24.—(1) In this Act “intra-Community acquisition”, in relation to goods, means the acquisition of—

(a) movable goods (other than new means of transport)—

(i) supplied by—

(I) a person registered for value-added tax in a Member State,

(II) a person obliged to be registered for value-added tax in a Member State,

(III) a person who carries on an exempted activity in a Member State, or

(IV) a flat-rate farmer in a Member State,

(ii) supplied to a person in another Member State (other than an individual who is not a taxable person or who is not entitled to elect to be a taxable person, unless the individual carries on an exempted activity), and

(iii) which have been dispatched or transported from the territory of a Member State to the territory of another Member State as a result of such supply,

or

(b) new means of transport supplied by a person in a Member State to a person in another Member State and which has been dispatched or transported from the territory of a Member State to the territory of another Member State as a result of being so supplied.

(2) An intra-Community acquisition of goods shall be deemed not to occur where the supply of those goods is subject to value-added tax referred to in the VAT Directive in the Member State of dispatch under the provisions implementing Articles 4 and 35, first subparagraph of Article 139(3) and Articles 311 to 341 of that Directive in that Member State.

F49[(2A) The application by the armed forces of a Member State taking part in a defence effort carried out for the implementation of a European Union activity under the European Union common security and defence policy, for the use of those armed forces or for the use of the civilian staff accompanying those armed forces, of goods which those armed forces have not purchased subject to the general rules governing taxation on the domestic market of a Member State shall be treated as an intra-Community acquisition of goods for consideration, where the importation of those goods would not be eligible for the exemption provided for in the provisions implementing Article 143(1)(ga) of the VAT Directive in the Member State on whose domestic market the goods were purchased.]

(3) For the purposes of this section and section 32—

(a) a supply in the territory of another Member State shall be deemed to have arisen where, under similar circumstances, a supply would have arisen in the State under Chapter 1 or Chapter 1 of Part 4 (including either of those Chapters as read with section 2(3)),

(b) an activity in another Member State shall be deemed to be an exempted activity where the same activity, if carried out in the State, would be an exempted activity,

(c) a person shall be deemed to be a flat-rate farmer in another Member State where, under similar circumstances, the person would be a flat-rate farmer in the State F50[…], and

(d) a person shall be deemed to be a taxable person or a person who is entitled to elect to be a taxable person in another Member State where, under similar circumstances, the person would be an accountable person or entitled to elect to be an accountable person in the State in accordance with Part 2.

(4) Where—

(a) goods are dispatched or transported from outside the Community to a person in the State who is not registered for tax and who is not an individual, and

(b) value-added tax referred to in the VAT Directive is chargeable on the importation of those goods into another Member State,

then, for the purposes of subsection (1), the person shall be deemed to be registered for value-added tax in that other Member State and the goods shall be deemed to have been dispatched or transported from that other Member State.