Finance Act, 1992

Provisions relating to vendors.

107.—(1) No person resident or established in the State shall dispatch or transport excisable products, released for consumption in the State, to another Member State unless he is approved by the Commissioners as a State vendor.

(2) (a) The Commissioners may approve a person as a State vendor.

(b) An approval as aforesaid shall be granted for such periods and subject to such conditions as the Commissioners may think fit to impose and, in particular, a State vendor shall not be approved unless he—

(i) secures, prior to the dispatch of excisable products, the duty payable in respect of those products in the Member State of destination, and

(ii) agrees to keep such accounts, records and other data or information as may be specified by the Commissioners under the terms of his approval.

(c) The Commissioners may at any time for reasonable cause and following such notice as is reasonable in the circumstances, revoke an approval or vary its terms.

(3) A non-State vendor shall not dispatch or transport or cause to be dispatched or transported excisable products, released for consumption in another Member State, to persons resident or established in the State unless he—

(a) appoints a tax representative, as provided for in section 108 , in the State,

(b) declares to an officer either directly or through a tax representative appointed by him his intention to dispatch or transport or to have dispatched or transported such excisable products to persons resident or established in the State prior to the dispatch of such products,

(c) provides evidence to an officer that he has complied with the requirements of Article 10.3 of the Directive, and

(d) complies with such other conditions as the Commissioners may prescribe in regulations under section 117 .

(4) Where excisable products to which subsection (3) applies are found in the State and a requirement specified in paragraph (a), (b), (c) or (d) of the said subsection has not been complied with in respect of the said excisable products, any person in whose possession or charge the said excisable products are found shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to have contravened or failed to comply with (as the case may be) the said subsection.

(5) Any person who contravenes or fails to comply with any provision of this section or any person who takes possession or charge of excisable products to which subsection (3) applies in the knowledge that a requirement specified in paragraph (a), (b), (c) or (d) of the said subsection has not been complied with in respect of those products shall, without prejudice to any other penalty to which he may be liable, be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty, under the law relating to customs or the law relating to excise (as the case may be), of £1,000.

(6) Any excisable products in respect of which an offence has been committed under this section, or any goods which are packed with or used in concealing such products, shall be liable to forfeiture and, where any such products are found in, on, or in any manner attached to, any vehicle or other conveyance, the said vehicle or other conveyance shall be deemed to have been made use of in the conveyance of the said products and shall also be liable to forfeiture.