Intra-Community VAT number: your NIF with ES in front
You do not have it by default: you have to apply, Hacienda checks and grants it. And without it, an invoice that should have gone out without VAT goes out with Spanish VAT.
The tax identification number with the ES prefix, assigned once you are registered on the Register of Intra-Community Operators and visible in VIES.
Having a Spanish NIF is not the same as having an intra-Community VAT number. You have to apply to be registered on the Register of Intra-Community Operators using form 036, and the Tax Agency checks that there is real activity before granting it. Once granted, the NIF with the ES prefix appears in VIES.
What it is for
On an intra-Community supply of goods, article 25 of the VAT Act declares the transaction exempt: the supplier does not charge VAT because the client self-assesses the tax in their own country. Since 2020, the client having a valid VAT number from another Member State and the transaction being correctly included on form 349 are substantive conditions of that exemption, not mere formalities.
For services between businesses, the general rule in article 69.One.1 places the transaction where the customer is established. The invoice goes without Spanish VAT, carrying the reverse charge wording.
An example with numbers
€5,000 of design services to a German company:
- With the client's VAT number validated: an invoice for €5,000, without VAT, with the compulsory wording, and the transaction goes to form 349.
- Without it: the transaction is located in Spain and the invoice carries €1,050 of VAT. If it has already gone out without VAT, you end up paying that amount yourself.
The mistake that comes up most
Assuming your NIF works as it is because “it is a European number”. Without ROI registration your NIF is not in VIES; and if you are not in VIES, your European clients cannot apply the exemption on their side either.
Where this carries on in Cairos: Form 349 for intra-Community transactions.
Terms that go with this one
Almost no tax concept makes sense on its own. These three are the ones that most often turn up beside it.
ROI
The Tax Agency's Register of Intra-Community Operators, which you have to be on to trade without VAT with the rest of the European Union.
RegulationsVIES
The European Commission's VAT information exchange system, where you check whether an intra-Community VAT number is registered for intra-Community transactions.
VATReverse charge
The mechanism by which the customer of a transaction, and not the person carrying it out, is the one liable to declare the VAT.
This, handled without thinking about it
Cairos keeps the invoices, the record books and Hacienda's forms from the same data, so the theory on this page turns into boxes that are already filled in.
No card and no minimum term.