Exporting outside the EU: VAT, customs declarations and proof of exit

Because the delivery of goods leaving the territory of the Union is exempt under article 21 of the Ley del IVA (VAT Act). It is a full exemption: you do not charge VAT on the invoice and, furthermore, you retain the right to deduct the VAT you bore on purchases and services related to that sale. It is not a non-subject transaction or a convenient zero rate, it is an exemption subject to requirements that are checked later.

The territory where this rule applies is the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. The Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla fall outside the scope of Spanish VAT and have their own indirect taxation (the IGIC in the Canary Islands, the IPSI in Ceuta and Melilla). This is not a VAT discount, but rather their own regulations. That is why a definitive shipment to the Canary Islands is declared the same as an export for peninsular VAT purposes and also requires a customs declaration, even if it does not seem like a foreign destination to you.

The exemption is not granted by the invoice, it is granted by the actual exit of the goods proven with customs documentation. The Tax Agency (Hacienda or AEAT, the Spanish tax authority) does not usually dispute that you sold: it disputes that you can prove the goods crossed the external border of the Union. If on the day of the inspection you cannot prove it, the exemption falls through and they claim the quota you did not charge, when it is already impossible to collect it from the client.

It is advisable to expressly state on the invoice that the transaction is exempt because it is an export. This is what allows your client, your accounting and an inspector to identify the transaction without ambiguity.

Two different roles are confused here: the customs exporter, who is the one appearing as such on the export declaration, and the seller who applies the VAT exemption. They usually coincide, but not always, and when they do not coincide is when the exemption is lost.

For Union customs regulations, the exporter is the person established in the customs territory of the Union who is authorised to decide, and has decided, that the goods leave that territory. Since the 2018 reform, the parties can contractually agree who assumes this status, with a limit: they must be established in the Union.

Practical consequence: if your buyer is in the United States, Morocco or China, they cannot appear as the exporter even if they own the goods and pay for the transport. The contracting party established in the Union must appear, meaning you. The fact that the client is the owner will be reflected in the documentation accompanying the clearance, but you are the exporter.

For VAT purposes, the doctrine of the Directorate General for Taxes has been constant for over a decade: the exemption applies when the transferor themselves (or a third party in their name and on their behalf) dispatches the goods outside the Union and appears before Customs as the exporter in their own name, or when the acquirer not established in the territory of application of the tax does so. And the link of the transport to YOUR delivery is proven, fundamentally, with the customs documentation in which you appear as the exporter.

The expensive mistake appears in chains of two sales: Spanish manufacturer, Spanish intermediary and non-EU client. Only one of the two deliveries can be exempt, the one linked to the transport outside the Union. The other carries Spanish VAT at 21%. Who appears on the export declaration is what decides which of the two it is.

The standard proof is the electronic exit certification issued by Customs when the customs office of exit confirms that the goods have left the customs territory of the Union. It is not an ink stamp on paper: the Spanish export system is entirely electronic and the proof travels as a message, not as a printed document.

The carrier's delivery note, the freight invoice, the CMR or the bill of lading prove that a transport was contracted, not that the goods crossed the external border. They serve as support and to reconstruct the facts, but they do not replace the customs certification. Sustaining an exemption only with them is betting that no one will review it.

The timeline matters. The export declaration is submitted before the physical exit. The release authorises moving the goods to the customs office of exit. The exit certification arrives later, when that customs office confirms. Between the release and the certification, the transaction is not yet proven, and many companies archive the file at the first step believing it is already closed.

The usual blind spot is indirect exit: you clear customs at a Spanish customs office and the goods leave the Union through a port or airport in another Member State. The confirmation then depends on a message travelling between two administrations, and that is where most declarations remain open without anyone noticing until the requirement arrives. Actively check that the transaction appears as certified.

Archive the certification together with the invoice, the order and the transport documentation. The inspection does not arrive the following month, it arrives years later, when the sales representative who managed the shipment no longer works at the company.

In almost everything, although both are invoiced without VAT. The export goes outside the Union, is covered by article 21 of the Ley del IVA (VAT Act), goes through Customs, requires an EORI number and is declared in box 60 of form 303. The intra-community delivery goes to another Member State, is covered by article 25, does not go through Customs, requires your client's VAT number to be validated in the VIES census, is declared in box 59 and also obliges you to submit form 349.

A sale to the United Kingdom is no longer an intra-community delivery: it is an export, with a customs declaration and exit certification. A sale to Portugal never carries an export declaration no matter how many hundreds of kilometres the goods travel.

Exports are not included in form 349. Putting them there, or declaring an intra-community delivery in box 60, produces discrepancies that the Tax Agency detects by cross-referencing its own forms with the Customs data associated with your NIF (Spanish tax identification number).

Definitive shipments to the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla are also declared in box 60 and equally require a customs declaration, although the specific customs regime is not identical in the three territories.

Incoterms distribute costs, risks and clearance obligations between seller and buyer, but they do not decide on their own who appears as the exporter before Customs or who can apply the exemption. They are the starting point of the negotiation, not the tax answer.

With EXW the obligation to clear the export falls on the buyer. If that buyer is not established in the Union, they will not be able to appear as the exporter, so you will end up appearing and will still need the exit certification to sustain your invoice without VAT. EXW agreed with a non-Union client is the combination that costs the most exemptions in an inspection.

With FCA, CPT, CIP, DAP or DPU the export clearance corresponds to the seller: you control the declaration and, therefore, you control the proof. It is the comfortable position from a tax point of view, even if you assume more paperwork.

With DDP you also assume the import clearance and taxes at the destination, which normally requires tax identification or representation in the buyer's country. It is the Incoterm that generates the most cost surprises.

Practical rule: if you need the exemption, do not give up control of the export declaration. Either you agree on an Incoterm that leaves it on your side, or you demand by contract that they give you a copy of the exit certification within a specific period and condition the invoicing without VAT on it.

Yes, when the European Union has a preferential agreement with the destination country and your goods meet the rules of origin of that agreement. Preferential origin does not reduce anything for you: it reduces the tariff your client pays upon importing, and that is why it is a first-rate commercial argument in tight offers.

There are two ways. The EUR.1 movement certificate (or EUR-MED in the pan-Euro-Mediterranean system), which is requested and validated before Customs transaction by transaction. And the origin declaration made out on the commercial invoice itself, which avoids the individual procedure but requires prior accreditation above a certain amount.

The threshold is €6,000. For shipments up to €6,000 any exporter can make out the origin declaration on their invoice. Above that figure it is only accepted if you have the status of approved exporter or are registered in the registered exporter system (REX), depending on what the applicable agreement requires.

Beware of a frequent misunderstanding: preferential origin is not the country from which the goods are sent. It depends on where they were manufactured and what processing they underwent, with different rules depending on the tariff heading and the agreement. Declaring an origin that cannot be sustained transfers the problem to your client, who will answer to their own customs, and then it comes back to you, who stated it in writing.

Keep the origin documentation. Registration in the REX system obliges you to keep copies of the origin communications and their supporting documents for at least three years, and preferential agreements may require more.

The amount of your exports goes in box 60 of form 303, which includes exports outside the European Union, including definitive shipments to the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, along with other assimilated transactions. The base is entered, without quota. It does not generate VAT to pay, but it is what gives coherence to the input quotas that you are indeed deducting.

If you settle quarterly, the 303 is submitted from the 1st to the 20th of April, July and October, and from the 1st to the 30th of January of the following year. If your settlement period is monthly, because you are registered in the monthly refund register or keep the books through the immediate supply of information, the deadline does not end on the 20th: it goes from the 1st to the 30th of the following month, and the January declaration is submitted until the last day of February. If you set up a direct debit, the margin is shortened by five days.

If you sell to travellers not resident in the Union, that sale is also an export, under the travellers regime. The shop issues an electronic reimbursement document through the DIVA system, the traveller validates the exit at a kiosk or before Customs and must leave the Union within three months following the purchase. The taxable base of the refunds made in the period is also entered in box 60.

The refund can be made directly by the selling shop itself, which is what the Ley del IVA (VAT Act) allows, or channelled through a collaborating entity. What the Tax Agency reminded in February 2026 is that, if a collaborating entity is used, it must be expressly authorised; direct refund by the shop remains a valid option. If your business sells to tourists, it is advisable to review the DIVA system novelties every season, because the operation of the documents and validation is updated frequently.

Managora prepares and submits it for you: the registration of the EORI number, the export declaration with its tariff heading, your Incoterm and its origin, the tracking of the file until the exit certification is recorded, and box 60 of your form 303. You can see the deadline and the updated amount in the file for each procedure.