The Treasury has issued the following two sets of regulations to amend the principal VAT legislation dealing with the special arrangements for Northern Ireland following the end of the Brexit transition period, to ensure the rules operate as intended and to make a number of clarifications.
The Value Added Tax (Distance Selling and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations, SI 2021/1164, make mostly minor changes to the distance-selling rules which apply in relation to Northern Ireland (to mirror the EU scheme from 1 July 2021). Those rules are set out in VATA 1994 Schs 9ZD (One-Stop Shop) and 9ZE (Import One-Stop Shop). Clarifications to both Schedules include the following:
the IOSS scheme applies to qualifying participants in EU member states – not only those registered for IOSS in the UK;
OSS businesses moving goods into NI (and IOSS businesses importing goods into NI) must keep relevant records and make them available to HMRC;
a person registered for IOSS, who is established in Great Britain and imports goods into NI (where the goods are eligible under the IOSS scheme) but who is not VAT registered, is not required to account for VAT on those goods.
The Value Added Tax (Distance Selling and Miscellaneous Amendments No 2) Regulations, SI 2021/1165, make an important change to VATA 1994 Sch 9ZA para 7 to ensure a person can be ‘identified’ for the purposes of VAT in Northern Ireland if they are registered for the OSS scheme in the UK or participate in the scheme in an EU member state. The Regulations otherwise make a number of smaller changes to Schs 9ZA, 9ZB and 9ZC mostly to update references and to ensure consistency of terminology with Schs 9ZD and 9ZE.
Both sets of regulations come into force on 1 December 2021.
The Treasury has issued the following two sets of regulations to amend the principal VAT legislation dealing with the special arrangements for Northern Ireland following the end of the Brexit transition period, to ensure the rules operate as intended and to make a number of clarifications.
The Value Added Tax (Distance Selling and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations, SI 2021/1164, make mostly minor changes to the distance-selling rules which apply in relation to Northern Ireland (to mirror the EU scheme from 1 July 2021). Those rules are set out in VATA 1994 Schs 9ZD (One-Stop Shop) and 9ZE (Import One-Stop Shop). Clarifications to both Schedules include the following:
the IOSS scheme applies to qualifying participants in EU member states – not only those registered for IOSS in the UK;
OSS businesses moving goods into NI (and IOSS businesses importing goods into NI) must keep relevant records and make them available to HMRC;
a person registered for IOSS, who is established in Great Britain and imports goods into NI (where the goods are eligible under the IOSS scheme) but who is not VAT registered, is not required to account for VAT on those goods.
The Value Added Tax (Distance Selling and Miscellaneous Amendments No 2) Regulations, SI 2021/1165, make an important change to VATA 1994 Sch 9ZA para 7 to ensure a person can be ‘identified’ for the purposes of VAT in Northern Ireland if they are registered for the OSS scheme in the UK or participate in the scheme in an EU member state. The Regulations otherwise make a number of smaller changes to Schs 9ZA, 9ZB and 9ZC mostly to update references and to ensure consistency of terminology with Schs 9ZD and 9ZE.
Both sets of regulations come into force on 1 December 2021.
