Import scheme

1.Definitions

It will be considered:

1. Entrepreneur or professional not established in the Community: any trader or professional who has his place of business outside the Community and does not have a fixed establishment there.

2. Intermediary: any person established in the Community who is designated by the person designated by the trader or professional carrying out distance sales of imported goods and who, in the name and on behalf of that person, is required to fulfil the material and formal obligations arising from the import arrangements.

3. Member State of identification:

   • When the taxable person acts directly, without an intermediary:

     • Where the employer or professional is not established in the Community, the Member State for which he chooses.

     • Where the trader or professional has not established his business in the Community but has several fixed establishments there, the Member State in which he has a fixed establishment shall indicate that he is availing himself of this special scheme.The option shall be binding on the employer or professional until it is revoked and shall be valid for at least the year to which the option relates and the following two years.

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

   • Where the taxable person acts through an intermediary:

   • Where the intermediary has established his place of business in a Member State, that Member State.

   • Where the intermediary does not have his principal place of business in the Community but has several fixed establishments there, the Member State in which he has a fixed establishment shall indicate that he is availing himself of the import arrangements.The option shall be binding until revoked and shall be valid for at least the calendar year to which the option relates and the following two calendar years.

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

2.Liability

In the case of supplies of goods carried out under the terms of Article 8 bis of the Law on VAT, the accrual of tax on the supply made to the trader or professional who facilitates the sale or supply, as well as that made by the trader or professional himself, shall occur with the acceptance of payment by the customer.

3.Requirements for acting as an intermediary

The following are 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 where the tax applies.

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

4. Proof of financial solvency.

4.Scope

The import arrangements may be used by traders or professionals making distance sales of goods imported from third countries or third territories in consignments of an intrinsic value not exceeding EUR 150, with the exception of products subject to excise duty, provided that they are:

1. Entrepreneurs or professionals established in the Community

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

3. Employers or professionals established in a third country with which the European Union has concluded a mutual assistance agreement with a scope similar to that of Council Directive 2010/24/EU and Regulation (EU) No. 904/2010, and which make distance sales of goods from that third country.

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

5.Identification for the purposes of the import regime

For the purposes of this scheme, the tax administration shall identify the trader or professional under this scheme with an operator number for the purposes of the import regime (NIOSS).

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

6.Formal obligations

The formal obligations in case Spain is the member state of identification are as follows:

1. Have a tax identification number.

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

2. Declare the commencement, modification or cessation of operations under 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.

   The self-assessment shall be submitted during the month following the month of the period to which it relates.

4. Pay the tax corresponding to each self-assessment within the deadline for submitting the self-assessment.

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

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

7. Issue and deliver invoices for all transactions covered by this special scheme.

7.Modification of self-assessments

Any subsequent changes 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 input tax

1. In the event that Spain is the Member State of identification, entrepreneurs or professionals covered by this special regime may not deduct in the periodic self-assessment corresponding to this regime (form 369) the amounts paid for the acquisition or importation of goods and services used to carry out the operations covered by this regime.

2. For the tax borne in the territory where the tax applies:

   • If, in addition to the transactions included in this scheme, they carry out other transactions for which they are required to submit periodic VAT self-assessments, they shall deduct them in those self-assessments.

   • If they are established in another Member State, but are identified in Spain because the intermediary representing them is established there, they will apply for a refund in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 119 of the VAT Law.

   • If they are not established in the Community, they shall apply for a refund in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 119 bis of the VAT Law, without being required to recognise the existence of reciprocity of treatment in favour of entrepreneurs or professionals established in the territory where the tax applies, nor the designation of a tax representative in Spain.

3. For contributions borne in other Member States:

   • If they are established in the territory where the tax applies, they shall apply for a refund in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 117 bis of the VAT Act.

   • If they are not established in the territory where the tax applies but are established in another Member State and are identified in Spain because the intermediary representing them is established there, they will apply for the refund in the corresponding periodic national return if they are obliged to do so, or otherwise, through the procedure regulated in Directive 2008/9/EC.

   • If they are not established in the territory where the tax is levied or in the rest of the Community, they shall apply for a refund in accordance with the procedure laid down in the legislation of the Member State in which the tax has been paid under Council Directive 86/560/EECof 17 November 1986, without the requirement of reciprocity of treatment or the designation of a tax representative in that Member State.

4. In the case of business people 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 transactions other than those covered by the special scheme that require them to file self-assessments under the general VAT scheme:

   • They shall apply for a refund of the VAT paid in Spain through the procedure provided for in Article 119 of the VAT Law.

   • They shall apply for reimbursement of input tax in other Member States through the procedure provided for in Article 117a of the VAT Law VAT Law, in application of Directive 2008/9/EC.