Exporting goods or services to other EU-countries and ICP declaration

25 Jul Exporting goods or services to other EU-countries and ICP declaration

As a member of the European Union, the Netherlands allows Dutch companies to easily import and export goods to and from other EU-countries. However, this also comes with additional administrative requirements that importing and exporting companies must fulfill. Aside from the VAT return, the exporting companies are also required to complete an intra-community transactions declaration, also known as an ICP declaration, for supplying intra-community goods or services. This way the tax authorities can check the validity of these business transactions and exchange the information with other EU-countries. In this article we will elaborate on which companies have to file the ICP declaration and what is required to complete an ICP declaration.

Intra-community supplies
Intra-community supplies can be defined as goods and services that are supplied to VAT-liable European customers outside the Netherlands. Although this type of transactions is not taxed in the Netherlands, companies must declare them in the intra-community supply section on VAT returns as well as on the ICP declaration.

A company is obliged to submit ICP declarations if any of the following situations applies:

• The company supplies intra-community goods
• The company supplies intra-community services
• The company transfers its own goods to other

EU-countries
The ICP declaration does not have to be submitted if a company exports goods to private European individuals or customers without a VAT number outside the Netherlands. Moreover, the Dutch VAT must be applied in this case. If Dutch VAT is not properly applied, the tax authorities might subject the company to additional tax assessments and the company would still have to pay taxes on the goods or services that were supplied without tax.

Requirements
There are a few additional requirements for intra-community supplies that companies have to fulfill:

• Invoices for intra-community goods have to include a statement to clarify that the invoice concerns an intra-community supply.
• Invoices for intra-community services do not have a VAT code, but instead the invoice should state that the VAT has been reverse charged or “BTW verlegd” in Dutch.
• The VAT number of the company itself and of the customer must be stated on the invoice. It is important to check the validity of the customer’s VAT number prior to creating the invoice, in order to verify if the customer is VAT-liable and to justify if Dutch VAT should be applied.
• The documents that prove that the goods or services have been exported should be retained for administrative purposes. This includes order confirmations, packing lists, bills of lading and other related documents.

Submitting the ICP declaration
Unlike the VAT return, the ICP declaration does not have to be filed every period. It does not have to be filed if the company has not supplied any intra-community goods or services. Intra-community goods are filed in the period of the invoice date and intra-community services are filed in the period in which the service was provided. The ICP declaration can be submitted monthly, quarterly or annually, depending on the requirements that companies fulfill for specific time periods.

All companies are permitted to file ICP declarations month-ly, but if companies deliver goods worth more than the threshold of € 50.000 per quarter, they are obligated to file monthly ICP declarations. Companies are allowed to submit the ICP declaration quarterly if the company hasn’t exceeded the threshold of € 50.000 in the quarter it wants to file the ICP declaration and in the previous 4 quarters. To file the ICP declaration annually, a permit must be requested at the Dutch authorities.

For more information on doing business abroad and Intra-community supplies, feel free to contact us.