Value Added Tax (General) (Amendment) Regulations, 2024 (No. 68)

The Minister of Finance has amended the VAT (General) Regulations, 2003 in several places, mostly widening the First Schedule.

In Part I a new paragraph 22 is added covering the supply of goods for use by physically challenged persons, cross-referring to paragraph 12 of Part II. In Part II, potato seed (commodity code 0701.10.00) is added to paragraph 7, and white sugar (commodity code 1701.99.00) is added to the same paragraph with effect from 1 January 2024 — so the sugar relief is backdated by more than four months.

The regulations also tidy up Part II by repealing paragraphs 9, 10 and 12 and substituting a shorter pair: paragraph 9 now covers sanitary wear and sanitary products listed in paragraph 14 of Part I, and paragraph 10 covers agricultural inputs listed in paragraphs 15 to 20 of Part I. The old paragraph 12 is not replaced in the substituted text, although the new Part I paragraph 22 still refers to "paragraph 12 of Part II" — a cross-reference readers should treat with care.

Separately, and despite what S.I. 15 of 2024 said about its own effective date, the addition of tariff headings 12.01 (soya beans, whether or not broken) and 12.07 (other oil seeds and oleaginous fruits) to paragraph 7 of Part II is deemed effective from 1 January 2024. Traders in soya and oil seeds who accounted for VAT on those lines earlier in 2024 should revisit their returns.

The regulations do not reproduce the paragraphs of the schedules they cross-refer to, so the full effect has to be read against S.I. 273 of 2003 as amended. No penalty or general commencement date is stated in this instrument.