Revenue Note for Guidance

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Revenue Note for Guidance

Chapter 3 - Place of supply of services

33. Application and interpretation of section 34

Summary

This section sets out the general rules on how section 34, which contains the place of supply provisions for services, are to be interpreted.

Details

(1) For the purposes of the general place of supply rules in section 34, every person registered for VAT is a taxable person (i.e. a person carrying on a business). This means that non-taxable legal persons such as schools, hospitals, etc. who have been registered for VAT are considered to be a business and are required to produce their VAT numbers to the supplier.

(2) Supplies in relation to immovable goods (place of supply, where the goods are located) include:

  • (2)(a) Estate agents/experts’ services;
  • (2)(b) Holiday accommodation;
  • (2)(ba) Telecommunications services, broadcasting services or electronically supplied services when supplied together with holiday accommodation where the supply is by the provider of that accommodation acting in his/her own name;
  • (2)(c) Preparatory construction work (architects, etc.).

(3) For supplies in relation to Business to Consumer (B2C) transport other than intra-Community transport of goods (place of supply, where the transport takes place), ‘intra-Community transport of goods’ means the departure and arrival of the goods are in different Member States.

(4) For supplies in relation to short-term hiring of transport (place of supply, where the customer picks up the transport), ‘short-term’ means not more than 30 days (90 days in the case of a vessel).

(4A) For supplies in relation to long-term hiring out of a means of transport to a non-taxable person, ‘long-term’ means more than 30 days or, if the means of transport is a vessel, more than 90 days.

(4B) For telecommunications, broadcasting and electronically supplied services made to a non-taxable person, the provisions of section 34(kc) apply from the date on which the threshold of €10,000 in respect of those supplies is exceeded, being where the non-taxable person is established, has a permanent address or usually resides.

(5) All the B2C services that, when supplied to non-taxable persons established outside the Community, are deemed to be supplied where the customer is (in other words, place of supply is outside the EU and no VAT is charged by the Irish supplier) are listed in subsection (5). These are as follows:

  1. transfers and assignments of copyrights, patents, licences, trade marks and similar rights;
  2. advertising services;
  3. the services of consultants, engineers, consultancy firms, lawyers, accountants and other similar services, as well as data processing and the provision of information;
  4. obligations to refrain from pursuing or exercising, in whole or in part, a business activity or a right;
  5. banking, financial and insurance transactions including reinsurance, with the exception of the hire of safes;
  6. the supply of staff;
  7. the hiring out of movable tangible property, with the exception of all means of transport;
  8. the provision of access to, and of transmission or distribution through, natural gas systems or to any network connected to such a system, to the electricity system or to the heating or cooling networks and the provision of other services directly linked thereto;
  9. telecommunications services;
  10. radio or television broadcasting services;
  11. electronically supplied services.

Relevant Date: Finance Act 2020