Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order, which has effect in relation to supplies made on or after the 1st February 2016, applies a reverse charge to specified services of a kind used in missing trader intra-community fraud and excepts some supplies from that charge.

Value added tax, as a general rule, requires the supplier of goods or services to account for VAT on those supplies. Section 55A (customers to account for tax on supplies of goods or services of a kind used in missing trader intra-community fraud) of the Value Added Tax Act 1994 (c. 23) requires the recipient, not the supplier, to account for and pay tax on the supply of goods and services which are of a description specified in an order made by the Treasury for that purpose. Section 55A permits an order to except certain supplies from the specified supplies.

Article 3 of the Order provides that section 55A applies to services of a description specified in article 4 and that supplies specified in article 5 are excepted supplies for the purposes of that section.

Article 4 of the Order describes the services which are specified services for the purposes of section 55A.

Article 5 of the Order describes the services which are excepted services for the purposes of section 55A.

A Tax Information and Impact Note covering this instrument has been published and is available on the government website at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tax-information-and-impact-notes-tiins.