Intrastat is the system used in the European Union to collect data on trade of goods between the EU Member States. International trade in goods statistics (ITGS) are an important source of information that is used by businesses and policy makers for various purposes.
Since its introduction in 1993, Intrastat has been perceived as a particularly burdensome data collection system. In November 2011, the Council called upon the European Statistical System (ESS) to take effective measures to reach the global objective of ensuring a substantial reduction of the response burden by redeveloping Intrastat, while at the same time maintaining a sound level of data quality.
WHY MODERNIZE?
The objective for the European Statistical System is to modernize the current system for compiling intra-EU trade in goods statistics, respecting the following:
- Ensure a substantial reduction in overall response burden for data providers;
- Satisfy users' needs in terms of availability and quality of the statistics produced;
- Provide more flexibility for data compilers in the EU Member States.
WHAT WILL CHANGE IN INTRASTAT REPORTING?
The most important innovation is that each National Statistical Authority could use the export data received from the other EU Member States to compile its own import statistics. This means that the data collected from exporters becomes essential for both exports and imports statistics. To fully serve this purpose, two new data elements are needed from the exporters:
- the VAT number of the partner company ( (deemed) customer), and
- the country of origin of the exported goods.
EU REGULATION ON EUROPEAN BUSINESS STATISTICS
In the EU Member States where these two data elements are not yet collected, exporters will have to start reporting them at the latest when the 'Regulation on European business statistics' becomes applicable. To compensate for this additional data need, the National Statistical Authorities have the possibility to exempt smaller exporters from reporting intra-EU trade data. With the help of exchanged data and new compilation methods of imports, the National Statistical Authorities could eventually exempt more importers from reporting intra-EU trade data.
The 'Regulation on European business statistics' will become applicable for intra-EU trade in goods statistics from 1 January 2022. From that date onwards, the exchange of intra-EU exports microdata with new data elements will become mandatory. Possible changes to the data reporting on imports could also take place after this date.
WHAT ARE THE INTRASTAT CHANGES ON EU MEMBER STATE LEVEL?
Each National Statistical Authority responsible for intra-EU trade in goods statistics will communicate its plans on how the modernized Intrastat system will be implemented on national level. We follow this closely and keep you informed as soon as there are more details to share. Don’t miss out on these latest developments. Subscribe to our newsletter!
Source: Eurostat
Let us assist you!
In case you are not outsourcing your Intrastat reporting to Pincvision (yet), but like to know what this could mean for your organization? We suggest to read more about our Pincvision Intrastat service. Do you want to speak with one of our experts? Please do not hesitate to contact us by calling +31(0)88-4321800 or send an email to info@pincvision.com
Lisa Terberg-Widdershoven
Intrastat Compliance Specialist