Selling to businesses in other EU countries without VAT: VIES, invoice and Form 349

A shop in France or Germany places a large order and asks whether you can invoice it without VAT. The answer is yes, but only if some conditions set out in the law are met. If one is missing, the sale carries Spanish VAT even though the customer is a business. Here is what they are, how to check them and where the sale is reported.

This article is about selling goods to businesses in other EU countries. Selling to consumers in other countries follows other rules: see the article on the EU VAT One-Stop Shop. And the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla do not count as another EU country for VAT: we explain it in selling to the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla.

1. The conditions for a VAT-free sale

The Spanish VAT Act calls this sale an intra-Community supply and exempts it in article 25.Uno when all of this is true:

• The goods leave Spain for another EU country, whether you, the customer or a carrier acting for either of you takes them.
• The customer is a business or a professional (or a legal entity not acting as one) with a VAT number issued by another EU country, not Spain.
• The customer has given you that number.
• You report the sale on Form 349. The law says the exemption is conditional on the seller including the transaction in that return.

The Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT) sums it up like this: the exemption only applies if the customer has given the supplier a valid intra-Community operator number (VAT number) from a Member State other than Spain and the supplier reports the transaction on Form 349. Otherwise, the supply is taxable and not exempt.

2. Check the number in VIES before you invoice

A number that looks like a VAT number is not enough: it has to be valid. You check it in VIES, the European Commission's system that links the registers of every member state. The Tax Agency reminds you that you can check there the validity of the VAT number of a customer or supplier from a Member State other than Spain.

Two details from the same Tax Agency page:

• To look up numbers from other countries on the Tax Agency's website you need an electronic certificate or an electronic ID card.
• If you identify yourself with your own EU VAT number, the answer can be used to prove to the tax authority of any member state that you checked that number on a given date and got that result. Keep it with the invoice.

To sell VAT-free to other EU businesses, you also need to be on the Register of Intra-Community Operators yourself: see registering on the ROI.

3. Keep proof that the goods left

The Spanish VAT Regulation says the dispatch of the goods to the other country is proved by any means of evidence allowed in law, in particular those listed in article 45a of the EU Implementing Regulation 282/2011 (article 13.2). In practice: the transport document, the shipment tracking and the delivery confirmation in the other country. The VAT number the customer gives you is what proves it is a business (article 13.3).

4. What goes on the invoice

The Spanish invoicing regulation requires two things that an ordinary invoice does not always have:

• The customer's EU VAT number, which is mandatory for supplies exempt under article 25 (article 6.1.d).
• The reason there is no VAT: a reference to the article of the Spanish law or of the EU directive that exempts it, or a statement that the transaction is exempt (article 6.1.j).

5. Where it is reported

• Form 303: it goes in the box for intra-Community supplies of goods and services, with no VAT. It is marked in the article on Form 303.
• Form 349: with key «E», which the Tax Agency says is used for intra-Community supplies of goods made by the filer. Only the taxable amount goes in, never VAT, because there is none.

Form 349 has its own calendar. In general it is monthly, within the first twenty days of the following month. It is quarterly if neither in the quarter nor in any of the previous four you go over €50,000 excluding VAT in the transactions reported on Form 349; it is then filed within the first twenty days of the month after the quarter, and the fourth-quarter one within the first thirty days of January. If you go over that figure in any month, you switch to monthly from that month.

6. A worked example

The figures are examples. You sell goods for €1,200.00 to a shop in France.

Situation	VAT	Invoice total
The customer's VAT number is valid in VIES, the goods go to France and you report the sale on Form 349	€0.00	€1,200.00
The number is not valid or you do not have it (VAT at 21%)	€252.00	€1,452.00

In the first case, Form 349 shows €1,200.00 under key E. In the second, the Tax Agency says the supply is taxable and not exempt: the invoice carries €252.00 of Spanish VAT and that VAT goes on your Form 303, like any sale in Spain.

Summary

1. A sale of goods to a business in another EU country is VAT-free only if the customer gives you a valid VAT number from their country, the goods leave Spain and you report it on Form 349.
2. Check the number in VIES before invoicing and keep the answer.
3. Keep the transport evidence.
4. On the invoice: the customer's EU VAT number and a statement that it is exempt.
5. Report it on Form 303 and on Form 349 under key E.

For the other forms due each quarter, visit the Taxes page.

Sources

• BOE · Law 37/1992 on Value Added Tax (article 25) · checked on 27/09/2026
• BOE · Royal Decree 1624/1992, VAT Regulation (articles 13 and 79) · checked on 27/09/2026
• BOE · Royal Decree 1619/2012 on invoicing obligations (article 6) · checked on 27/09/2026
• Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT) · Identification for transactions with other EU businesses: ROI, VIES, NIF-IVA and NVAT (in Spanish) · checked on 27/09/2026
• Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT) · VAT practical manual 2025: content of Form 349 (in Spanish) · checked on 27/09/2026
• Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT) · VAT practical manual 2025: Form 349 filing deadlines (in Spanish) · checked on 27/09/2026
• Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT) · VAT rates (in Spanish) · checked on 27/09/2026
• European Commission ·VIES VAT number validation · checked on 27/09/2026