The Czech EC Sales List (ESL) is submitted in addition to the regular Czech VAT Return or Czech Intrastat filings. If a Czech VAT registered business, resident or non-resident is selling goods of services to an other VAT registered business in Europe then this is when they must submit an EC Sales List in the Czech Republic.
ESL’s should be filed monthly in Czech Republic for intra-community supply of goods but for services these can be filed quarterly providing the business has supplied no goods and also submits their VAT Returns quarterly. The filing date is the 25th following the end of the month/quarter end for reporting. The filings can be made online and will need to be completed accurately otherwise a late or incorrect Czech ESL filings. There is no threshold for reporting and every b2b intra-community sale must be reported.
It’s important to follow these guidelines when dealing with transactions in the EU:
- If your customer can provide you with a valid EU VAT Registration number, you can apply the zero rate of VAT to the sale
- The VAT will be due in the destination country from the customer on acquisition of the goods
- You must keep paperwork that shows both the seller’s and buyer’s VAT registration numbers on the invoice
- You must number your sales invoices in sequence
- You must also obtain and keep valid evidence that the goods have been removed from the UK within certain time limits to be able to zero rate
All companies, freelancers and other professionals wishing to work with intra-Community transactions, *have to be registered for VAT* in another member state in the European Union. After receiving your customer’s VAT number, you should check that the VAT number is given in the right format for that country and that it matches the customer’s name and address. By checking out the European VAT number validation system you can do a search and verify the VAT number of your customer.
