Changes to INTRASTAT reporting

1  Introduction

This document outlines new INTRASTAT reporting requirements due to changes to European legislation governing Business Statistics. Please see the relevant regulations below:

REGULATION (EU) 2019/2152 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 27 November 2019 on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics.

European Parliament and Council Regulation (EU ) 2019/2152

COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2020/1197of 30 July 2020 laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197

2   New requirements for INTRASTAT Dispatches

The main impact of the new Eurpoean Business Statistics (EBS) legislation on traders will be additional data elements in the INTRASTAT declaration for Dispatches/Exports.  From 1^st January, 2022 the following data elements will be mandatory in addition to those already reported:

• The Identification Number allocated to the partner operator in the Member State of destination, by record level i.e. the VAT Number of the customer in the receiving Member State and
• The Country of Origin of the goods

Note that the partner operator VAT number is not required for Arrivals/Imports.

2.1  Partner Operator VAT number

The partner operator VAT number should be the VAT number of the customer to whom the goods are shipped/delivered. In the case of triangulation of goods, where the invoice partner is in a different country to where the goods are delivered, the VAT number of the entity who receive the goods should be used. If this information is not available then the VAT number of the invoice partner can be used. It should be noted that in this case, the "country of destination" code will differ from the country prefix of the customer’s VAT number.

There may be situations where there is no partner operator VAT number, for example sales to a private individual. In this case the trader will need to confirm this on the ROS system before submission.

2.2  Country of Origin

Goods obtained entirely from a given country originate in that country; goods produced in two or more countries are deemed to originate in the country where the last transformation or substantial processing took place. Where minimal processing occurs, for example splitting of packages or re-labelling of goods, this will not affect the country of origin.

Note that the country of origin can be any country in the world and is not limited to EU member states. For the majority of goods that are produced or processed here, Ireland (IE), will be the country of origin. Goods for re-export are expected to have a different country of origin.

3  Timetable

The EBS regulation comes into force in January 2021, with a further year allowed to implement the changes to INTRASTAT. Therefore, submission of the new data elements for INTRASTAT dispatches is mandatory from 1^st January 2022. 

The online ROS filing system has been updated to allow for these new variables. Traders may voluntarily submit the new variables from mid-2021. It is recommended that traders test their systems in advance of mandatory reporting.

4  Purpose of Changes

International trade in goods statistics provide very detailed and valuable information on the products, values and quantities of goods traded between countries. However, it has been recognized that the INTRASTAT collection system creates a high reporting burden on businesses. Therefore, the Council of the European Union called upon the ESS to redevelop the INTRASTAT survey to enable potential burden reduction.

Current legislation specifies that at least 93% of the total value of imports must be collected via INTRASTAT. Individual Member States set their reporting thresholds accordingly to ensure that they comply with this requirement. Changes under EBS legislation means that the minimum coverage will no longer be specified in the legislation and Member States are free to design their collection and compilation of import statistics. A key element of this is the availability of a new data source for Arrivals through the exchange of Dispatch/Export micro-data with partner Member States.

In the medium to long-term this has the potential to reduce the number of traders who are required to submit detailed Import/Arrivals data for INTRASTAT if the received micro-data from all other Member States is shown to be of sufficient quality to replace, or supplement, other data sources.

The legislation specifies strict rules surrounding the transmission and sharing of Dispatch/Export micro-data. Each Member State will only receive micro-data that corresponds to their Arrivals/Imports. Note that the micro-data will contain the foreign partner VAT number but not the Irish trader’s VAT number.

The data will be exchanged through a secure network and data transmission hub which will be administered by Eurostat. Access to the micro-data will be limited to only the persons directly involved in collecting, processing, compiling and quality checking in the Member States and the micro-data shall not be disseminated or further transmitted to other parties within or outside the Member States.

5  Legislation covering trade in goods data collection

REGULATION (EU) 2019/2152 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2020/1197

COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2021/1225

COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) 2021/1704

REGULATION (EC) No 223/2009 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL