S.I. No. 448/1994:

EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES (VALUE-ADDED TAX) REGULATIONS, 1994.

EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES (VALUE-ADDED TAX) REGULATIONS, 1994.

I, RUAIRÍ QUINN, Minister for Finance, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act, 1972 (No. 27 of 1972), and for the purpose of giving effect to Council Directive No. 94/76/EC of 22 December 1994 (amending Council Directive No. 77/388/EEC⁽¹⁾ by the introduction of transitional measures applicable, in the context of the enlargement of the European Union on I January 1995, as regards value-added tax) hereby make the following Regulations:

1. (1) These Regulations may be cited as the European Communities (Value-Added Tax) Regulations, 1994.

(2) These Regulations shall be construed together with the Value-Added Tax Acts 1972 to 1994.

2. These Regulations shall come into operation on the 1st day of January, 1995.

3. In these Regulations "the Principal Act" means the Value-Added Tax Act, 1972 .

4. The Principal Act is hereby amended by the insertion of the following section after section 15A:

"Goods in transit (additional provisions).

15B.--(1) Where--

( a ) goods from a new Member State were imported into the State on or before the 31st day of December, 1994, and

( b ) the tax referred to in section 2 (1) (b) was not chargeable because the goods were, at the time of such importation, placed--

⁽¹⁾O.J. No. L145, 13 June, 1977, p. 1.

(i) under an arrangement for temporary importation with total exemption from customs duty, or

(ii) under one of the arrangements referred to in clauses (a), (b), (c) and (d) of subparagraph B of paragraph 1 of Article 16, of Council Directive No. 77/388/EEC of 17 May 1977, and

( c ) the goods are still subject to such an arrangement on the 1st day of January, 1995,

then, the provisions in force at the time the goods were placed under that arrangement shall continue to apply until the goods leave that arrangement on or after the 1st day of January, 1995.

(2) ( a ) Where--

(i) goods were placed under the common transit procedure or under another customs transit procedure in a new Member State on or before the 31st day of December, 1994, and

(ii) those goods have not left the procedure concerned before the 1st day of January, 1995,

then the provisions in force at the time the goods were placed under that procedure shall continue to apply until the goods leave that procedure on or after the 1st day of January, 1995.

( b ) In this subsection 'common transit procedure' means the procedure approved by the Council of the European Communities by Council Decision No. 87/415/EEC of 15 June 1987⁽²⁾, approving the Convention done at Interlaken on the 20th day of May, 1987, between the European Community, the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Finland, the Republic of Iceland, the Kingdom of Norway, the Kingdom of Sweden and the Swiss Confederation on a common transit procedure, the text of which is attached to that Council Decision.

(3) Where goods were in free circulation in a new Member State prior to entry into the State, an importation into the State shall be deemed to occur in the following cases:

( a ) the removal, including irregular removal, within the State of the goods referred to in subsection (1) from the arrangement referred to in subparagraph (i) of paragraph (b) of that subsection;

( b ) the removal, including irregular removal, within the State of the goods referred to in subsection (1) from the arrangement referred to in subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (b) of that subsection;

( c ) the termination within the State of any of the procedures referred to in subsection (2).

(4) An importation into the State shall be deemed to occur when goods, which were supplied within a new Member State on or before the 31st day of December, 1994, and which were not chargeable to a value-added tax in that new Member State, because of their exportation from that new Member State, are used in the State on or after the 1st day of January, 1995, and have not been imported before that date.

⁽²⁾O.J. No. L226, 13 August, 1987, p. 1.

(5) The tax referred to in section 2 (1) (b) shall not be chargeable where--

( a ) the imported goods referred to in subsections (3) and (4) are dispatched or transported outside the enlarged Community,

( b ) the imported goods referred to in paragraph (a) of subsection (3) are other than means of transport and are being returned to the new Member State from which they were exported and to the person who exported them, or

( c ) the imported goods referred to in paragraph (a) of subsection (3) are means of transport which were acquired in or imported into a new Member State before the 1st day of January, 1995 in accordance with the general conditions of taxation in force on the domestic market of that new Member State and which have not been subject by reason of their exportation to any exemption from or refund of a value-added tax in that new Member State:

Provided that this paragraph shall be deemed to be complied with where it is shown to the satisfaction of the Revenue Commissioners that the first use of the means of transport was prior to the 1st day of January, 1987, or that the tax due does not exceed £100.

(6) The provisions of section 15A shall not apply to goods imported or deemed to be imported from a new Member State.

(7) ( a ) In this section--

'the enlarged Community' means the Community after the accession of the new Member States;

'new Member State' means the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Finland (excluding the Aland Islands) or the Kingdom of Sweden.

( b ) A word or expression that is used in this section and is also used in Council Directive No. 94/76/EC of 22 December 1994 has, unless the contrary intention appears, the meaning in this section that it has in that Council Directive.".

GIVEN under my Official Seal, this 22nd day of December, 1994.

RUAIRÍ QUINN,

Minister for Finance.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

These Regulations insert a new section 15B into the VAT Act. The new section deals with the transitional arrangements applicable for the taxation of trade between Austria, Finland and Sweden, and Ireland, in the context of such countries' accession to the European Union on I January, 1995. In effect the Regulations introduce transitional measures which ensure that VAT at the point of entry applies to goods from Austria, Finland and Sweden which are dispatched prior to 1 January, 1995 and placed under a tax suspended import procedure in the State, but are not cleared through that procedure until after 1 January, 1995.