UK HMRC has published updated guidance on Value Added Tax EU Exit Transitional Provisions. The guidance covers the VAT treatment of transactions or movements of goods that span the end of the transition period. The areas covered and general summaries are as follows:

Goods

Goods arriving into Great Britain on or after the end of the transition period from an EU member state will be subject to UK customs procedures and import duties (including import VAT) in the same way as goods imported from the rest of the world. This section deals with various scenarios where the supply or movement of those goods straddle the end of the transition period.

Fulfilment Houses

Since April 2018 UK fulfilment houses that store imported goods belonging to businesses situated outside the EU have been required to apply and gain approval from HMRC to operate such a business. Otherwise, from 1 April 2019, they can be liable to criminal or civil sanctions, together with the forfeiture of any goods being stored. This is referred to as the Fulfilment House Due Diligence Scheme (FHDDS). At the end of the transition period, the FHDDS will also apply to Great Britain fulfilment houses that store goods from anywhere outside the UK which are owned by non-UK businesses. This will mean that those Great Britain fulfilment houses that previously only stored goods from EU member states will now have to register for the FHDDS.

Fulfilment houses based in Northern Ireland are not affected by this. They still have to register for FHDDS only if they store goods imported from outside the EU which are owned by businesses situated outside the UK and EU. Goods stored in a Northern Ireland fulfilment house that are supplied from Great Britain are not subject to FHDDS and vice versa.

Services

Although the main rules that determine where supplies of services are taxed have not changed as a result of the end of the transition period, some of the consequential legislative changes have resulted in the place of supply or the liability of supplies changing in limited circumstances (for example, certain professional services to non-business customers). This could lead to problems of double taxation with services being taxed at both the actual tax point and the basic tax point. For those services affected, where the two tax points have differing treatments the basic tax point will apply.

Call-off stock

Call-off stock refers to goods transported by a supplier from a state of origin to a state of destination. At the time of the transport of goods, the supplier already knows the identity of the person to whom these goods will be supplied (called-off) at a later stage and after they have arrived in the state of destination. Where that stock falls under the EU simplification for call-off stock, the supplier does not need to register for VAT in the member state of destination, account for acquisition VAT and then make a domestic supply. Instead, the customer in the member state of origin accounts for acquisition tax once the goods are 'called-off'.

This transitional rule preserves the pre-end of transaction period rules for call-off stock where that stock is already in Great Britain at the end of the transition period. If, after a period of 12 months after the goods arrival in Great Britain, the goods have not been called off to either the original customer or another customer(s), the supplier must register for VAT in the UK and account for acquisition VAT on them. Any subsequent supply of the goods will be a domestic UK supply if sold to a Great Britain business.

Financial Services

After the end of the transition period, the Specified Supplies Order will extend the exempt with refund VAT treatment of certain supplies of financial services (specified supplies) to customers in the EU. Input tax incurred after the end of the transition period that is used to make specified supplies to customers belonging in EU member states (specified EU supplies) after the end of the transition period will be recoverable. Input tax incurred before the end of the transition period that is used to make specified EU supplies after the end of the transition period cannot be recovered. There is no provision under UK or EU law to allow a right of recovery for these supplies. Residual input tax incurred before the end of the transition period will still be recoverable by reference to all the outputs of the longer period in which it is incurred even where that longer period includes specified EU supplies made after the end of the transition period.