General
News
On 1 July 2013, Croatia will become the 28th Member State of the European Union. Consequently, from this date onwards, foreign trade involving this country must be included in Intrastat declarations.
To this end, may we urge all declarants trading with Croatia to establish a clear dividing line in the foreign trade field. Up until 30 June inclusive, you will still have to declare all movements of goods via a customs document. From 1 July on, you will be required to notify any movements of mechandise to or from Croatia in the arrivals or dispatches columns of your Intrastat declaration. Please apply the demarcation correctly so as to avoid making any double entries.
Owing to these extra declarations, it is possible that some declarants who were previously exempt from filling up an Intrastat declaration are from now on obliged to declare arrivals or dispatches, or even goods flows in both directions. Those declarants concerned by these changes will receive a personal letter from our department.
Foreign Trade - INTRASTAT - EXTRASTAT
Each Member State of the European Union compiles its own external trade figures, in other words statistics on its cross-border movements of goods. A distinction is made between movements of goods between EU Member States (Intrastat), on the one hand, and trade flows with countries that do not belong to the European Union, on the other, (Extrastat). The former are called "intra-Community purchases and deliveries" as regards the value added tax code, and are labelled "arrivals" and "shipments" for statistical purposes. The names "imports" and "exports" remain used for movements with third party countries, as well as for describing external trade in general.
The entry into force, on 1 January 1993, of the Single European Market opened up internal borders and abolished customs formalities. However, statistical obligations remain in place.
At the end of 1994, the National Accounts Institute (NAI) was set up and has since delegated all its tasks in the field of foreign trade to the National Bank of Belgium. Since 1 January 1995, the Bank has been responsible for collecting all statistical data related to external trade, for compiling overall and anonymous statistics from individual observations and, finally, for making them available or publishing them in periodicals or on electronic media.
Intrastat
All those subject to VAT have to complete a declaration themselves, regarding their intra-Community trade, unless this does not exceed a threshold calculated on an annual basis. This is the Intrastat declaration. This declaration includes all data regarding goods arriving from other Member States and goods being sent to other Member States. It has to be sent directly to the National Bank either as a hard copy or online. Around 15,000 companies subject to this are relevant to this statistic.
It is important to note that if a business concerned by the Intrastat declaration fails to fill up and/or send it in to the National Bank within the prescribed time limit, administrative or legal sanctions may be imposed. These are described in Articles 19 to 23 of the Law of 4 July 1962 on official statistics.
Extrastat
When importing and exporting - when trading goods across the EU's external borders - customs forms must be completed and most notably the Extrastat declaration. The Belgian customs offices send copies of all statistics to the National Bank on a daily basis.
Declarations
WHAT INFORMATION DO I NEED TO FILL UP AN INTRASTAT DECLARATION?
You can find this information in our Intrastat Manual - Part I.
HOW TO SEND IN AN INTRASTAT DECLARATION?
You can send in your Intrastat declarations in one of the prescribed formats using your own software or with the help of the IDEP/CN8 software that the National Bank provides free of charge. You can send in these declarations by e-mail.
More information on the file formats and submission of your declaration can be found under Info electronic declaration 2013.
Another option is to fill in your declaration online via the Internet (OneGate)
ONLINE DECLARATION VIA INTERNET (ONEGATE)
You can fill up and send in your online declaration via the Internet by using OneGate, which is a secure Internet application enabling declarants to fill out their statistical declarations.
If you have not used One Gate (or the previous application CSSR) before, you first have to ask for a user name and a password. You can also access OneGate with an electronic certificate. You will find all the information you need on Request user name and frequently asked questions (FAQ)..
This page will give you more information about Intrastat via OneGate.
Go to the OneGate home page.
IDEP/CN8 FOR WINDOWS
The National Bank provides the IDEP/CN8 software free of charge for users. The main functions of this software are for entering, importing and confirming your data, searching goods codes and sending in your declaration. IDEP/CN8 can also be used by third parties who draw up statistical declarations for several declarants.
FILE UPLOAD
The present application for File upload is to be scrapped and eventually replaced by the One Gate(CSSR) application. However, registered users may continue to use the existing application under further notice. For more information, please send your request to idep@nbb.be.
Intrastat - info
Manual Intrastat
The "Intrastat Manual Part I - Basis"contains the necessary information and help to fill in a declaration form in a quick and efficient manner.
The "Intrastat Manual Part II - Extension" goes into more detail on certain aspects of "Part I – Basis". This second part also deals with the link with the VAT declaration and special movements of goods.
NEWSLETTERS
Intrastat newsletters are sent to all declarants in the event of any significant change arising, whether in the nomenclature or the way in which imports and exports should be declared.
TRAINING
In order to help declarants to complete their Intrastat declarations as efficiently as possible, the National Bank provides information in various forms. Apart from the manuals, it offers training schemes focusing on both the content of the declarations and the use of the IDEP software and the OneGate form.
FORM FOR GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS
As a (new) declarant, you have to fill up an online general information form about your business. You will find the exact name of the form to be completed in the notification that you received from the National Bank of Belgium.
The contact details for your business are those listed in the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises. In the event of a recent change of address, we ask you to mention the new details when filling up the form. We also need additional information about your company’s contact person or any possible third-party declarant, as well as details concerning your business activities in other Member States.
ORDERING AN INFORMATION CD-ROM ONLINE
At the beginning of the year 2012 the CD-Rom won't be available. All the information needed, you can find on this website. For the installation of IDEP please choose for the tab "Declarations".
SANCTIONS
It is important to note that if a business concerned by the Intrastat declaration fails to fill up and/or send it in to the National Bank within the prescribed time limit, administrative or legal sanctions may be imposed. These are described in Articles 19 to 23 of the Law of 4 July 1962 on official statistics.
Nomenclature
The commodity code is among the information that you have to fill in on your Intrastat declaration. The product that you have traded must be given a code. To begin with, you will receive a list of all valid commodity codes. On this website, we provide you with some explanatory notes for the code search. You will receive an overview of the codes that have changed for the new calendar year. Below, you will find the lists that you can add into your system.
HOW TO FIND A LIST OF COMMODITY CODES?
Each year, the Regulation including the new lists under the tariff and statistical nomenclature and the Common Customs Tariff is published in the Official Journal.
HOW TO FIND A CODE?
You will find below a guide to help you look for a code yourself, by using the above nomenclature.
For some specific requirements, you may continue to call upon our services. However, in order to filter such requests as efficiently as possible, we have made several different application forms. You can find the various options below.
This screen enables you to put in a request for a goods code to be used to fill up your Intrastat declaration or for an existing code to be checked. If you are looking for a commodity code for import or export goods (extra-Community trade), we would advise you to contact the competent customs office. The commodity codes attributed by the NBB for use in Intrastat declarations are not in any way binding for the customs services, who may decide that, for technical reasons, other goods codes are better suited for customs declarations.
WHERE CAN I FIND THE NEW CODES AND THOSE THAT HAVE CHANGED THIS YEAR?
The nomenclature is adapted each year, leading to a small number of changes in the goods codes.
Below are the lists for this year and last year.
The bottom two are actually flat files that you can use in your own computer system.
You can also ask for a personalised conversion list. Just click on the hyperlink and fill in your coördinates. You will receive by mail a conversion list of all the commodity codes you used last your and wich will be replaced by the new commodity codes this year.
WHERE TO FIND LISTS AND TABLES THAT CAN BE PUT INTO MY COMPUTER SYSTEM?
You'll find herewith some lists which you might possibly use for transferring data into your own computer system.
Data
Publications
Figures
|
-
Summary tables (1) |
|
- combination countries-chapters: Belgium and regions, since 1993 (2) |
|
- Yearbook of foreign trade statistics (3) |
(1)
Here you can find the tables which also appear in the monthly and quarterly publications containing figures on the foreign trade of Belgium and the regions. However, these tables are easier to use than pdf tables. Here you can also find more detail according to the Community concept.
(2) Here you can find figures on the foreign trade of Belgium and the regions at a more detailed level (product groups combined with countries of destination or origin).
(3) The name refers to the time when this information was still printed on paper in an annual book; contains the most detailed information on Belgium’s import and export of goods. For 10,000 products you can retrieve the import and export data from and to about 200 countries. You can choose between monthly or yearly totals from 1995 onwards, and between totals in import or export values (in euros of course) or in quantities (kilograms or another unit, whichever is more relevant). |
|
Related websites
Methodology
Methodology
Below is some information about public statistics
LEGAL FRAMEWORK: EUROPEAN LEGISLATION
Member States of the European Union are required to compile foreign trade statistics. The European Union has published various Regulations on this subject which are mandatory for the Member States. These legislative texts also describe the rules for compiling these statistics and oblige firms in the various Member States to submit the necessary data to the competent national authorities.
INTRASTAT
- Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 (consolidated version - pdf) of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on Community statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91(OJ L 102, 7.04.2004).
Amended by:
- Regulation (EC) N° 222/2009 of the European Parliamant and of the Council of 11 March 2009 amending Regulation (EEC) N° 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States.
- Commission Regulation (EC) No 1982/2004 (consolidated version - pdf) of 18 November 2004 implementing Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States and repealing Commission Regulations (EC) No 1901/2000 and (EEC) No 3590/92 (OJ L 343, 19.11.2004).
Amended by:
- Commission Regulation (EC) No 1915/2005 of 24 November 2005 amending Regulation (EC) No 1982/2004 with regard to the simplification of the recording of the quantity and specifications on particular movements of goods (OJ L 307, 25.11.2005).
- Commission Regulation (EU) No 91/2010 of 2 February 2010 amending Regulation (EC) No 1982/2004 implementing Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States, as regards the list of goods excluded from statistics, the communication of information by the tax administration and quality assessment (OJ L 31, 03.02.2010).
- Commission Regulation (EU) No 96/2010 of 4 February 2010 amending Regulation (EC) No 1982/2004 implementing Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States, as regards the simplification threshold, trade by business characteristics, specific goods and movements and nature of transaction codes (OJ L 34, 05.02.2010).
EXTRASTAT
- Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 May 2009 on Community statistics relating to external trade with non-member countries and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/95 (OJ L 152, 16.06.2009).
- Commission Regulation (EU) No 92/2010 of 2 February 2010 implementing Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics relating to external trade with non-member countries, as regards data exchange between customs authorities and national statistical authorities, compilation of statistics and quality assessment (OJ L 31, 03.02.2010).
- Commission Regulation (EU) No 113/2010 implementing Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics relating to external trade with non-member countries, as regards trade coverage, definition of the data, compilation of statistics on trade by business characteristics and by invoicing currency, and specific goods or movements (OJ L 37, 10.2.2010).
LEGAL FRAMEWORK: NATIONAL LEGISLATION
Member States of the European Union are required to compile foreign trade statistics. The European Union has published various regulations on this subject which are mandatory for the Member States. Since these regulations do not lay down detailed rules on every aspect, the Member States are obliged to regulate certain matters by national legislation.
General statistical legislation
- Law of 4 July 1962 (consolidated legislation - pdf, Dutch - French) on official statistics (B.S. 20.07.1962).
Amended by:
- Law of 1 August 1985 (B.S. 6.08.1985)
- Law of 21 December 1994 (B.S. 23.12.1994)
- Law of 2 January 2001 (B.S. 03.01.2001 - 2nd edition)
- Law of 2 August 2002 (B.S. 29.08.2002)
- Law of 22 March 2006 (B.S. 21.04.2006 - 02.05.2006 errata)
- Law of 22 December 2008 (B.S. 29.12.2008)
- Law of 26 June 2000 concerning the introduction of the Euro in the legislation concerning matters on art. 78 of the Constitution (B.S. 29.07.2000).
- Royal Decree of 10 September 2009 (Dutch-French) concerning the period and the modality of paiement of the administrative fine in application of Art. 21 octies of the Law of 4 July 1962 on offical statistics. (B.S. 18/09/2009).
Specific legislation relating to Intrastat
- Royal Decree of 9 January 2005 (consolidated legislation in French - pdf) establishing monthly statistics of trade between Belgium and the other EC Member States (B.S. 26.01.2005).
amended by :
- Royal Decree of 11 January 2006 (B.S. 30/01/2006)
- Royal Decree of 21 February 2010 (B.S. 26/02/2010).
- Royal Decree of 8 February 1995 (consolidated legislation in Dutch and French - pdf) appointing certain persons to investigate and find infringements relating to the statistics referred to in Article 108(f) of the Law of 21 December containing social and miscellaneous provisions (B.S. 14.03.1995).
Amended by :
- Royal Decree of 26 December 1998 (B.S. 10.02.1999).
- Royal Decree of 19 October 2009 (B.S. 04.11.2009).
SANCTIONS
It is important to note that if a business concerned by the Intrastat declaration fails to fill up and/or send it in to the National Bank within the prescribed time limit, administrative or legal sanctions may be imposed. These are described in Articles 19 to 23 of the Law of 4 July 1962 on official statistics.