Changes to EU sales list reporting

Your VAT return has to include figures for EU purchases and sales. You may also have to Provide EC sales lists or Intrastat reports. When do these apply? How are they changing?


EU VAT statistics  Vat returns provide important statistics regarding European trade as well telling HMRC how much VAT you owe. If you buy or sell goods to or from a EU country, the value of these transactions has to be entered in boxes 8 and 9 of the return. What happens next?


EC sales list and Intrastat If HMRC find entries in either box 8 or 9 HMRC will send you an EC sales list form. Unless the value of your EC trade falls below certain limits, you must provide details of the transactions for goods and services on the form.


European Sales Lists If your business only makes a low level of supply of goods to VAT-registered customers in another EU country you don’t usually need to fill in the full European Sales List (ESL). Instead there’s a simplified version which you can apply to HMRC to use where:

• the value of your total taxable turnover in a year isn’t more than the VAT registration threshold plus £25,500.
• your supplies to customers in other EU countries aren’t more than £11,000 a year.
• your sales don’t include New Means of Transport (see here  for what counts as a new means of transport).

If HMRC agrees that you can use the simplified ESL it means that you:

• never need to fill in the actual value of your supplies to each customer - instead you enter a nominal value of £1
• only have to complete the form once a year - you agree with HMRC when you’re going to send it in.

However, if the value of EU goods including shipping costs (but not services) bought or sold  exceeds:

• £600,000 for purchases, HMRC call these arrivals; and
• £250,000 for sales, also called despatches,

a Supplementary Declaration (SD) is required.

This is known as Intrastat (more details can be found here .)


Awkward thresholds Intrastat has its own method of calculating thresholds. They are set for a calendar year. So, for example, if if your EU sales or purchases exceed the corresponding limit for the first time in November 2012,    you will have to make an Intrastat declarations for November, for the rest of 2012 and the whole of 2013. However, if your EU turnover in 2013 is less tjan the thresholds Intrastat will not apply to 2014 unles, or until, the month in which either threshold is breached.


TRAP HMRC takes Intrastat very seriously. Errors in the reports or failure to render  them can be a criminal offence carrying a maximum fine of £2,500 each although HMRC only impose this level of fine in extreme cases of multiple failure. The more usual level of fine is £250.


Intrastat changes HMRC have recently updated their guidance on Intrastat - Notice 60 (the latest version can be found here ). 


It includes details of  two important changes:

• From April 2012 all Intrastat reports must be submitted online. Paper version will no longer be accepted.

The deadline for submitting the reports is to be brought forward. Instead of the end of the month following the period covered, it will be the 21st of the month following the period covered.


TIP You don't have to use HMRC's forms for the reports. HMRC will accept CSV reports, which most computerised accounting systems can generate. This can save a lot of time.

A comma-separated values (CSV) file stores data (numbers and text) in plain-text form.

Many accounting and bookkeeping programs allow data stored to be “exported” to a spreadsheet program, such as Excel, in CSV format so that it can be viewed by others who don’t have the same accounting  software as you.

HMRC will accept Intrastat data in CSV file format. For details of the data required in CSV format visit:

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1081739688&type=RESOURCES