Frequently asked questions on the EC Sales List

A separate listing alongside your VAT return, specifying per customer what you supplied to businesses in other EU countries. You state your customer's VAT identification number and the amount. The Dutch tax authorities exchange that data with the other member states, which then check whether your customer declared the acquisition there.

When you make intra-Community supplies, and when you supply services to businesses in other EU countries where the VAT is reverse charged to them. In both cases the listing is mandatory, however small the amounts. Its period normally runs in step with your VAT return.

Box 3b of your VAT return holds your supplies to other EU countries, and the total of your EC Sales List should match it. The tax authorities compare the two. A difference triggers a question, and it is rarely innocent: it usually points to a supply sitting in the wrong box. One known exception: if your customer falls under the small business scheme in their own country and therefore has no VAT identification number, you cannot include that service in the listing and a difference necessarily arises.

Then the zero rate is at risk. For an intra-Community supply you need a valid VAT identification number for your customer and a correctly filed listing; without them the inspector can refuse the zero rate and assess the VAT on you. So check the number for every new customer in the European VIES system and record the evidence of that check, with the date. Keep your proof of transport as well.

Failing to file, filing late, or filing an incomplete or incorrect listing can attract a penalty, and the zero rate for the supplies concerned can be refused, and the second is usually the expensive one. You correct an error by amending the listing in question. Do so on your own initiative: a difference you report yourself is a different matter from one the tax authorities find.

Possibly. Alongside the tax listing there is the statistics return for CBS. It applies if your intra-Community acquisitions exceed € 1,000,000 a year or your intra-Community supplies exceed € 1,200,000. The two thresholds apply separately, so you can be liable for the purchase side alone. Note that this is a different return to a different body, with its own rules.