VATLive > Blog > VAT > EU Intrastat changes - Avalara

EU Intrastat changes

  • Nov 13, 2013 | Richard Asquith

EU Intrastat changes

The European Commission is planning changes the Intrastat reporting process. 

Intrastat is the monthly reporting process for EU VAT registered businesses to report the movements of goods across internal EU member borders.  It enables countries to follow the movement of goods across the entire free trade zone.

Intrastat thresholds and reporting changes

The EC is proposing the following changes to help improve the system:

Increasing the Intrastat reporting threshold for ‘imports’ or arrivals into a EU member state so as to reduce the coverage rate from the current 95% to 93%. 

Changing the submission to Eurostat by member states of collected Intrastat information from the current monthly routine.

Intrastat is increasingly used by the tax authorities of member states to detect missing trader VAT fraud.  The Intrastat information showing the despatch of goods is regularly being compared to the mirror information in another country showing the arrival.  If there are material differences, this may trigger a VAT audit.


VP Global Indirect Tax
Richard Asquith
VP Global Indirect Tax Richard Asquith
Richard Asquith is the former VP Global Indirect Tax at Avalara