The Intrastat system: purpose, features, rules

The creation of a single European market has resulted in the free movement of people, goods, services and capital from individual EU member states across the territory of the European Union. This has greatly facilitated international trade, since within the EU there is no longer any need to fill in customs declarations. At the same time, the absence of customs control created the need to monitor the movement of goods within the European Union in some other way — and for this purpose the Intrastat system was created. Its aims are to exchange information between individual EU countries and to compile statistics on the movement of goods within the European Union. The system covers all Community goods, namely:

• Goods wholly obtained or produced within the EU;
• Goods brought in from third countries (those not part of the EU) that have undergone the customs procedure for release into free circulation, i.e. recognised as EU goods;
• Goods produced in the EU from the goods listed in the previous points.

The former concepts of “import” and “export” have now been replaced by the concepts of “acquisition” and “dispatch” of goods. Acquisition covers all movements of goods from the territory of one EU country to the territory of Bulgaria, and dispatch covers all movements in the opposite direction. These concepts are also equivalent to the tax terms “intra-Community acquisition” (ICA) and “intra-Community supply” (ICS).

Filing Intrastat declarations

So-called Intrastat operators — i.e. persons registered for VAT who carry out trade operations with Community goods and have reached a certain annual turnover in acquisitions and/or dispatches — are obliged to file Intrastat declarations. The exact turnover values that must be reached are determined each year by an order of the President of the NSI. The threshold values for the coming year are published by October each year. The thresholds for dispatches and acquisitions are independent of each other and may differ. Thus, the obligation to declare intra-Community dispatches does not automatically entail the obligation to declare acquisitions, and vice versa.

In particular, the following threshold values were set for 2020:

• For acquisitions – 470 thousand leva.
• For dispatches – 290 thousand leva.

There are two types of obligation to file Intrastat declarations — current and annual. A current obligation arises when a person reaches the turnover set by the order during the year. In this situation, Intrastat declarations must be filed from the month in which the threshold was reached until the end of the year. The first declaration must be filed by the 20th day of the month following the one in which the threshold was reached. Thereafter, declarations must be filed by the 14th day of the following month. If in the previous year the person exceeded the turnover for the following year as well, then it must file declarations for the whole of the new year.

Declarations are filed electronically by the operator itself or by persons authorised by it on the website of the National Revenue Agency (NAP), and an electronic signature (KEP) is required for this. In certain cases, if electronic filing is impossible for technical reasons, declarations may be submitted on paper to the territorial office of the NAP. In this case an explanatory note must be attached to the declaration.

There are two types of declaration – monthly (initial) and corrective. For months in which the operator carried out no transactions, a nil declaration is filed.

Mandatory details of the declarations

There are two types of declaration – on acquisitions and on dispatches. The dispatch declaration must contain the following data:

1. The special 8-digit commodity code in accordance with the Combined Nomenclature for the relevant year.
2. The EU country of arrival (dispatch).
3. The type of transaction – outright sale (purchase), return, replacement, financial leasing, etc.
4. The delivery terms, i.e. what is included in the price (transport, insurance, freight, etc.).
5. The mode of transport — road, air, water, rail, etc.
6. The country in which the means of transport is registered.
7. The region of origin (consumption).
8. The net weight in kilograms.
9. The quantity in supplementary units, if such is specified in the Combined Nomenclature for the relevant year.
10. The value in leva.
11. The statistical value in leva, if such is required for this type of goods.

The acquisition declaration must contain the same data as the dispatch declaration, but one more item is added – the country of origin of the goods.

Intrastat declarations may not contain negative values. When a credit note is received, it is not shown with a minus sign in the declaration for the current month – instead, the amount in the previous declaration in which the goods were declared is corrected. Bonuses relating to declared goods are not shown in the declaration.

Statistical value

The statistical value is the value of the goods calculated up to the state border of Bulgaria, including additional transport and insurance costs within the territory of Bulgaria in the case of dispatch, or in the territory outside Bulgaria in the case of acquisition. It is declared only by Intrastat operators that sell specific goods described in detail in the order on the application of the system, and also by operators that have exceeded the relevant annual thresholds, namely:

• For acquisitions – 7600000 BGN.
• For dispatches – 15800000 BGN.

Administrative liability

Failure to file a declaration, filing it late or filing it with incorrect data is punishable by a fine or property sanctions ranging from 500 to 5000 BGN. For a repeated violation the amount is doubled, and for a systematic one, tripled.

When you conclude an accounting services agreement with Bulgarian Expert, our accountants take on the matter of timely filing of reports and monitoring of their accuracy, completely relieving you of such specific concerns and of contacts with government authorities.

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