Cap. 406 Art. 2Interpretation.

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires -

"accession date" means the 1st May 2004;

"accommodation", when provided on a bed and breakfast, half board or full board basis, includes the provision of any services normally falling within the meaning of accommodation on such a basis and included in the price therefor;

"acquisitions threshold" means the threshold determined in accordance with Part Three of the Third Schedule;

"administrative penalty" means a penalty imposed in virtue of the provisions of Part V;

"assessment" means an assessment that may be made in virtue of the provisions of Part V but does not include a provisional assessment; "Commissioner" means the Commissioner for Tax and Customs appointed in terms of the provisions of article 3(1) or any public officer or other person to whom a delegation has been made in accordance with sub-article (2) or (3) of that article while he is acting within the terms of that delegation; "Community" means the territories of the Member States as defined in the Fifteenth Schedule; "customs duty suspension regime" has the meaning assigned to it in the Fourth Schedule; "Council Directive 2006/112/EC" means Council Directive 2006/ 112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax, as may be amended from time to time; "Council Regulation (EU) No. 904/2010" means Council Regulation (EU) No. 904/2010 of 7 October 2010 on administrative cooperation and combating fraud in the field of value added tax (recast), as may be amended from time to time; "distance sale" has the meaning assigned to it in the Third Schedule; "economic activity" has the meaning assigned to it in article 5;

"established" shall be construed in accordance with the provisions of sub-articles (2) and (3) of this article;

"excise goods" means the goods defined in the Sixteenth Schedule; "exclusive economic zone area" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in the Exclusive Economic Zone Act;

"exempt supply", "exempt acquisition" or "exempt importation" means a supply, an intra-community acquisition or an importation which is exempt in terms of article 9; "exempt with credit supply" is a supply to which Part One of the Fifth Schedule applies; "exempt without credit supply" is a supply to which Part Two of the Fifth Schedule applies; "goods" means any asset the supply of which is treated as a supply of goods in terms of the Second Schedule; "goods forming part of an economic activity" means goods, including fixed assets, used by a taxable person for the purpose of his economic activity; "importation" has the meaning assigned to it in the Second Schedule, and "imported" shall be construed accordingly; "importer" with respect to imported goods means the person in whose name the goods are at the time when tax on the importation becomes chargeable in accordance with the Fourth Schedule;

"input tax" has the meaning assigned to it in article 22(2) and "input tax credit" has the meaning assigned to it in article 22(3);

"intra-community acquisition" has the meaning assigned to it in the Second Schedule;

"intra-community supply" means a supply of goods that are transported by or on behalf of the supplier or the person to whom the supply is made from a Member State to another Member State; "Malta" means the Island of Malta, the Island of Gozo and the other islands of the Maltese Archipelago, including the territorial waters thereof, the continental shelf and subject to the provisions of sub-article (4), also includes any exclusive economic zone area;

"Member State" has the meaning assigned to it in the Fifteenth Schedule;

"Minister" means the Minister responsible for finance; "new means of transport" means a means of transport to which paragraph (a) hereof applies and which meets the conditions of paragraph (b) hereof -

(a) this paragraph applies to a vessel exceeding 7.5 metres in length, an aircraft the takeoff weight of which exceeds 1,550 kilograms or a motorised land vehicle the capacity of which exceeds 48 cubic centimetres or the power of which exceeds 7.2 kilowatts, intended for the transport of passengers or goods except for:

(i) a sea-going vessel which is used for navigation on the high seas and carrying passengers for reward, or for the purpose of commercial, industrial or fishing activities, or for rescue or assistance at sea, or for inshore fishing but does not include ships’ provisions; and

(ii) aircraft used by airlines operating for reward chiefly on international routes;

(b) the conditions that must be met for the purpose of this definition are:

(i) in the case of a land vehicle, that it was supplied not more than six months after the date of first entry into service or has not travelled more than 6,000 kilometres;

(ii) in the case of sea vessels, that it was supplied not more than three months after the date of first entry into service or has not sailed for more than 100 hours;

(iii) in the case of an aircraft, that it was supplied not more than three months after the date of first entry into service or has not flown for more than 40 hours;

"non-taxable legal person" means a person, other than a physical person, who is not a taxable person;

"non-taxable person" means a person who is not a taxable person;

''notice of payment'' means the notice required to be furnished in terms of article 30(3);

"output tax" has the meaning assigned to it in article 22(1); "person" includes a physical person, a body of persons, a public authority and any entity capable of carrying on an economic activity;

"provisional assessment" means a provisional assessment made in terms of article 32;

"public authority" means the Government of Malta, a department or division of the Government of Malta, a local council set up in accordance with the Local Government Act, an authority vested with distinct personality set up by an Act of Parliament , corporation constituted by an Act of Parliament or any other body governed by public law; "revenue acts" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in the

Commissioner for Tax and Customs Act; "self-supply" means the use or application of goods forming part of the economic activity of a person that does not consist of the delivery of goods to or the performance of services for another person but which is treated as a supply of goods or a supply of services in terms of the Second Schedule; "supply" means an operation which is treated as a supply of goods or a supply of services in terms of the Second Schedule; "tax" means the value added tax chargeable under this Act but does not include an administrative penalty or interest; "tax invoice" means an invoice or a document serving as invoice that contains the information required by the Twelfth Schedule; "tax period" means a period determined in accordance with article 17; "tax return" means the return required to be furnished in terms of article 27; "taxable acquisition" means an intra-community acquisition on which tax is chargeable in terms of article 4 and which is not exempt from tax in terms of article 9; "taxable importation" means an importation on which tax is chargeable in terms of article 4 and which is not exempt from tax in terms of article 9;

"taxable person" has the meaning assigned to it in article 5; "taxable supply" means a supply on which tax is chargeable in terms of article 4 and which is not exempt from tax in terms of article 9;

"taxable value" means the value of a supply, of an intra-community acquisition or of an importation determined in accordance with the Seventh Schedule; "third territory" means any territory which is not a Member State; "transport" and "transported" include dispatch and dispatched;

"Tribunal" means the Administrative Review Tribunal established by article 5 of the Administrative Justice Act;

"VAT" or "value added tax" shall mean any value added tax as referred to in Council Directive 2006/112/EC;

"value added tax identification number" means an individual number assigned by the competent authority of a Member State that has a prefix in accordance with ISO International Standard 3166 -alpha 2, and "a person identified for value added tax purposes in a Member State" means a person to whom such an individual number has been assigned and who, for the purpose of a supply, communicates that number to the supplier.

(2) The provisions of this sub-article and of sub-article (3) shall apply for the purpose of determining the place where a person is established:

(a) a taxable person is established in a country if he has established his economic activity or has a fixed place of establishment from which he carries on that economic activity in that country or, being a physical person who has not fixed his economic activity or who does not have a fixed place of establishment in any country, has a permanent address or usually resides in that country;

(b) a non-taxable legal person is established in a country if it is constituted under the law of that country or if it has a fixed place in that country from which it carries on its activities;

(c) a non-taxable physical person is established in the country where he has a permanent address or usually resides.

(3) Where, in terms of sub-article (2), a taxable person falls to be treated as established in Malta and in another country with respect to the same transaction, and where it is necessary for the proper application of any provision of this Act that he should be treated as established only in one of those two countries, he shall, to the extent that it is so necessary, be treated as established only in the country with which that transaction is more closely connected.

(4) For the purpose of sub-article (1), an exclusive economic zone area shall be deemed to form part of Malta only to the extent of activities undertaken pursuant to, or which are directly related to, an authorization or licence granted in accordance with the Exclusive

Economic Zone Act.