The Czech government, working in tandem with the Czech Statistical Office, the Finance Ministry, and the Customs Administration, has managed to make life easier for SMEs in particular, by adopting decree No. 333/2021 Coll. of 23 August 2021 which introduces simplified Intrastat reporting, thus doing away with the need to file 12 monthly reports. Instead, reporting units may submit one annual report without having to state detailed data.
Who may make use of simplified reporting:
The basic condition which must be satisfied to make use of the option of simplified Intrastat reporting is this: the business in question must have crossed the threshold for mandatory Intrastat reports (which even before the new government decree was, and still is, CZK 12 million per calendar year) but at the same time stays below a total trading volume of CZK 20 million in the given year (whereas this threshold applies separately to both directions of trade, i.e., for the import of goods from another member state and for the export of goods to another member state). In addition, the reporting unit must not trade in commodities which are listed in a communication by the Czech Statistical Office (ČSU) about the list of goods not suitable for simplified reporting.
In addition, certain terminology changes have been made in the wake of the new EU rules. The decree (and the forms) no longer speak of the “Receipt of goods from another EU member state” or the “Dispatch of goods to another EU member state”, but instead of the import and export of goods from or to another EU member state.
The simplified report may be submitted at the beginning of the year, within the deadline for filing the report for the reference period of January or, if the obligation to make Intrastat reports has arisen during the year (upon passing the value threshold for traded goods of 12 million crowns), in the course of the given year, i.e., by the deadline for filing the report for that reference period in which the 12-million threshold was crossed.
If a reporting unit has reached the 12-million-crowns threshold for the given direction of trade and, upon registering for mandatory Intrastat reports using the registration form posted on the Customs Administration website, decides to make use of simplified reporting, it shall upon registration file a report, specifying the direction of trade and the reference period, and giving the code ZH to indicate the type of data record. Thereupon, it will no longer file monthly reports, though it needs to monitor whether it may have begun to trade in commodities which, according to the ČSU communication, are not suitable for simplified reporting, or whether the threshold of CZK 20 million crowns for goods traded (in either direction) has been crossed.
If a reporting unit no longer satisfies the requirements under which the simplified reporting option may be utilized, it need not separately notify the competent customs office hereof, but shall instead simply file regular Intrastat reports as of the reference period in which it ceased to fulfill the requirements.
Conversely, if a reporting unit made use of simplified reporting in 2022 and wants to do so again in 2023 (because it still meets the requirements), it shall again submit a simplified report by the deadline for filing the report for the reference period of January 2023, specifying the code ZH for the type of record.
Mandatory scope of reporting:
Also as of 1 January 2022, the circle of information which must be provided for goods that are being exported to another member state has been widened. In addition to the items previously reported, reporting units must now specify the country of origin of the to-be-exported goods, and the VAT identification number (or equivalent number) which was assigned for the purposes of VAT to the partner business in the EU member state to which the goods will be exported.
If goods are being exported for a partner business which has been assigned no VAT ID, or if the reporting unit does not know this VAT ID, the code “QV123” must be given.
The circle of information which must be provided for goods that are being imported from other member states has remained the same.
Significant changes have been made to the codes used to identify the nature of transactions. In order to facilitate getting one’s bearings among the new codes, the Statistical Office has created a conversion tool: https://www.czso.cz/csu/czso/nove-kody-povahy-transakce
The materiality threshold for small consignments has been raised from previously EUR 200 to EUR 400.
According to a communiqué by the General Customs Directorate, “the website of the Czech Customs Administration will soon offer a feature which allows businesses to explore the new rules in place since the beginning of 2022 in a trial run, by creating mock Intrastat records”.
Source:
Czech Statistical Office, Czech Customs Administration, government decree No. 333/2021 Coll.