Revenue & Customs Brief 02/09 gives some information about how the measures in EU Council Directive 2008/117/EC and Regulation (37/2009) will be implemented in the UK. The measures relate to EC Sales Lists (ESLs) and the time of supply of services subject to reverse charge.

The main changes relate to the submission of ESLs. In principle, the new Directive provides that these should normally be submitted monthly, but it allows Member States to offer their businesses certain options. According to the Brief, the UK intends to implement these as follows:

• ESLs relating to services may be submitted quarterly, relating to calendar quarters.
• From 1 January 2010, ESLs relating to goods may be submitted quarterly, relating to calendar quarters, provided that the value (excluding VAT) of supplies of goods to other Member States has not exceeded £70,000 in any of the previous 4 quarters.
• A business entitled to submit quarterly ESLs for goods can continue to do so unless the value of supplies of goods to other Member States exceeds £70,000 (excluding VAT) per quarter from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2011 or £35,000 (excluding VAT) per quarter from 1 January 2012 onwards.
• If a business exceeds the quarterly goods threshold by the end of the first or second month in a quarter, an ESL must be submitted at the end of that month, covering the month or months in that quarter. Lists must be submitted monthly from then.
• Once a business is on a monthly cycle, because it has exceeded the threshold in any quarter, it must continue to submit monthly ESLs for goods until the value of its intra-Community trade in goods has been below the threshold for five consecutive quarters – it may then revert to quarterly submission if its trade remains below the threshold.
• A business required to submit monthly ESLs relating to goods may still submit ESLs relating to services quarterly.
• Any business may submit ESLs for goods and/or services monthly, if it wishes.

Revenue and Customs Brief No. 02/09 is reproduced at Section 2.09.

Revenue and Customs Brief No. 53/08 provides further details on the first bullet point above: a new requirement that businesses provide HMRC with EC Sales Lists for certain taxable supplies of services from 1 January 2010. This requirement affects all UK businesses that make taxable supplies of services to business customers in other EU countries where the customer is required to account for VAT under the reverse charge procedure.

Revenue and Customs Brief No. 53/08 is reproduced at Section 2.10.