Revenue Note for Guidance

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Revenue Note for Guidance

55. Goods in transit – miscellaneous provisions

Summary

This section deals with provisions relating to transitional arrangements for goods in transit between new and existing Member States of the European Union (EU). The accession to the EU of a new Member State has the effect of abolishing VAT at the point of entry on goods entering the EU from that new Member State. From the moment of accession transitional measures are needed to address the tax position of goods in transit by continuing to treat these goods as third country goods until they are cleared out of the transit system. The same treatment applies to goods under customs suspension and temporary importation arrangements.

The effect of this section is that the provisions which were in force when the goods were placed under a temporary importation arrangement or under a common/customs transit procedure prior to the date of accession of the new Member State to the EU continues to apply until the goods leave that arrangement or procedure on or after the date of accession.

Details

(1) For the purposes of this section, the date of accession of new Member States to the EU is as follows:

  • 1 January 1995 in respect of the accession of the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Finland (excluding the Åland Islands) and the Kingdom of Sweden,
  • 1 May 2004 in respect of the accession of the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Cyprus, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Hungary, the Republic of Malta, the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovak Republic,
  • 1 January 2007 in respect of the accession of the Republic of Bulgaria and Romania, and
  • 1 July 2013 in respect of the accession of the Republic of Croatia

(2) Subsection (2) deals with imports to Ireland from a new Member State (MS) before the date of accession. The provisions that were in force when goods were placed under a temporary importation arrangement prior to the date of accession of the new Member State to the EU continue to apply until the goods leave that arrangement on or after the date of accession.

(3) Subsection (3) deals with goods under a common or customs transit procedure at the date of accession. The provisions that were in force when the goods were placed under the procedure prior to the date of accession of the new Member State to the EU continue to apply until the goods leave that procedure on or after the date of accession.

(4), (5) Subsections (4) and (5) deal with cases where importation into Ireland is deemed to occur – for example, where the goods were in free circulation in a new Member State first.

(6) Subsection (6) provides that VAT at the point of entry does not apply to certain importations.

(7) Subsection (7) provides that there is no VAT at point of entry for means of transport where the tax due on the importation does not exceed €130 or whose first use was 8 years before the accession date for the relevant country – for example, 1 January 1999 in the case of cars brought into the State from Bulgaria or Romania.

Relevant Date: Finance Act 2020