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Practical Handbook VAT 2022

Goods deliveries

The following supplies of goods, among others, are considered to be carried out in the territory where the tax applies:

  1. Deliveries of goods without transport.When there is no dispatch or transport and the goods are placed at the disposal of the purchaser in the territory where the tax applies.

    Example:

    Spanish company selling products to a non-established French company and delivering them directly to the French company's customers in Spain.

    The supplies of goods from the Spanish company to the French company are subject to Spanish VAT as the goods are made available to the purchaser in the territorial scope of application of the tax.

  2. Deliveries of goods with transport (except intra-Community distance sales or distance sales of imported goods):

    1. General rule

      When, in the case of dispatch or transport, this begins in the Peninsula or the Balearic Islands.

      Example:

      Spanish company selling products to a non-established French company by delivering them directly to the French company's customers in France.

      Deliveries of goods from the Spanish company to the French company are subject to Spanish VAT as the transport started in the Spanish mainland or the Balearic Islands (without prejudice to the possible exemption for the goods being destined for another EU Member State).

    2. Special rules

      • Where the place where dispatch or transport of the goods to be imported begins is situated in a third country, the supplies of such goods by the importer and, where appropriate, by subsequent purchasers shall be deemed to have been carried out in the territory in which the tax applies.

      • In the case of goods which are the subject of successive supplies, dispatched or transported to another Member State directly from the first supplier to the final purchaser in the chain, the dispatch or transport shall be deemed to be linked only to the supply of goods to the intermediary.

      However, dispatch or transport shall be deemed to be linked to the supply by the intermediary only where he has communicated to his supplier a value added tax identification number supplied by the Kingdom of Spain.

      Intermediary means a trader or professional other than the first supplier, who dispatches or transports the goods directly or by a third party in his name and on his behalf.
  3. Where the goods are subject to installation or assembly, provided that the installation or assembly complies with the following requirements:

    1. Is prior to making the goods available to the acquirer.
    2. It is finalised on the Peninsula or Balearic Islands.
    3. Involves immobilisation of assets.

    Example:

    The supply by a French firm to a Spanish firm of equipment which is to be installed in the territory where the tax applies before it is made available, and where such installation entails the immobilisation of the industrial equipment.

    This supply of goods shall be subject to Spanish VAT irrespective of the cost of installation.

  4. In the case of immovable property located in the territory.

    Example:

    The sale of a flat located in the Canary Islands owned by a company established in Madrid to another company also established in Madrid is not subject to tax.

  5. The supply of goods to passengers on board a ship, aircraft or train in the course of the part of a transport operation carried out within the European Union, where the place of departure is in the territory where the tax applies and the place of arrival is elsewhere in the Community.

    Example:

    Supplies of goods carried out in an aircraft on the Madrid-Paris route are subject to Spanish VAT when the transport starts in Madrid, and are not subject to tax when it starts in Paris.

  6. Intra-Community distance sales from other Member States.

    Intra-Community distance sales originating in another Member State shall be deemed to have been made in the territory where the tax applies when that territory is the place of arrival of the dispatch or transport to the customer.

    However, the general rule above:

    1. Intra-Community distance sales with origin in another Member State and destination in the territory of application of the tax shall not be deemed to have been made in that territory when the following requirements are simultaneously met:

      • they are carried out by a trader or professional acting as such established solely in another Member State because he has there the seat of his economic activity or his only permanent establishment or establishments in the Community.

      • The limit provided for in Article 73 of LIVA has not been exceeded and the option of taxation at destination provided for in has not been exercised.

    2. Intra-Community distance sales, with origin in another Member State and destination in the territory of application of the tax, which have as their object goods subject to excise duty and whose recipients are persons whose intra-Community acquisitions of goods are not subject to excise duty by virtue of Article 14 of the VAT Law, shall in all cases be deemed to have been made in the territory of application of the tax.

    3. Intra-Community distance sales, with origin in another Member State and destination in the territory of application of the tax, which have been taxed in the Member State of origin under the special scheme for used goods, shall be taxed in the Member State of origin.

  7. Intra-Community distance sales with origin in the territory of application of the tax.

    Intra-Community distance sales originating in the territory of application of the tax shall be deemed to be made in that territory when the following requirements are met simultaneously:

    1. They are carried out by a trader or professional established solely in the territory where the tax applies.

    2. The limit provided for in Article 73 of the LIVA has not been exceeded, nor has the option of taxation at destination provided for in been exercised.

    However:

    1. Intra-Community distance sales originating in the territory of application of the tax whose object is goods subject to excise duty and whose recipients are persons or entities whose intra-Community acquisitions of goods are not subject to excise duty due to the application in the Member State of destination of the provision equivalent to Article 14 of the VAT Law, shall in no case be deemed to have been made in the territory of application of the tax.

    2. Intra-Community distance sales originating in the territory of application of the tax and which are taxed under the special arrangements for used goods shall in all cases be deemed to have been made in that territory.

  8. Distance sales of imported goods.

    Depending on the Member State of importation, distance sales of imported goods will be located in the territory where the tax applies:

    1. If the importation takes place in another Member State, where the territory of application of the tax is the place of arrival of the consignment or transport.

    2. If the importation takes place in the territory of application of the Tax, when the Value Added Tax on these sales is declared by means of the special regime of Title IX, Chapter XI, Section 4 of the VAT Law.(Import Regime).

    Member State of importation is to be understood as the Member State in which the taxable event of importation took place for the purposes of VAT .

  9. Deliveries through gas and electricity distribution systems or deliveries of heat or cooling through heating or cooling networks, in the following cases:

    1. Those made to a reseller entrepreneur, when the latter has his place of business, permanent establishment or, failing that, his domicile in the said territory, and the destination of such place of business, permanent establishment or domicile is the said place of business, permanent establishment or domicile.

    2. Any other, where the acquirer actually uses or consumes the goods in the territory where the tax applies.Such use or consumption is deemed to take place in the aforementioned territory when the meter with which it is measured is located in that territory.