“Company”, “payment of intra-Community taxes” and “one-stop shop“. These are the three concepts that are linked to form 369, an essential document for reflecting distance sales to private individuals within the EU and the VAT that these have generated for your company, to pay the corresponding amounts to the tax authorities.
Since 1 July 2021, companies and professionals with an e-commerce business must assume that this document is essential in their daily activity. For this reason, it is important to understand what form 369 is and what it is for.
What is form 369 and what is it for?
Form 369 is an essential form for submitting the new tax on digital services offered by Spanish professionals or companies to citizens of other European Union countries.
In this way, the State coffers propose to diligently collect all the VAT generated by the different work projects in a single step and with the convenience of doing so through a digital window.
The AEAT Form 369 is necessary both for those who use their online businesses to sell products and for those who offer any type of digital service to individuals.
In order to declare this tax settlement document, the entrepreneur or company must be registered at a one-stop shop. This can be done very simply by completing and submitting form 035.
There is an obligation to apply the VAT of the country of destination of the invoice for distance sales when the following conditions are met:
- Sell products or services to any EU member state through a digital channel such as a web shop, social media, etc.
- The volume of distance sales within the EU to final consumers (i.e. B2C) exceeds a turnover of more than €10,000 in the previous year or over one year. To calculate this threshold, electronic services such as telecommunications, radio and television broadcasting services must also be taken into account.
This is to avoid the taxpayer having to register with the tax authorities of each of the countries to which he sells, as was previously the case.
In those cases where the 10,000 Euros threshold is not exceeded, the entrepreneur may choose to charge VAT in the destination country as well.
The aim of this tax is that e-commerce companies can charge the VAT of their customer’s country, settle these taxes correctly and that the Treasury is responsible for balancing this collection with the countries with which the Spanish businessman has maintained a professional relationship.
Who must file form 369 and when?
Bearing in mind the above minimums which, from the point of view of business and economic activity, mark when it is compulsory to think about this form 369, it is now important to establish which companies or self-employed persons must, according to the new VAT regulations, declare using this form.
- External EU regime: professionals who are not based in the EU and who provide services to persons who do not have the status of entrepreneur or professional and who are established in the EU.
- Internal EU regime: professionals or companies that carry out the operations that are the object of the regime, whether or not they are established in the EU. Depending on the latter factor, they must declare certain operations or others.
- Import regime: those professionals, whether or not established in the EU, who carry out distance sales of goods imported from third countries in consignments of a value of less than 150 euros, as well as all intermediaries acting on their behalf.
How often do I have to use the AEAT form 369 for VAT filing?
In the first and second of these cases, the settlement will be four times a year, coinciding with the end of each calendar quarter and with the usual VAT settlements.
Only in the third case, when referring to the import regime, the new regulations require that form 369 be filed every month.
The deadline for filing is the calendar month following the deadline for each period. For example, if the deadline is quarterly, companies or professionals must file the 369 for the first quarter of the year at a single window throughout April.
Filing formalities
You should be familiar with the protocol for filing this VAT self-assessment. Of course, the first thing to do is to be registered in the digital one-stop shop and correctly fill in form 369 following the company’s activity data. Then, the following steps must be followed:
- Make the payment into an official AEAT account.
- File the self-assessment digitally with the electronic certificate.
In the event of any need for modification, the employer must reflect it in the subsequent filings of the form, provided that no more than three years have passed since the settlement where the error to be corrected was reflected.
Failure to file form 369 in due time, making regular errors or not acting with due diligence may result in the imposition of penalties, surcharges or interest that will clearly and directly affect the finances of the company that has committed the malpractice in the payment of its tax.
In addition, it should be borne in mind that Form 369 does not allow the refund of VAT paid in EU countries to be requested, and this procedure must be carried out, if applicable, using Form 360.
Conclusion
These are the key points regarding the 369 form, an essential document for companies based in Spain that use different online tools to increase their business sales.
Knowing how to integrate the payment of VAT tax is the best way to keep correctly all the liquidations related to the activity of the company to avoid penalties, inspections and any other type of review by the Treasury and the treasuries of other countries of the European Union.
If you have any questions on this subject, please contact our tax advisors in Barcelona.
