EC Sales List (ESL) or VIES return
Brexit changes from 1 January 2021
- Great Britain: You will not need to submit your EC Sales List (ESL) for the export of goods or the supply of services made to EU businesses on or after 1 January 2021. You will still have to submit your EC Sales List for sales made before 1 January 2021.
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Northern Ireland: You will still need to submit EC Sales Lists (ESLs) if you sell goods to EU VAT-registered customers.
See HMRC: How to report your EU sales for VAT (opens in a new tab).
If you are registered for VAT and supply goods to customers in the EU you need to submit:
- An EC Sales List (ESL) to HMRC (for Northern Ireland, but not Great Britain).
- A VAT Information Exchange System (VIES) return to the Irish Revenue (for Ireland).
When you run the EC Sales List report in Sage 200, it produces an XML file that you can upload directly to the HMRC or Irish Revenue website.
Note: Although the report is called the EC Sales List, the information is also suitable for your VIES return in Ireland.
The report XML file includes the following information:
- The customer's country code.
- The customer's VAT registration numbers.
- The value of goods supplied in the period.
- The value of triangulated goods supplied in the period.
- The value of services supplied in the period.
How often should you submit the EC Sales List or VIES return?
You will need to submit the EC Sales List or VIES return either monthly, quarterly, or in some cases annually. The actual frequency you need to submit the report depends on the value of the business you conduct with your European customers. We suggest you check the information on the HMRC or Irish Revenue website for up-to-date guidance.
HMRC (gov.uk) (opens in a new tab)
Revenue (revenue.ie) (opens in a new tab)
How this affects your VAT Return
You must produce your EC Sales List or VIES return before you generate the final VAT Return for a period. The report is generated using figures that are removed when the VAT Return is generated.
What do you want to do?
Next steps
After generating the EC Sales List report, you can safely generate your final VAT Return for the period.
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