

  (b)

  any agricultural levy of the [F1 European Union];

  (c)

  VAT on the importation of the goods into any member State;

  (d)

  any duty of excise or any duty which is equivalent in another member State to a duty of excise.

(7) References in this section to goods being subject to a warehousing regime is a reference to goods being kept in a warehouse or being transported between warehouses (whether in the same or different member States) without the payment in a member State of any duty, levy or VAT; and references to the removal of goods from a warehousing regime shall be construed accordingly.

Textual Amendments

F1 Words in Act substituted (22.4.2011) by The Treaty of Lisbon (Changes in Terminology) Order 2011 (S.I. 2011/1043), arts. 2, 3, 4 (with arts. 3(2)(3), 4(2), 6(4)(5))

F2 S. 18(1A) inserted (20.7.2005) by Finance (No. 2) Act 2005 (c. 22), s. 1

F3 S. 18(5)(5A) substituted (1.5.1995) for s. 18(5) by 1995 c. 4, s. 29

F4 Word in Act substituted (22.4.2011) by The Treaty of Lisbon (Changes in Terminology) Order 2011 (S.I. 2011/1043), arts. 2, 3, 6 (with arts. 3(2)(3), 4(2), 6(4)(5))

Marginal Citations

M1 1979 c. 2.