Intrastat and recapitulative declarations

Enforcement of Intrastat declarations

The Office of the Commissioner for Revenue (CfR) has issued a notice urging VAT registered taxpayers to comply with any outstanding Intrastat obligations in terms of Subsidiary Legislation 406.08 - Value Added Tax (Collection of Supplementary Information) Regulations.

All VAT registered persons who trade in goods between Malta and other EU Member States are obliged to submit Intrastat declarations to the National Statistics Office (NSO) in respect of the goods being dispatched from Malta and/or arriving in Malta, even if such transactions are carried out merely on an occasional or one-time basis only. It should be noted that this obligation applies even if the goods are acquired for the trader’s own use, such as office equipment, furniture, consumables, etc. An exception applies to persons who have traded less than the nominal annual threshold of €700.

The CfR and NSO have identified a significant number of potentially non-compliant traders and have issued them with an e-mail notifying them of the suspected non-compliance with Intrastat reporting obligations, and of the authorities’ intention to initiate criminal proceedings against defaulting traders who do not regularise their position within a period of three months. The law envisages a fine of between €700 and €3,500 for any failure to comply.

We recommend that VAT registered persons, including in particular – but not limited to – those who have received the aforementioned CfR notification, ought to review their records to verify whether they have any potentially outstanding Intrastat declarations, and if so to regularise their position as soon as possible.

Enforcement of VAT recapitulative statement filings

Through the same notice, the CfR has also reminded taxpayers of their obligation to file VAT Recapitulative statements for any exempt intra-EU supplies of goods or services where the customer is liable to pay the VAT under the so-called reverse charge mechanism. In this respect, taxpayers are again reminded that non-compliance may lead to criminal prosecution, and therefore we recommend that VAT registered persons review their records to ascertain whether there is any non-compliance in this respect that would need to be regularised.

Changes in Intrastat declarations

The NSO has communicated the changes and enhancements taking place on the online Intrastat declarations portal, as a result of the entry into force of EU Regulation 2019/2152 on European Business Statistics as from 1 January 2022.

The salient changes are:

i) Nature of Transaction
The previous Nature of Transaction (NoT) classification has been updated to a more detailed one. A full list of the new NoT codes can be found here.

ii) HS Codes
Several new HS Codes have been introduced, while some pre-existing HS Codes have expired. The updated HS Codes can be directly accessed through the following link: https://nso.gov.mt/en/nso/Intrastat/Documents/2021/CN_Validity_2022.xlsx

iii) Non-taxable trader VAT ID
In the Consignee / Supplier VAT ID number field, the following dummy VAT ID numbers should be used only in very specific circumstances:

i. QN999999999999 – to be used when the consignee/supplier is a private customer who is not registered for VAT purposes and is purchasing/selling for own personal use; OR
ii. QT999999999999 – to be used when the consignee/supplier is a taxable person who is not registered for VAT purposes.

To discuss the implications of this on your business in greater detail, or should you require our assistance with preparing and submitting Intrastat declarations and/or VAT recapitulative statements, please do not hesitate to contact us.