Frequently asked Intrastat questions

  • What is an Intrastat declaration?
    An Intrastat declaration is a report listing all intra-community purchases and/or intra-community deliveries. In other words, this declaration involves all of the purchases and/or deliveries a company has made within the EU. These declarations must be submitted monthly to the Tax and Customs Authorities.
  • What purpose does the Intrastat declaration serve?
    Since the elimination of the internal tax borders in the European Union in 1993, free trade between all EU member states has been in effect since 1993. Through the Intrastat declarations, the tax authorities in the various countries are able to follow the trade in goods between the states.
  • Who is required to file Intrastat declarations?
    You must file an Intrastat declaration when your intra-community purchases and/or intra-community deliveries exceed the pre-determined thresholds.

    On the website of the Dutch Tax and Customs Authority, you will find the information on intra-community purchases which will help you determine whether or not a purchase made within the EU is considered an intra-community purchase which is taxable in the Netherlands. (information is only available in Dutch)
  • What are the thresholds for filing Intrastat declarations?
    These thresholds are different in every EU country. See here for an overview of the thresholds in the various EU countries.
  • In which countries are you required to file an Intrastat declaration?
    The Intrastat declaration is a requirement in all of the EU member states when the threshold is exceeded.
  • What sort of audit is performed to determine the accuracy of the declarations?
    In many countries, the Intrastat reports are compared with the VAT declarations. In the Netherlands, the CBS (Central Bureau of Statistics) is entitled to request VAT statistics from the Dutch Tax and Customs Authority for comparison purposes. However, as a result of the Dutch Tax and Customs Authority is not authorized to request Intrastat declarations. This does not apply to all EU member states. There are also countries in which the local tax and customs authority is entitled to compare these declarations and use this to verify the information.
  • What happens if you do not comply with the requirements?
    Since filing an Intrastat declaration is a requirement, failure to comply with this will result in action being taken. If a company fails to file an Intrastat declaration, it may be penalized to pay a fine which can add up to thousands of Euros. The fines to which companies are subjected do however vary from one EU member state to the next.
  • How do you file an Intrastat declaration?
    The Intrastat reports are filed for declaration by various systems. Each country has designated its own declaration system for this purpose. There are several offline declaration programs, online declaration programs, and for some countries, companies are required to send these reports by e-mail in a certain format.

    At Pincvision, all of these various programs and formats are centralized so as to facilitate the declarations for all of the countries.


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