Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations, which come into force on 1st August 2005, amend the Value Added Tax (Disclosure of Avoidance Schemes) Regulations 2004 (S.I. 2004/1929) (“the principal Regulations”).

The principal Regulations prescribe the time within which information concerning VAT avoidance schemes which are notifiable under Schedule 11A to the Value Added Tax Act 1994 (c. 23) must be provided to the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs(1). They make provision for the form and manner of notification and the information to be provided.

These Regulations amend the principal Regulations by prescribing the time in which such information must be provided where paragraph 6(1)(c) of Schedule 11A applies and make a consequential amendment to regulation 4 of the principal regulations.

These Regulations also amend the principal Regulations to provide that a taxable person is only required to notify the Commissioners of any designated scheme allocated the reference number 9 or 10 by the Value Added Tax (Disclosure of Avoidance Schemes)(Designations) Order 2004 (S.I. 2004/1933 as amended by S.I. 2005/1724), or any scheme that includes, or is associated with, a provision of a description falling within paragraph 8 of Schedule 2 to that Order, where the claimed tax advantage relates to a prescribed accounting period which begins on or after 1st August 2005, unless the taxable person is already under a duty to notify.

(1)

The functions of the Commissioners of Customs and Excise were transferred to the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs by section 5(2) of the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 (c. 11). Section 50(1) of that Act provides that a reference to the Commissioners of Customs and Excise shall be taken as a reference to the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.