Tertiary Legislation Manual update on OSS
21 August 2024| CATEGORIES: VAT legislation, VAT OSS| TAGS: HMRC, OSS, VAT
HMRC has updated the VAT One Stop Shop (OSS) and Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) section in its Manual on VAT Tertiary Legislation.
What is tertiary legislation?
Within primary and secondary legislation, government departments are sometimes granted the power to publish additional legally binding conditions or directions on a given topic. This information is known as ‘tertiary legislation’.
Tertiary legislation carries the ‘force of law’. This means it has the same legal status as primary and secondary legislation. HMRC has an obligation to publish this information in accordance with the law. In practice VAT tertiary legislation is typically set out in sections of HMRC’s VAT Notices. However, the HMRC Manual is a useful resource that brings all existing VAT tertiary legislation together in one place.
What are primary and secondary legislation?
Primary legislation is the general term used to describe the main laws passed by the legislative bodies of the UK, including the UK Parliament. UK primary legislation relating to VAT is the VAT Act 1994. The VAT Act 1994 provides the main framework of the tax, however much of the detail is found in secondary legislation.
Secondary legislation is law created by ministers (or other bodies) under powers given to them by an Act of Parliament (primary legislation). Secondary legislation often takes the form of a statutory instrument. The principal secondary legislation relating to VAT is the Value Added Tax Regulations 1995 (SI 1995/2518). There are a number of other VAT related statutory instruments on specific topics, e.g. the VAT (Input Tax) Order 1992 (SI 1992/3222) and the VAT (Input Tax) (Specified Supplies) Order 1999 (SI 1999/3121).
OSS update
The latest update to VAT Tertiary Legislation Manual includes a new section to let OSS registered businesses know how and when to notify HMRC if they no longer make eligible supplies under the scheme. UK businesses can use the UK VAT OSS Union scheme to report and pay VAT on the distance sales of goods from Northern Ireland to consumers in the EU.
A collection of HMRC guidance on the VAT OSS is available here. This includes a new section on How to cancel or make changes to your VAT One Stop Shop (OSS) Union scheme registration.