PART VIII

Wholesale Tax

57. —(1) The following subsection shall be substituted for subsection (1) of section 7 of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1966 :

“(1) Wholesale tax shall be fifteen per cent, of that part of the taxable turnover, as defined by this section, of the accountable person which relates to the sale of any goods of a kind specified in the Table to this subsection and shall be ten per cent, of the remainder of the taxable turnover as so defined, and the amount of tax chargeable during every month shall be paid after the expiration of the month in accordance with regulations.

TABLE

(Wholesale Tax)

(1) Motor vehicles designed and constructed for the conveyance of persons by road including sports motor vehicles, estate cars, station wagons, motor cycles, motor scooters, mopeds and auto cycles, but not including vehicles designed and constructed for the carriage of more than sixteen persons (inclusive of the driver), invalid carriages and other vehicles of a type designed for use by invalids or infirm persons.

(2) Caravans, including mobile homes.

(3) Ships, boats or other vessels designed and constructed for the conveyance of passengers and not exceeding one hundred tons gross; and sports and pleasure craft of all descriptions including yachts, cabin cruisers, dinghies, canoes, skiffs and racing boats.

(4) Radio receiving sets and television receiving sets of the domestic or portable type including sets suitable for use in road vehicles.

(5) Gramophones, radiogramophones, record players and electric gramophone record reproducers.

(6) Gramophone records.”

(2) The following subsection shall be substituted for subsection (1) of section 11 of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1966 :

“(1) Sections 3 and 5 to 10 of this Act shall not apply to wholesale tax provided for by section 2 (b) of this Act and that tax shall, subject to subsection (2) of this section, be charged on every article which is of a kind specified in the Table to section 7 (1) of this Act and is imported on or after the 1st day of June, 1969, at the rate of fifteen per cent, of the value of the article and on every other article so imported at the rate of ten per cent, of the value of the article.”

(3) This section shall have, and be deemed to have had, effect as on and from the 1st day of June, 1969.

58. —Where the whole or part of the taxable turnover of an accountable person consists of moneys paid under a contract entered into on or after the 1st day of October, 1966, and before the 1st day of June, 1969, the accountable person may, in the absence of agreement to the contrary, recover as an addition to the payment specified in the contract a sum equal to any additional amount payable by him in respect of the moneys on account of the increase in the rate of wholesale tax effected by section 57 of this Act.

59. —(1) Section 6 of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1966 , is hereby amended by the addition of the following subsections:

“(2) Where taxable goods are applied or appropriated by way of hire to a person to whom there has been allotted a registration number under section 4 of this Act and who has, in accordance with section 5 of this Act, given to the person from whom the goods are hired a statement in writing quoting that registration number—

(a) the provisions of subsection (1) of this section shall not apply in relation to the application or appropriation, and

(b) the application or appropriation shall be deemed to be a sale of the goods by wholesale in the course of business and the moneys received in respect of the hire shall be deemed to be moneys received from a person registered under the said section 4 in respect of goods sold to him:

Provided that, if the person to whom the goods are hired, by notice in writing given to the person from whom the goods are hired, withdraws the statement aforesaid, then, on and from the date of the withdrawal, paragraphs (a) and (b) of this subsection shall cease to apply and the provisions of the said subsection (1) shall apply as if the person from whom the goods are hired had on that date applied or appropriated the goods otherwise than—

(i) in the case of a manufacturer—as materials or as stock in trade, or

(ii) in any other case—as stock in trade.

(3) Where a person to whom there has been allotted a registration number under section 4 of this Act—

(a) has, in accordance with section 5 of this Act, given to a person registered under the said section 4 from whom he hires taxable goods a statement in writing quoting that registration number, and

(b) uses those goods otherwise than directly in a production process in the course of making goods,

then, so long as the person to whom the goods are hired does not, by notice in writing given to the person from whom the goods are hired, withdraw the statement aforesaid, the provisions of the said subsection (1) shall apply to him as if—

(i) in accordance with the said section 5 he had purchased the goods in circumstances in which wholesale tax was not chargeable,

(ii) on the occasion of each payment for hire of the goods relating to a period during which he had used the goods otherwise than in a production process in the course of making goods he had applied or appropriated the goods otherwise than—

(I) in the case of a manufacturer—as materials or as stock in trade, or

(II) in any other case—as stock in trade, and

(iii) each such payment for hire was a payment in respect of a sale of goods so applied or appropriated at the wholesale price current at the time of the payment.”

(2) Subsection (1) of this section shall come into operation on the first day of the month immediately following that in which this Act is passed.

60. —(1) Section 11 of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1966 , is hereby amended by the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (2):

“(2) Tax as aforesaid shall not be charged on—

(a) an article the sale of which for delivery within the State would, apart from any exemption in relation to sales of such articles to or by persons of a particular class, or by persons other than persons of a particular class, be an exempted activity for the purposes of section 3 (5) of this Act,

(b) an article imported—

(i) by a manufacturer registered under section 4 of this Act and intended for use as materials or as stock for his business, or

(ii) by any other person registered under that section and intended for use as stock for his business,

(c) an article (other than a motor vehicle designed for the conveyance of persons by road or hydrocarbon oil for road transport vehicles) imported by a body corporate which establishes to the satisfaction of the Revenue Commissioners that its main activity consists in the transport of passengers or goods outside the State and that the article is for use in its business,

(d) an article imported by the Commissioners of Irish Lights for use in the maintenance of lightships or lighthouses.”.

(2) Subsection (1) of this section shall come into operation in respect of articles imported on or after the first day of the month immediately following that in which this Act is passed and, in relation to such articles, the tax provided for by section 2 (b) of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1966 , shall be charged, levied and paid as if no order had been made under section 11 of the said Act.