Simplification on consignment warehouses requires additional information in the recapitulative statement

In a BMF letter dated January 28, 2020, the BMF published the preliminary procedure for submitting the recapitulative statement when applying the new consignment stock regulation as of January 1, 2020.

As already reported in our PSP updates, since January 1, 2020, the application of a simplification rule for consignment warehouses is now also applicable from a German perspective if certain conditions are met. While the regulations for consignment warehouses within the EU were previously very differently structured, uniform regulations have now applied throughout Europe since January 1, 2020, thanks to the so-called "quick fixes". However, as the regulations have not yet been transposed into national law in all EU member states, caution is still required in so-called "outbound cases". Regardless of this, depending on the individual case, it should always be weighed up whether to make use of the new regulation or to leave it at the previous processing.

As part of the national implementation, Germany has created a new provision, § 6b UStG. According to this provision, corresponding deliveries of goods from Germany are treated as intra-Community deliveries (Section 6a UStG) on the part of the supplying trader under certain conditions and are thus subject to taxation as intra-Community acquisitions (Section 1a (1) UStG) on the part of the purchaser of the goods in the country of destination.

One of the prerequisites for the application of § 6b UStG is the proper declaration in the recapitulative statement (§ 6b para. 1 no. 4 UStG). For this purpose, an adjusted reporting requirement has been introduced in Section 18a (1) sentence 1 in conjunction with (6) no. 3 and (7). Paragraph 6 No. 3, Paragraph 7 Sentence 1 No. 2a UStG. However, as the supplemented reporting obligations cannot yet be fulfilled with the previous standard form for the purposes of the recapitulative statement for organizational reasons, the tax authorities have introduced a new standard form for the purposes of the recapitulative statement. BMF letter dated January 28, 2020 has published the (provisional) form required for this purpose as well as corresponding instructions for completion. This includes, among other things, separate reporting options for return shipments, re-dispatches and in the event of a change of acquirer. The corresponding form must - in addition to the previous recapitulative statement due to other circumstances, if applicable - be submitted to the Federal Central Tax Office in due time, either via online access or by DE-Mail.