Situation: A company buys goods from China for customs in Hungary. The company that prepares the customs documents, the Hungarian company issues a proforma invoice (self-invoice) which has a higher value than the value of the invoice in China. The customs duties and the transport are re-invoiced to the company by the Romanian company representing the one from Hungary.
What is the declaratory import regime?
Solution:
The acquisition of a good from a third state, put into free circulation on the Romanian territory, as a member state, represents an import of goods that takes place in Romania.
According to Article 274 (a), the importation of goods is defined as the entry into the territory of the European Union of goods that are not in free circulation within the meaning of Article 29 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
According to article 309 of the Fiscal Code, when the goods are put into free circulation on the Romanian territory, the operation represents an import in Romania, and the importer is the person obliged to pay the tax for the import subject to taxation.
According to point 82 paragraph (1) letter a) methodological norms (in the application of article 309), the importer who has the obligation to pay the tax for a taxable import of goods is the buyer to whom the goods are shipped on the date when the tax becomes due on import or, in absence of this buyer, the owner of the goods at this time. As an exception, the supplier of the good or a previous supplier may opt for the quality of the importer.
Any deliveries prior to importation are not taxable in Romania, except for deliveries of goods for which the rules provided in Article 275 paragraph (1) letter e) and f) of the Fiscal Code apply;
According to article 266 paragraph (1) point 15 of the Importing Fiscal Code, it represents the person in whose name the goods are declared, when the import tax becomes due, according to article 285, and who in case of taxable imports is obliged to pay the tax according to article 309;
Therefore, if the import takes place in Romania, the importer owes VAT to the Romanian customs according to the import customs declaration.
In the case presented above, in the situation where the goods delivered from China are put into free circulation on the community territory, but not in Romania, but in Hungary, the operation represents for the Romanian buyer an intra-community acquisition of goods, taxable in Romania for which owes VAT in Romania by applying the reverse charge regime.
Thus, the operation represents for the buyer from Romania an import of goods in Hungary for which he owes only customs duties, but without owing VAT to the customs in Hungary.
We emphasize that the shipping company that has assumed the responsibility for carrying out the transport is responsible for drawing up the customs import formalities in Hungary, by applying the measures to simplify the import declaration.
The import of goods in Hungary represents for the buyer from Romania, the taxable person registered for VAT purposes in normal regime, an intra-community acquisition of goods taxable in Romania by applying the reverse charge regime 4426 = 4427.
The operation is declared in the VAT return code 300 at lines 5 and 20 Intra-community acquisitions of goods for which the buyer is obliged to pay VAT (reverse charge), without deferral to line 5.1 and line 20.1 Intra-community acquisitions for which the buyer is obliged to pay VAT (reverse charge), and the supplier is registered for VAT purposes in the Member State from which the intra-Community supply took place because the Chinese supplier is not registered for VAT purposes in Hungary;
It is declared by the informative declaration code 390 VIES, with the symbol A, by completing the following information:
- under the heading “Name of intra-Community operator”: name of the supplier in China
- under the heading “Intra-Community operator code”: the registration code for VAT purposes assigned to the Hungarian shipping company with the symbol HU which draws up the customs formalities for placing goods in free circulation on Community territory, after payment of customs duties, depending on the nature of the goods imported.
The shipping company in Hungary is treated as the tax representative of the Chinese supplier.
Legal basis:
– Fiscal Code (approved by Law no. 227/2015, published in the Official Gazette no. 688 of 10.09.2015), with subsequent amendments and completions;
– Fiscal Procedure Code (approved by Law no. 207/2015, published in the Official Gazette no. 547 of 23.07.2015), with subsequent amendments and completions;
– Methodological Norms for the application of the Fiscal Code (approved by HG no. 1/2016).