EC Sales List
 |
|
|---|
The EC Sales List (ECSL) is another reporting requirement for companies in Northern Ireland exporting goods over a certain threshold to the EU. This report is concerned not with products, but with the total value of orders sent to VAT registered recipients within other member states (i.e. commercial entities rather than private individuals). This is accessed from the the Accounts [ Tax (VAT) | EC Sales List ] screen.
Prerequisites
The setup for the ECSL is simpler than for Intrastat since product type codes do not need to be set up and linked to individual stock items.
The most important thing is to ensure that you have entered the correct VAT number1 for each EC company you are trading with into the "tax reference" field2 on the [ Customer/Supplier | Detail | General ] screen. For Customers/Suppliers transactions to be included on the ECSL, the following conditions must be met:
- The Country table record (set using the System Data screen) linked to the Customer/Supplier record must have its "EU Country" checkbox ticked.
Note: The Health Check option on the "File" menu of Khaos Control's main screen can be used to check both that your country table contains a record for each country included in the official ISO-3166 list and that the "EU Country" flags have been set for each "other member" state required to correctly generate your VAT Return, EC Sales List and Intrastat report. - The "EC Company" checkbox on the
[ Customer/Supplier | Detail | General ]screen must be ticked. - A VAT number2 has been entered into the "Tax Reference" field on the
[ Customer/Supplier | Detail | General ]screen.
Caution: Khaos Control does NOT check the characters keyed into the Tax Reference box to ensure that a valid VAT number has been entered1,2,3. If you type something like "unknown" or "n/a" or import a file containing the character zero, these will all be treated as valid VAT numbers.
Notes
- The European Commission provides a free on-line VAT number validation service.
- The ECSL contains one line per unique VAT number that goods have been exported to, so if two companies have the same tax reference, their orders would be combined into one entry on the ECSL. This may occasionally be correct (for example, two or more subsidiaries of one large parent company), but often it is an error (e.g. the character word "unknown" has been incorrectly entered into the tax reference field on the Customer record), so Khaos Control will display a warning should a report be generated with two or more companies having the same reference.
- The Inland Revenue usually requires VAT numbers to be entered without the country code attached i.e. Spanish codes should not have an 'ES' prefix or suffix. This is because the country code is displayed in a separate column on the ECSL report.
- VAT numbers are prefixed by the member states' two-character ISO-3166 code in all cases except Greece, whose VAT numbers have an 'EL' prefix. Where your customer is a VAT-registered company in another EU country, your Sales Invoice must show both your customer's VAT number (including the two-letter country prefix) and your own VAT number. For more information about VAT numbers and sales invoices see requirements for an invoice.
Generating the EC Sales List
To prepare the report, choose a quarter and year, and press "Go". By ticking the "date range" radio button, reports can be prepared for any given date range, but be aware this is not how ECSL are normally meant to be submitted. The VAT No, branch and contact name of your company can be entered as well. As with Intrastat, there is a CSV Export button which creates a file in the format approved for electronic submission by the Inland Revenue. The "reference" field of the report is filled in with the company code attached to each VAT number so the details can be checked later. As with Intrastat, do not expect the figures to necessarily match the tax register exactly; private individuals are excluded, and free items may be included depending on the system configuration.
For more information on creating an EC Sales List please see How To: Create an EC Sales List
Note: The figures may not match the tax register exactly because:
- Private individuals are excluded.
- Free items may be included depending on the system configuration.