20 Miscellaneous documents and articles

Tax shall not be charged on the importation of any of the following:

(a) documents sent free of charge to the public service of the State;

(b) publications of foreign governments and publications of official international bodies for distribution free of charge;

(c) ballot papers for elections organised by bodies set up outside the State;

(d) objects to be submitted as evidence or for like purposes to the courts or other official agencies of the State;

(e) specimen signatures and printed circulars concerning signatures sent as part of customary exchanges of information between public services or banking establishments;

(f) official printed matter sent to the Central Bank of Ireland;

(g) reports, statements, notes, prospectuses, application forms and other documents drawn up by companies whose headquarters are outside the State and sent to the bearers or subscribers of securities issued by such companies;

(h) recorded media, such as punched cards, sound recordings, microfilms and the like, which contain information sent free of charge to the addressee where such relief does not give rise to abuses or to major distortion of competition;

(i) files, archives, printed forms and other documents to be used in international meetings, conferences or congresses, and reports on such gatherings;

(j) plans, technical drawings, traced designs, descriptions and other similar documents imported with a view to obtaining or fulfilling orders outside the State or to participating in a competition held in the State;

(k) documents to be used in examinations held in the State by institutions set up outside the State;

(l) printed forms to be used as official documents in the international movement of vehicles or goods, within the framework of international conventions;

(m) printed forms, labels, tickets and similar documents sent by transport undertakings or by undertakings of the hotel industry located outside the State to travel agencies set up in the State;

(n) printed forms and tickets, bills of lading, way-bills and other commercial or office documents which have been used;

(o) official printed forms from national or international authorities and printed matter conforming to international standards sent for distribution by associations of another country to corresponding associations located in the State;

(p) photographs, slides and stereotype mats for photographs, whether or not captioned, sent to press agencies or newspaper or magazine publishers;

(q) visual and auditory materials of an educational, scientific or cultural character specified in the Schedule which are produced by the United Nations or one of its specialised agencies, whatever the use for which they are intended;

(r) collectors’ pieces and works of art of an educational, scientific or cultural character which are not intended for sale and which are imported by museums, galleries and other institutions approved of by the Revenue Commissioners for the purposes of this Regulation and on condition that the articles in question are imported free of charge or, if they are imported against payment, are not supplied by a taxable person;

(s) importations of official publications issued under the authority of the country or territory of export, international institutions, regional or local authorities and bodies under public law established in the country or territory of export, and printed matter distributed on the occasion of elections to the European Parliament or on the occasion of national elections in the country in which the printed matter originates by foreign political organisations officially recognised as such in the Member States, in so far as such publications and printed matter have been subject to tax in the country or territory of export and have not benefited from remission of tax on export.