Monitor your trade in goods within the EU Member States – check Intrastat obligations in the CEE Region

What is the INTRASTAT system?

Intrastat is the statistical system enforced on 1st January 1993 in accordance with the need to control trade in goods within the European Union (EU) in a situation of removal of borders and customs formalities between the EU Member States when reporting obligations were withdrawn. Intrastat does not apply if the goods are coming in from outside or being sent out of the EU.

Intrastat declarations need to be submitted in the EU Member State from which the goods are physically dispatched and in the EU Member State, the goods physically enter.

Who is obliged to provide information within the INTRASTAT system?

Entities conducting or intending to carry out business activity involving trade in goods within the territory of the EU need to consider the risk of registration of the trade movement in terms of statistics.

It consists of submitting Intrastat declarations on the basis of which all goods arrived or dispatched from or to the other EU Member States are declared.

The obligation to submit above mentioned declarations lies on entrepreneurs being natural person, legal entity or organizational unit without a legal personality, who:

• are VAT payers or tax representatives of foreign entities registered in Poland for EU cross-border transactions purposes;
• participate in trade in goods with a foreign country consisting of sending or receiving goods or holding goods which are the subject of such operation;
• the value of the above-mentioned goods in the last calendar year exceeded or will exceed the basic threshold level in the current year.
  
  

When the Intrastat declaration is submitted?

The liability to provide information applies to enterprises where the value of arrivals or dispatches exceeds the so-called statistical thresholds defined and announced in general by the President of the Central Statistical Office.

Please bear in mind that each EU Member State fixes its national threshold, established separately for arrivals and dispatches. The thresholds are reviewed annually, therefore it is worth monitoring the total value of goods acquired from the other EU Member States. Selected CEE Member States established a specific reporting threshold in case of greater intra-EU trade. What is more, there are various deadlines for filing the monthly Intrastat. Therefore it is necessary to familiarize yourself with the rules of the country in which the trader has reporting obligation.

Relevant Intrastat returns need to be reported only when the value of the goods arrived or dispatched from or to another EU Member State of the companies established or registered in the Member State of EU exceeds the applicable threshold. The monthly Intrastat should be filed in general by electronic means, nevertheless, in selected countries, paper declarations are also allowed.

The enterprise is obliged to fill in Intrastat declaration in the following situations:

• the value of its arrivals or dispatches of goods for the year preceding given reporting year exceeded the value determined for the current reference year for the basic arrival or dispatch threshold established respectively. Please note that when the enterprise exceeds the threshold for arrivals of goods, but not for dispatches, the entity has to file Intrastat declaration for the goods arriving only;
• the value of its arrivals or dispatches of goods for the reporting year exceeded the value determined for the given reporting year in terms of the basic arrival or dispatch threshold established for that reporting year. In this case, the obliged person shall complete the Intrastat declarations as from the Intrastat declaration for the reporting period in which the value of the arrivals or dispatches of goods exceeded the value determined for the relevant basic statistical threshold.

The entity which turnover value falls between the value of the basic threshold and detailed threshold is exempt from filling in all positions in the Intrastat declaration, only selected boxes are completed.

The entity which arrival or dispatch value exceeded detailed reporting threshold is obliged to fill in all the boxes on the Intrastat declaration.

NOTE! There are penalties for non-reported, late, or incorrect filings of the Intrastat declaration.

Do not forget to monitor your movement of the goods – dispatches and arrivals between the EU Member States in case there is a risk you may exceed annual thresholds. If you have any questions or doubts and you need support in the Intrastat reporting in CEE region, please do not hesitate to contact our experts: