Value Added Tax Consolidation Act 2010 section 32A

Chain transactions

Section 32A sets out the rules for chain transactions, determining which supply in a chain of successive supplies is to be treated as the intra-Community supply to which the transport of the goods is assigned.

• A chain transaction is a series of successive supplies of the same goods where those goods are dispatched or transported from one Member State to another, directly from the first supplier to the last customer in the chain.
• The intermediary operator is a supplier in the chain, other than the first supplier, who dispatches or transports the goods, or engages a third party to do so on his or her behalf.
• Under the general rule, the intra-Community transport is ascribed to the supply made to the intermediary operator; however, where the intermediary operator communicates to his or her supplier a VAT number issued by the Member State from which the goods are dispatched, the transport is instead ascribed to the supply made by that intermediary operator.
• The section does not apply where a taxable person facilitates the supply of goods through an electronic interface and is the deemed supplier of those goods under Article 14a of the VAT Directive.