Value Added Tax Consolidation Act 2010 section 30

Goods supplied to non-registered persons

Section 30 sets out the rules for determining the place of supply of goods sold by distance selling to non-VAT-registered customers in other EU Member States.

• Where goods are sold by distance selling (such as mail order) to a non-registered person in another Member State, the place of supply is deemed to be the Member State where the goods arrive, provided the relevant distance sales threshold is exceeded.
• If the supplier's sales into a particular Member State do not exceed that state's distance sales threshold, the place of supply remains the Member State from which the goods are dispatched, unless the supplier opts to register in the destination state.
• Distance sales of goods imported from outside the EU are treated as supplied in the Member State where the transport to the customer ends, subject to certain conditions regarding VAT declaration under the relevant EU provisions.
• New means of transport and excisable products are not subject to the distance sales thresholds — excisable goods sold by distance selling are always taxable in the Member State of arrival, and new means of transport are excluded from the distance sales rules entirely.