Cyprus zero-rates fresh meat and fresh vegetables from 1 December 2023 to 31 May 2024 (K.D.P. 360/2023)

What changed in detail

Cyprus’s Council of Ministers issued the Value Added Tax (Amendment of the Fifth and Sixth Schedules) (No. 3) Order 2023, K.D.P. 360/2023, under sections 18(2) and 25(4) of the VAT Law. It was published in Official Gazette Annex III(I) No. 5836 on 17 November 2023.

The order takes the following goods out of paragraph 7 of the Fifth Schedule (the 5% reduced rate for foodstuffs) and adds them to the Sixth Schedule (zero-rated supplies) as a new paragraph 25:

• meat: fresh, chilled or frozen meat of bovine animals, swine, sheep and goats (CN 0201 to 0204), edible offal of those animals (ex 0206), poultry meat and offal (0207), and rabbit and hare meat (ex 0208);
• vegetables, fresh or chilled: tomatoes (0702), onions, garlic, leeks and similar (0703), cabbages, cauliflowers and other brassicas (0704), lettuce and chicory (0705), carrots, turnips, beetroot and similar roots (0706), cucumbers and gherkins (0707), leguminous vegetables (0708) and other vegetables (0709).

Under paragraph 4, the order applies from 1 December 2023 to 31 May 2024. Potatoes (CN 0701) are not on the list.

What it means

This order is spent: its zero rate ended on 31 May 2024. It opened a chain of short-dated Cypriot zero-rate orders rather than a lasting change. The next link is K.D.P. 138/2024, which carried this meat and vegetable list one more month, to 30 June 2024, and added bread, milk, eggs and other basics.

For any Cyprus supply of these goods, the rate depends on the date: 0% only inside the window of the order then in force, and 5% outside it. The CN headings, several of them “ex” headings, are what decide scope, not the product description.