Intrastat Returns - Revised Due Date

The due date for submission of intrastat declarations is now planned to apply from 1 April. HMRC states “this measure will take effect on 1 April 2012. Intrastat declarations for the period 1 to 31 March will be due on 21 April; all subsequent declarations will be due on the 21st of the month.”

It will impact on businesses that are required to submit declarations of their trade with other EU member states using an intrastat declaration i.e those with intra-EU trade in excess of £600,000 per annum for arrivals (EU imports) and/or £250,000 per annum for dispatches (EU exports).

HMRC have now updated Notice 60 Intrastat General Guidance to reflect the change. The notice is effective now and its main changes are to improve readability, to withdraw the option of submission of paper forms, to bring forward the due date of submission of forms to the 21st day of the month, to clarify that NoTC 40 and 50 can only be used where no change in ownership takes place and to announce that the threshold for using the low value consignment simplification procedure has been increased from £130 to £180.

The notice also contains web-based and telephone contact details regarding the two ways that are available for submitting data electronically, i.e. via the internet (Intrastat Online Services) and via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).