Value Added Tax Act 1994 Schedule 4

Matters to be treated as supply of goods or services

Schedule 4 sets out the rules for determining whether particular transactions and events are treated as a supply of goods or a supply of services for VAT purposes, covering transfers of property, business assets, land interests, and deemed supplies on deregistration.

• A complete transfer of ownership in goods is a supply of goods, while transferring only a share or possession is generally a supply of services — but hire purchase and similar deferred-ownership arrangements are treated as supplies of goods
• Business assets removed from the business (whether given away, put to private use, or sold by a creditor) can trigger a deemed supply of goods or services, subject to a £50 de minimis for business gifts and a samples exemption
• When a person deregisters from VAT, all remaining business assets are deemed to be supplied unless the business is transferred as a going concern, another taxable person continues it, or the VAT on the deemed supply would be £1,000 or less
• Land is treated in the same way as goods for these purposes, except that transactions in land interests (other than major interests or those made without consideration) are treated as supplies of services rather than goods