See Also: EC Sales List Export File, EC Sales List Audit, Intrastat Reports

The EC Sales List report is required in a special format by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) from all UK Companies selling more than a set value per annum to foreign EU States. This report prints one line of information for each Customer consolidating all of their Invoices together.

HMRC are introducing a number of changes to the EC Sales List regarding both Services and Goods. It is important that you become familiar with the new rules and comply with the changes. See Summary below. Full details are available from the HMRC website at: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/online/index.htm.

You must set your system options to access the EC Sales List. You are also able to access XML functionality that enables you to send EC Sales List report directly to HMRC.

Only supplies to businesses in other EU Member States which are VAT registered and have valid VAT Registration Numbers should be recorded on the EC Sales List report.

From 1 January 2010 most services provided to business customers will be treated as supplied in the country where the business customer is established, and the business customer will account for VAT under the reverse charge mechanism.

UK VAT-registered businesses that supply services to EU businesses, where the place of supply is the customer’s country, will have to complete EC Sales Lists for each calendar quarter and submit these within 14 days for paper returns and 21 days for electronic returns.

From 1 January 2010 businesses that supply services to customers in other EU Member States, where the customer is required to account for VAT using the reverse charge mechanism, will have to include them on an EC Sales List (‘ECSL’).

VAT Code types 'X' and 'Y' have been introduced and apply to the Sales and Purchase of Services to the EU. These new VAT Code types apply to Invoices and Credit Notes for EU VAT registered Customers and Suppliers and EU VAT Debit VAT Journals only.

HMRC requires that the EC Sales List must be submitted monthly for the supply of goods over a over a certain threshold, otherwise the report can be submitted quarterly. The thresholds for quarterly reporting for the supply of goods are:

Note: the option to submit quarterly EC Sales List reports for goods will cease at the end of any month during which the total value, excluding VAT, of the taxable supplies of intra-EC goods exceeds the relevant quarterly thresholds (£70,000 or £35,000).

Businesses will be required to submit monthly EC Sales List reports from the first day of the month following the month in which they exceed the threshold.

For example:

Where a business submitting quarterly EC Sales List reports exceeds the quarterly threshold during the month of February, they will be required to submit a final quarterly report covering just two months (January and February) and commence submitting monthly reports from 1st March.

The information provided in this section derives from details supplied on the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) website as of 29 October 2010. You should always check with HMRC should you require further information or guidance. Additionally, HMRC requirements may change over time and it is your responsibility to check that the requirements described above are accurate and complete.

VAT Type G - Invoice and credit note transactions posted via both Sales Ledger and Sales Orders for VAT Registered customers using VAT Type G (Goods and Related Services) will be included on the EC Sales List.

VAT Type X - EU Reverse Charge accounting where the supply is subject to VAT will be included on the EC Sales List.

VAT Type S - The list does not include transactions posted using VAT Type S (Non-related Services)

VAT Type Y - The list does not include EU Reverse Charge accounting where the supply is not subject to VAT.

This is a Report required in a special format by HMRC from all UK Companies selling more than a set value per annum to foreign EU States. This report prints one line of information for each Customer consolidating all of their Invoices together.

The EC Sales List window enables you to send a monthly or a quarterly report and include Services or Goods, or both. The defaults for the Report Selection depend on how the System Options are set up.

The following section describes the options where Period has been set as the ECSL Reporting Method. For a description of the options where Date has been set, see section below.

The Monthly or Quarterly radio buttons enable you to select the report frequency required.

You will be prompted to enter a period:

Please note that attempting to select transactions by entering a period range for Last Year will not display any returns if the Nominal Ledger Year End has not been run. This is the case even if the Sales Ledger Year End has been run.

If your ECSL Reporting Method is Date, you will be prompted to enter a date range for the transactions that will be accumulated onto the EC Sales List.

Where Quarterly has been chosen, and if the report has not been run before then the Date range defaults to the start date and end date of the previous calendar quarter based on the system date. For example, current date = 09/10/09 so default range is 01/06/09 to 30/09/09.

However, if the report has been run before then the Date range defaults to the start date and end date of the calendar quarter after the period last updated. For example, the report was last run with Reference 09/09 (MM/YY) so default range is 01/10/09 to 31/12/09.

Where Monthly has been chosen, and if the report has not been run before then the Date range defaults to the start date and end date of the previous calendar month based on the system date. For example, current date = 09/10/09 so default range is 01/09/09 to 30/09/09

However, if the report has been run before then the Date range defaults to the start date and end date of the calendar month after the period last updated. For example, the report was last run with Reference 10/09 (MM/YY) so default range is 01/11/09 to 30/11/09.

After selecting your report selection options, you should print the report. Select screen, printer or file and click on the OK button to run the report. To submit the report to HMRC via the XML button you need to print the report using the Print button.

Note that you can also print a more detailed report for your own records by selecting EC Sales List Audit.

When you are satisfied that the EC Sales List report is correct , you can submit your report online using the XML button.

Selecting the XML button enables you to submit your Return directly to HMRC.

Click on the OK button to submit the VAT Return to HMRC using the Online Gateway. If a response is received within the polling time of 2 minutes, the Gateway Response window is displayed where you may check the response. Note that you can check your responses from HMRC at any time. See Gateway Response Window for more details.