Two different transactions
Outside the European Union it is an export: the invoice carries no VAT and the exemption is evidenced by the goods leaving the customs territory.
To another Member State it is an intra-Community supply: the invoice carries no VAT only if your customer is a business, holds an active VAT number and the goods are genuinely transported to another Member State. If any of the three fails, the transaction carries domestic VAT.
And there is a third case people forget: selling to a private individual in another EU country is not an intra-Community supply. That falls under the distance-selling regime, with its threshold and its one-stop shop, and the VAT charged is that of the buyer’s country.
Who imports what you sell, and where?
Paste your company website and we'll tell you which companies to sell to and who makes the buying decision at each one. Free, no card needed.
What applies in each case
| You sell to… | VAT | What you need |
|---|---|---|
| A business outside the EU | No VAT | Customs exit confirmation |
| A business in another Member State | No VAT | Valid VAT number in VIES + proof of transport |
| A private individual in another Member State | VAT of the buyer’s country | Distance-selling regime / one-stop shop |
| A private individual outside the EU | No VAT | Exit confirmation |
| A business in your own country | Domestic VAT | — |
What to put on the invoice
- Exemption wording
- An invoice without VAT has to say why. The exact reference depends on whether it is an export or an intra-Community supply, and on your Member State’s own legislation.Exempt supply — Art. 146 Directive 2006/112/EC (export of goods)
- Customer’s VAT number
- Only on intra-Community supplies, and checked in VIES on the day of the transaction. Without a valid VAT number, the supply is not exempt.SE556789012301
- Your own VAT number
- With its country prefix. It requires being registered for intra-Community operations in your Member State.ESB12345678
- Incoterm and place
- It is what makes clear who organises the transport, which is part of what gets checked in a review.CPT Stockholm (Incoterms 2020)
What to keep for each transaction
The exemption is not evidenced by the invoice: it is evidenced by this.
- Outside the EU: the customs exit confirmation, with its MRN
- Inside the EU: the VIES query with its date, saved or printed
- Inside the EU: proof of transport — signed CMR, delivery note, carrier’s invoice
- The invoice, packing list and transport document, coherent with each other
- The proof of payment, which supports that the transaction was real
The ones that get expensive in an inspection
- Not being registered for intra-Community operationsWithout appearing in the VIES register, your own VAT number is not valid for intra-Community transactions and the exemption does not hold.
- Trusting a VAT number you were given months agoDeregistrations are not announced. The check is only good for the day it is made, so it is made on every transaction.
- Not keeping the proof of transportOn intra-Community supplies, evidencing the goods left the country is as important as the VAT number. With no proof, a domestic sale is presumed.
- Treating a sale to a European consumer as intra-CommunityIt is not. The distance-selling regime applies, and invoicing without VAT is an error that gets regularised with a surcharge.