The Tax Agency and the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Security of the Government of the Canary Islands have adopted a series of measures in order to "simplify the administrative procedures" to which goods are subjected in exchanges between the Canary Islands and the Peninsula. The objective is to reduce operator costs and facilitate trade, especially in its electronic aspect. These measures will be implemented gradually and will be fully operational in the summer of this year, according to the Ministry of Finance.
Precisely, this had been a matter very criticized in the Canary Islands for the expensive procedures that had to be assumed for the customs declaration of import and also for the complex bureaucracy associated with any simple import. The Individual Freedom Party (P-LIB), for example, recently denounced that citizens were also harmed by these procedures, since the fixed expenses sometimes exceeded the value of the purchased merchandise.
The Ministry has now reported that, in a first phase in April, the clearance of goods arriving in the Canary Islands through the state company Correos y Telégrafos will be expedited. To this end, a system has been developed through which individuals and entrepreneurs or professionals who are natural persons may carry out the customs and tax clearance of the goods through a simplified form, which will be available on the electronic site of the Tax Agency.
In this way, according to the Ministry, the buyer avoids costs derived from its processing through intermediaries. The only requirement is to be a natural person and have a certificate or electronic ID that allows identifying the person who presents the declaration of the single administrative document (SAD).
If it is goods from third countries, individuals may submit the simplified SAD, including the reference of the postal shipment number. In the case of intra-Community shipments (goods from other Member States, or from the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands), Correos y Telégrafos will provide the recipient of the shipment with the number of the summary declaration item necessary to submit this simplified declaration.
Elimination of 2.2 million export SADs
The second phase of this program to expedite trade includes two types of measures, those aimed at simplifying administrative procedures in trade between the Canary Islands and the Peninsula, and those aimed at facilitating electronic commerce. The implementation of this second phase will take place before the month of July, since operators require a prior adaptation period of their computer systems.
Currently, for the shipment of any merchandise from the Peninsula to the Canary Islands, or vice versa, it is necessary to present an export SAD at the customs office from which the shipment is made and an import SAD at the customs office to which the goods arrive. Now the export SAD is eliminated in those cases in which the value of the merchandise is less than 10,000 euros, or when the shipments do not involve transfer of ownership; that is, shipments between headquarters of the same company. This measure implies the elimination of more than 2.2 million export SADs.
To accredit the export for the purposes of the Value Added Tax (VAT), or the Canary Islands General Indirect Tax (IGIC), the exporter may download a certificate from the electronic headquarters of the Tax Agency (www.agenciatributaria.es). "With this measure, the costs, both direct and indirect, of economic operators will be reduced and trade between the Islands and the rest of the national territory will be facilitated", according to the Ministry in a statement.
Measures to facilitate electronic commerce
With the same planned schedule for entry into operation, and with the aim of facilitating electronic commerce between the Canary Islands and the Peninsula and vice versa, in addition to eliminating the export SAD, the possibility is enabled that the import SAD can be presented by the seller or by a customs representative of the seller. In this way, the buyer can receive the merchandise at his home, without any other procedure and without additional cost to the amounts paid to the seller at the time of purchase. The payment of the taxes that tax the import of this merchandise would be made by the seller, on behalf of the buyer.
Thus, distance sales meet the two essential requirements that electronic commerce must have for its development, the simplicity of procedures and the acquisition of the merchandise for a certain price, without the buyer having to subsequently bear unexpected additional costs.
According to the Ministry in a statement, all these measures are "a sign of the commitment" of the Tax Agency and the Government of the Canary Islands to the simplification of administrative procedures, as was already demonstrated in 2005 with the signing of the agreement for the creation of a single window for foreign trade in the Canary Islands. As a result of that agreement, the VEXCAN project was developed, by which the import and export declarations were unified into a single one that is presented electronically and that is valid for both the Tax Agency and the Government of the Canary Islands.
VEXCAN has been operating since 2006 for exports and since 2007 for imports and has meant "a great simplification in the procedures that operators have to carry out and a significant reduction in their associated costs", according to the same sources.
