Skip to main content
Practical Handbook VAT 2022

EU system

1.Definitions

It will be considered:

  1. Entrepreneur or professional not established in the Member State of consumption: any trader or professional who has established his business in the territory of the Community or who has a fixed establishment there, but who has neither established his business in the territory of the Member State of consumption nor has a fixed establishment there.

  2. Member State of identification:

    • The Member State in which the employer or professional has established his place of business.

    • Where the trader or professional does not have his place of business in the Community, the only Member State in which he has a fixed establishment shall be taken into account.

    • Where the trader or professional does not have his place of business in the Community but has a fixed establishment in several Member States, the State for which he chooses from among the Member States in which he has a fixed establishment shall be the State in which he has his place of business.

    • Where the trader or professional has neither established his business nor a fixed establishment in the Community, the Member State in which dispatch or transport of the goods begins and, if there is more than one, the Member State for which he chooses.

    The option for a Member State shall be binding until revoked and shall be valid for at least the calendar year in which the option is exercised and for two years thereafter.

  3. Member State of consumption:

    • In the case of the provision of services, the Member State in which the provision of services is deemed to take place.

    • In the case of intra-Community distance sales of goods, the Member State of arrival of the dispatch or transport of the goods to the customer.

    • In the case of supplies of goods by an interface, where the dispatch or transport of the supplied goods begins and ends in the same Member State.

2.Scope

will be available under the Union scheme:

  1. Traders or professionals established in the Community, but not in the Member State of consumption, who supply services deemed to be supplied in the Member State of consumption to recipients who are not traders or professionals.

  2. Entrepreneurs or professionals making intra-Community distance sales of goods.

  3. Electronic interfaces which carry out domestic supplies of goods under the conditions laid down in Article 8a(b) of this Law on VAT.

The Union's regime shall apply to:

  1. All supplies of services carried out by a trader or professional covered by this scheme which are located in a Member State other than that in which the trader or professional covered by this special scheme has established his business or has a fixed establishment.

  2. All intra-Community distance sales made by traders or professionals covered by this scheme.

  3. All domestic supplies carried out by electronic interfaces covered by this scheme under the conditions laid down in Article 8a(b) of the VAT Act.

3.Identification for the purposes of this scheme

The operator number for the purposes of the Union Scheme when Spain is the Member State of identification will be the tax identification number already assigned by the State Tax Administration Agency to the entrepreneur or professional.

4.Formal obligations

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

  1. Have a tax identification number.

  2. Declare the commencement, modification or cessation of operations under this special regime (form 035).

  3. File a self-assessment for each calendar quarter, regardless of whether you have carried out transactions to which this special regime applies.

    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.

    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.

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

5.Modification of self-assessments

Any modification of the figures contained in the self-assessments submitted shall be made in the self-assessment corresponding to a subsequent period submitted within a maximum period of three years from the date on which the initial self-assessment to be modified should have been submitted.

6.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 do not carry out such other transactions and are not established in the Community, they shall apply for a refund in accordance with the procedure provided for 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, or 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 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 entrepreneurs 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 Act, pursuant to Directive 2008/9/EC.