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Practical manual VAT 2024.

Import regime

1. Definitions

Shall be deemed:

  1. Businessman or professional not established in the Community: Any businessperson or professional whose economic activity is based outside the Community and who does not have a permanent establishment there.

  2. Intermediary: Any person established in the Community who is designated by the entrepreneur or professional who carries out distance sales of imported goods and who, in the name and on behalf of the latter, is obliged to comply with the material and formal obligations arising from the import regime.

  3. Member State of identification:

    • When the passive subject acts directly, without an intermediary:

      • Where the entrepreneur or professional is not established in the Community, the Member State chosen.

      • When the business or professional has the headquarters of his economic activity in the Canary Islands, Ceuta or Melilla and has not designated an intermediary established in the Community, the Kingdom of Spain.

      • Where the business or professional does not have the headquarters of his economic activity in the Community, but has several permanent establishments therein, the Member State in which he has a permanent establishment shall indicate that he is covered by this special regime. The option will be binding on the entrepreneur or professional as long as it is not revoked and will be valid for a minimum of one year to which the option refers and the following two years.

      • Where the entrepreneur or professional has established the headquarters of his economic activity in a Member State or has exclusively one or more permanent establishments in a Member State, that Member State.

    • When the passive subject acts through an intermediary:

      • Where the intermediary has established the headquarters of its economic activity in a Member State, that Member State.

      • Where the intermediary does not have its headquarters for economic activity in the Community but has several permanent establishments therein, the Member State in which it has a permanent establishment shall indicate that it is covered by the import arrangements. The option will be binding as long as it is not revoked and will be valid for a minimum of one calendar year to which the option refers and the following two years.

  4. Member State of consumption: the Member State of arrival of the dispatch or transport of the goods to the customer.

2. Accrual

In the deliveries of goods made in the terms provided for in article 8 bis of the VAT Law , the accrual of the tax on the delivery made in favor of the businessman or professional who facilitates the sale or The delivery, as well as that carried out by the same, will occur with the acceptance of the client's payment.

3. Requirements to act as an intermediary

The following are the requirements for acting as an intermediary when Spain is the member state of identification:

  1. Have a tax identification number.

  2. Be established in the territory of application of the Tax.

  3. Not having been convicted or sanctioned, within the four years prior to submitting the application to act as an intermediary, for the commission of a crime against the Public Treasury or a serious tax offence, in relation to their economic activity, by virtue of a final administrative ruling or decision.

  4. Prove financial solvency.

4. Scope

Businessmen or professionals who make distance sales of goods imported from third countries or territories in shipments whose intrinsic value does not exceed 150 euros may benefit from the import regime, with the exception of products that are subject to special taxes, provided that they are:

  1. Entrepreneurs or professionals established in the Community

  2. Businessmen or professionals, established or not in the Community, who are represented by an intermediary established in the Community.

  3. Businesspeople or professionals established in the Canary Islands, Ceuta or Melilla, without the need for an intermediary.

  4. Entrepreneurs or professionals established in a third country with which the European Union has concluded a mutual assistance agreement with a scope of application similar to that of Council Directive 2010/24/ EU and of Regulation ( EU ) no. 904/2010, and who carry out distance sales of goods originating in that third country.

The import regime will apply to all distance sales of imported goods whose intrinsic value does not exceed 150 euros, with the exception of products subject to excise duty.

5. Identification for the purposes of the import regime

For the purposes of this regime, the tax authorities will identify the business or professional covered by it with an operator number for the purposes of the import regime (NIOSS).

In the event of acting through an intermediary duly registered as such (having previously been assigned an intermediary identification number - NIOSSIn by the tax authorities), the authorities will also assign the latter an identification number for the purposes of the regime in relation to each businessperson or professional who has designated him as such.

6. Formal obligations

The formal obligations in the event that Spain is the identifying member state are the following:

  1. Have a tax identification number.

    In the case of entrepreneurs or professionals who operate through an intermediary, in the absence of a tax identification number, they must have an individual identification code.

  2. Declare the start, modification or cessation of operations covered by this special regime (form 035).

  3. Submit a self-assessment for each calendar month, regardless of whether or not transactions to which this special regime applies have been carried out (form 369).

    The self-assessment must be submitted during the month following the period to which it refers.

  4. Enter the tax corresponding to each self-assessment within the self-assessment submission period.

  5. Keep and maintain a record of the operations included in this special regime.

    This register shall be available to both the Member State of identification and the Member State of consumption and must be kept for a period of ten years.

  6. Issue and deliver invoices for all operations covered by this special regime.

7. Modification of self-assessments

Any subsequent modification to the figures contained in the self-assessments submitted must be made in subsequent self-assessments submitted within a maximum period of three years.

8. Deduction of the supported quotas

  1. In the event that Spain is the identifying member state, entrepreneurs or professionals covered by this special regime will not be able to deduct in the periodic self-assessment corresponding to this regime (form 369) the quotas incurred in the acquisition or importation of goods and services intended for carrying out the operations covered by it.

  2. For the quotas supported in the territory of application of the Tax:

    • If, in addition to the operations included in this regime, they carry out others for which they are obliged to submit periodic VAT self-assessments, they will be deducted in said self-assessments.

    • If they are established in another Member State, but are identified in Spain because the intermediary that represents them is established here, they will request the refund through the procedure provided for in article 119 of the VAT Law.

    • If they are not established in the Community, they will request the refund through the procedure provided for in article 119 bis of the VAT Law, without requiring that the existence of reciprocity of treatment in favor of businessmen or professionals established in the territory be recognized. of application of the Tax, nor the designation of a tax representative in Spain.

  3. For contributions incurred in other Member States:

    • If they are established in the territory of application of the Tax, they will request the refund through the procedure provided for in article 117 bis of the VAT Law.

    • If they are not established in the territory of application of the Tax but are established in another Member State, being identified in Spain because the intermediary representing them is established here, they will request the refund in the corresponding periodic national declaration if they are required to do so, or otherwise, through the procedure regulated in Directive 2008/9/ EC .

    • If they are not established in the territory of application of the Tax or the rest of the Community, they will request the refund by the procedure provided for in the regulations of the Member State in which they were borne in development of Directive 86/560/ EEC , of the Council, of November 17, 1986, without being able to require the recognition of reciprocal treatment or the designation of a tax representative in that Member State.

  4. In the case of businessmen or professionals based in the Canary Islands, Ceuta or Melilla, who are not established in the territory of application of the Tax or in the rest of the Community and who do not carry out operations other than those under the special regime that require them to submit self-assessments under the general VAT regime:

    • They will request the refund of the fees paid in Spain through the procedure provided for in article 119 of the VAT Law.

    • They will request the refund of the contributions paid in other Member States through the procedure provided for in article 117bis of the VAT Law , in application of Directive 2008/9/EC.