Value Added Tax Act 1994 section 11

Meaning of acquisition of goods from another member State

Section 11 defines what constitutes an acquisition of goods from another EU member State for VAT purposes, setting out the conditions that must be met and giving the Treasury power to exclude certain transactions.

• An acquisition from another member State occurs when there is a supply of goods and those goods are removed from that other member State to the UK.
• It does not matter who physically moves the goods — whether it is the supplier, the customer, or a third party such as a carrier.
• Where a deemed supply of goods arises but the person holding the goods does not actually change, that deemed supply is treated as an acquisition by the person making it (for example, when a business transfers its own goods from one member State to another).
• The Treasury has the power to make orders excluding specific transactions from being treated as acquisitions from another member State.