Value Added Tax Act 1994 sections 48–49

Liability to be registered

Sections 48 and 49 set out when a person making certain cross-border supplies involving EU member states and Northern Ireland becomes liable to register for VAT under this part of Schedule 9ZA, and when that liability ceases.

• A person not already VAT-registered or liable under Schedules 1 or 1A must register if they make relevant supplies, with the trigger depending on whether they have a single establishment in a member state or Northern Ireland and whether their European supplies exceed £8,818 in the current or preceding calendar year.
• Registration is also required where a person has opted to treat relevant supplies as taking place outside the member state in which they are taxable, or where they supply excise goods removed to Northern Ireland that are acquired there by a non-taxable person in the course of business.
• A "European supply" means either a supply of certain digital or electronic services to a non-taxable person in a member state or Northern Ireland (other than where the supplier is established), or a supply of goods that would qualify as an intra-Community distance sale removed to a member state or Northern Ireland other than where the supplier is established.
• A person ceases to be liable to register if their European supplies in the previous calendar year did not exceed £8,818, HMRC are satisfied the following year's supplies will also stay below that threshold, or HMRC are satisfied the person has stopped making the relevant supplies and will not resume within one year — but liability under one provision can continue even if liability under another ceases.