Second supply of vehicles in intra-community supply

IC Wholesale Ltd bought cars from businesses in Cyprus and Malta. It brought them to the UK and sold them to customers in Ireland.

ICW claimed that the invoices to customers were issued before the vehicles had left Cyprus and Malta so the supplies should be zero rated because the place of supply was outside the UK.

The taxpayer appealed to the Upper Tribunal after the First-tier Tribunal found for HMRC.

Referring to the Court of Justice of the EU decision in Euro Tyre Holding BV v Staatsecretaris van Financiën (Case C-430/09) [2011] STC 798 the Upper Tribunal noted that the taxpayer used its UK VAT number to acquire the vehicles from the Cypriot and Maltese suppliers so they could zero rate their supplies. But it did not tell them that the ownership of the vehicles would be transferred to the Irish customers before they left Cyprus and Malta. As...