Finance Act 2013
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Relief for qualifying road transport operators. |
51.— Chapter 1 of Part 2 of the Finance Act 1999 is amended by inserting the following before section 100: | |
“Relief for qualifying road transport operators. | ||
99A.— (1) In this section— | ||
‘competent authority’ in relation to another Member State, means the authority that has responsibility in that Member State for the administration of excise duties on mineral oil; | ||
‘fuel card’ means a card or other electronic means, issued by a fuel card provider, for the primary purpose of purchasing petrol or gas oil; | ||
‘fuel card provider’ means a company or other entity, or any association of such companies or entities, which provides fuel cards to persons, subject to an agreement with such persons; | ||
‘gas oil’ means gas oil on which mineral oil tax at the standard rate (within the meaning of section 97(2)) has been paid; | ||
‘qualifying motor vehicle’ means— | ||
(a) a motor vehicle designed and constructed solely for the carriage of goods by road, and with a maximum permissible gross laden weight of not less than 7.5 tonnes, or | ||
(b) a motor vehicle designed and constructed for the carriage of passengers by road, and within the definition of a category M2 or M3 vehicle in Annex II of Directive 2007/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 September 2007 3 ; | ||
‘qualifying road transport operator’, as the case requires, means— | ||
(a) a person who holds a national road haulage operator’s licence or an international road haulage operator’s licence granted under section 2 of the Road Traffic and Transport Act 2006 , | ||
(b) a person, other than a person referred to in paragraph (a), who holds a Community licence within the meaning of Regulation (EC) No. 1072/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 4 , | ||
(c) a person who holds a national road passenger transport operator’s licence or an international road passenger transport operator’s licence granted under section 2 of the Road Traffic and Transport Act 2006 , or | ||
(d) a person, other than a person referred to in paragraph (c), who holds a Community licence within the meaning of Regulation (EC) No. 1073/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 5 ; | ||
‘repayment period’ means a period prescribed for the purposes of this section. | ||
(2) Where it is shown to the satisfaction of the Commissioners that gas oil has been purchased during a repayment period by a qualifying road transport operator for use by that qualifying road transport operator in the course of business— | ||
(a) as a propellant for a qualifying motor vehicle, and | ||
(b) for the lawful carriage of persons or goods, | ||
the Commissioners shall, subject to this section and to such conditions as the Commissioners may prescribe or otherwise impose, repay to that qualifying road transport operator a proportion of the tax paid on that gas oil, calculated in accordance with subsection (3). | ||
(3) Subject to a maximum repayment rate of €75.00 per 1,000 litres, the amount to be repaid per 1,000 litres of gas oil under subsection (2) is determined by the formula— | ||
A = (P — 1,000) x 0.3 | ||
where— | ||
A is the amount to be repaid per 1,000 litres, and | ||
P is an estimate of the average price (exclusive of value-added tax) in euro per 1,000 litres of gas oil purchased by qualifying road transport operators during the repayment period, as determined in accordance with subsection (4). | ||
(4) For the purposes of subsection (3) the estimate of the average price per 1,000 litres of gas oil for a repayment period shall be determined in accordance with data provided by the Central Statistics Office. | ||
(5) A repayment shall not be made where— | ||
(a) the qualifying road transport operator has obligations imposed by the Acts (within the meaning of section 1095(1) of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 ) and does not hold a current tax clearance certificate issued under that section, | ||
(b) the qualifying road transport operator has obligations under section 101 or Parts 5 and 6 of the Mineral Oil Tax Regulations 2012 ( S.I. No. 231 of 2012 ) and has not, during the repayment period concerned, complied with those obligations, or | ||
(c) the qualifying road transport operator is established in another Member State and has, in that Member State, any obligations comparable to those mentioned in paragraphs (a) and (b), and does not, at such time and in such form as the Commissioners may prescribe or otherwise require, furnish to the Commissioners a statement from the competent authority of that Member State that the qualifying road transport operator has complied in full with those obligations. | ||
(6) (a) Gas oil, in respect of which a repayment under subsection (2) has been made, may only be used— | ||
(i) by a person other than a qualifying road transport operator, | ||
(ii) for a vehicle other than a qualifying motor vehicle, or | ||
(iii) for a purpose other than the carriage of passengers or goods in the course of business, | ||
where the amount so repaid has, before any such use, been returned to the Commissioners together with any interest payable under section 103(3) of the Finance Act 2001 . | ||
(b) Where any gas oil is subject to the requirements of paragraph (a), and where those requirements have not been complied with, that gas oil is for the purposes of this Chapter mineral oil on which the appropriate standard rate has not been paid. | ||
(7) (a) Claims for repayment under subsection (2) shall be made in such form as the Commissioners may from time to time direct and shall be in respect of mineral oil purchased during a repayment period exclusively for use in qualifying motor vehicles. | ||
(b) Except where the Commissioners may in any particular case allow, a repayment claim shall be made within 4 months following the end of the repayment period concerned. | ||
(c) From such date as the Commissioners may appoint by order, claims for repayment under subsection (2) shall be made by such electronic means as the Commissioners may require and, without prejudice to the generality of section 917E of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 , the relevant provisions of Chapter 6 of Part 38 of that Act shall apply to any such return. | ||
(8) Without prejudice to the generality of section 104 and to any other conditions that may be prescribed, regulations under that section may, for the purposes of this section provide for— | ||
(a) the registration of qualifying road transport operators with the Commissioners, and the information to be furnished by such operators for that purpose, | ||
(b) the means by which payment is to be made for the gas oil concerned, including a requirement for payment by means of a fuel card approved by the Commissioners for that purpose, | ||
(c) the records to be kept by qualifying road transport operators, and | ||
(d) the information to be furnished to the Commissioners by a fuel card provider in relation to gas oil purchased by qualifying road transport operators. | ||
(9) This section comes into operation on 1 July 2013.”. | ||