Value Added Tax Consolidation Act 2010 section 14

The State and public bodies

Section 14 sets out when the State and public bodies are treated as taxable persons for VAT purposes, including special rules for intra-Community acquisitions and the supply of community facilities.

• An intra-Community acquisition made by the State or a public body is deemed to have been made in the course or furtherance of business, meaning the body must register and account for VAT once acquisitions exceed the €41,000 threshold in a 12-month period.
• The State and public bodies are generally not treated as taxable persons when carrying out activities linked to their regulatory or statutory functions, unless those activities are listed in Annex I of the VAT Directive (reproduced in Schedule 6) and carried out on a more than negligible scale, or unless non-taxation would create a significant distortion of competition.
• Community facilities — defined as facilities for sporting or physical education activities (excluding golf but including pitch and putt) and the hiring of halls and similar venues to non-profit sporting, cultural, social and community organisations — are subject to separate commencement rules.
• Neither the State nor any local authority is an accountable person in respect of the supply of a community facility until a commencement order is made by the Minister for Finance in respect of that facility; an order for sporting and physical education facilities took effect on 1 January 2013.