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VAT practical manual 2022.

Import regime

1. Definitions

Shall be deemed:

  1. Businessman or professional not established in the Community: any businessman or professional who has the headquarters of his economic activity outside the Community and does not have a permanent establishment there.

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

  3. Member State of Identification:

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

      • When the businessman or professional is not established in the Community, the Member State he chooses.

      • When the businessman or professional does not have the headquarters of his economic activity established in the Community, but has several permanent establishments there, the Member State in which, having a permanent establishment, indicates that he is covered by this special regime. The option will be binding on the businessman or professional as long as it is not revoked and will be valid for a minimum of the year to which the option refers and the following two.

      • When the entrepreneur 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, said Member State.

    • When the taxable person acts through an intermediary:

      • When the intermediary has established the seat of its economic activity in a Member State, said Member State.

      • When the intermediary does not have the seat of its economic activity established in the Community, but has several permanent establishments there, the Member State in which, having a permanent establishment, indicates that it is covered by the import regime. The option will be binding as long as it is not revoked and will be valid for a minimum of the calendar year to which the option refers and the following two.

  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 requirements to act 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 infraction, in relation to their economic activity, by virtue of final administrative ruling or resolution.

  4. Prove financial solvency.

4. Scope

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

  3. 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 that carry out distance sales of goods from 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 that are subject to excise taxes.

5. Identification for the purposes of the import regime

For the purposes of this regime, the Tax Administration will identify the businessman 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 by the Tax Administration an identification number as an intermediary - NIOSSIn), the Administration will also assign the intermediary an identification number for the purposes of the regime in relation to each businessman or professional who has designated it as such.

6. Formal obligations

The formal obligations in case Spain is the identification member state are the following:

  1. Have a tax identification number.

    In the case of businessmen 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 under this special regime (form 035).

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

    The self-assessment will 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.

  6. This record will 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.

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

7. Modification of self-assessments

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

8. Deduction of contributions borne

  1. In the event that Spain is the member state of identification, the businessmen 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 fees borne in the acquisition or import of goods and services destined to carry out the operations covered by it.

  2. For the fees borne 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 fees borne 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 in another Member State, being identified in Spain because the intermediary that represents them is established here, they will request the refund in the corresponding periodic national declaration if they are obliged to do so, or in case Otherwise, by the procedure regulated in Directive 2008/9/ EC .

    • If the Tax or the rest of the Community are not established in the territory of application, they will request the refund by the procedure provided for in the regulations of the Member State in which they have been supported in the development of Directive 86/560/ EEC , of the Council, of November 17, 1986, without being able to require the recognition of reciprocity of 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.