Intra-Community chain supplies

Abstract

The VAT treatment of intra-Community chain supplies raises special questions in addition to the usual problems of intra-Community supplies (ie provision of evidence). In particular, the question arises as to which of the parties involved in the chain supply is the one effecting an exempt supply. Currently, three relevant decisions of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) offer a possible approach for reaching a practical solution; an approach which can be based on two recurring statements of the Court: one regarding the decisive importance of the place where the right to dispose of the goods as owner is being transferred in each individual supply, and the other on the meanings of ‘intra-Community supply’ and ‘intra-Community acquisition’ as ‘objective in nature’.