online sales in SpainAre you considering undertaking online sales in Spain to clients or have you already started? If so, you should continue reading to make sure you know and follow the appropriate rules.

Within the European Union, you can easily undertake small-scale online sales to private clients without having to distinguish between national and foreign clients. All invoices are issued with the VAT rate of the country of origin.

Volume of sales

However, that is only applied up to a certain volume of sales, which varies depending on the destination country.[i] While, for example, the limit per year in Germany and the United Kingdom is €100,000 and £70,000, respectively, in Spain it is €35,000.[ii] This means that as soon as the value of your sales to Spain exceeds €35,000 in the current fiscal year, you need to issue your invoices with the Spanish tax identification number (CIF) and Spanish VAT.[iii] In the year after the overrun, you are obliged to follow the mentioned regulation from day one. As a result, it will also mean that taxes are to be declared and paid in Spain.

Administrative steps

Therefore, we recommend that you plan the scope of your activity in advance so that you can address the administrative steps in good time, as the process can take up to two months. The essential steps are as follows:

  • Request an identification number (NIE) for your company representative in Spain.
  • Request, translate, legalise and attach an apostille to an extract from the commercial registry of the country of origin.
  • Request a tax identification number (CIF) for foreign companies in Spain.

Furthermore, you should also check that your website and accounting and invoicing program, etc., are set up to work with foreign VAT rates.

The team at Arintass will be delighted to help you overcome any administrative hurdle in your own language so that you can successfully undertake your online sales business in Spain. Furthermore, we can also help you with issues relating to tax and accounting matters.

We would be delighted to work with you.

PS: is your company located outside the EU? No problem. We also advise companies outside the European Union. Send us your request.

 

[i] COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax

[ii] Table of limits of sales value per destination country

[iii] Article 68 of the Law on Value Added Tax

Bettina Náray

Click to rate this post!
(Votes: 2 Average rate: 5)

Corporate Consultants