Delivery limits to EU countries
Deliveries to EU countries are, meanwhile, standard procedure for many shop systems. However, only few shop operators are aware of the fact that there are very important tax laws and limit value regulations that have to be respected when delivering to private people within the EU. For every EU country turnover limits are in effect (so-called delivery limits) acc. to § 3c Value-Added Tax Act (German: UStG) When these limits are reached or exceeded, shop operators can no longer send deliveries to private people (only to companies with registration of their sales tax identification number) in the current financial year unless the shop operator has been registered in the respective country as company with regard to the value-added tax. When the delivery limit has been exceeded and more deliveries are made to private people in this country, the value-added tax is due in this EU country of destination and has to be paid directly to the fiscal authorities in this country. There are many EU countries where the value-added tax is considerably higher than in Germany. Certainly, the fiscal authorities can also change these regulations retroactively. An active implementation would currently mean the end of their business activities for many shop systems, since the back duty of the countries of destination can be huge and the delivery limits are quite low in many countries. Last year, our neighbour Austria, for example, cut the delivery value limit almost in half to an annual turnover of EUR 35,000. Many shop systems are also not able to provide the technical background to include such complex tax systems for the EU and third countries in their invoicing or even to implement the whole system of delivery limits to countries. We, too, have reached these delivery limits for some countries very early in the current financial year and, thus, can no longer deliver to private people in these countries They will be informed during the ordering process insofar as they have registered as private people, the goods leave Germany to be delivered to a destination in the EU (country of destination) and the delivery limit for the respective EU country has already been exceeded.
Our Shop system www.eibmarkt.com calculates fully-automatically the turnover generated with sales to private and corporate customers in the respective EU countries with regard to the turnover limit and cancels the order process if the registration form indicates that the customer is a private person, goods leave the German territory and the delivery limit has been reached or exceeded.
We would like to point out that people acting as entrepreneurs (USt-ID) are not affected by these regulations.
According to unofficial publication s of the EU Commission the applicable delivery limits in other EU member countries are as follows as per 1 September 2011:
Belgium: EUR 35,000
Bulgaria: BGN 70,000
Denmark: DKK 280,000
Estonia: EUR 35,151
Finland: EUR 35,000
France: EUR 10, 000
Greece: EUR 35,000
Ireland: EUR 35,000
Italy: EUR 100 000
Latvia: LVL 24,000
Lithuania: LTL 125,000
Luxemburg: EUR 100,000
Malta: EUR 35,000
Netherlands: EUR 100,000
Austria: EUR 35,000
Poland: PLN 160,000
Portugal: EUR 35,000
Romania: RON 118,000
Sweden: SEK 320,000
Slovakia: EUR 35,000
Slovenia: EUR 35,000
Spain: EUR 35,000
Czech Republic: CZK 1,140,000
Hungary: HUF 8,800,000
United Kingdom: GBP 70,000
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