Sale of call-off stock

When goods are transferred from one EU member state to a warehouse located in another EU member state, title of the goods still remains with the seller and the however the customer is in control of the storage, informed about the movements of the stock and may take possession of the stock at its will, then such a scheme is categorised as call-off stock and generally does not require the consignor to register for the purposes of VAT in another country as a non-resident trader. According to the Polish law, tax liability for VAT arises at the moment of legal acquisition of the goods delivered by consignor and stored by the consignee in order to transfer their ownership to the consignee. It is an exception from the rule of tax liability in the intra-community acquisitions of goods. For European VAT purposes, any subsequent transfer of ownership is treated as an intra-community VAT supply in the home country of consignor. The customer has to register the transaction as an acquisition in its domestic VAT return and fulfil all administrative formalities connected with conducting call-off warehouse. The paper describes consequences of unlawful sale from a call-off warehouse. It also provides some fundamental nomenclature, explains what are the obligations of parties of the call-off stock agreement and compares this type of contract with similar ones existing in the Polish law.