EU sales listing

All VAT-registered businesses in the European Union (EU) must provide details of goods and certain services that are supplied to VAT registered customers in other EU countries.

The information on the European Sales List (ESL) is used by the tax authorities to verify that the businesses that are supplied with goods and services are dealing with the VAT correctly. The details also help to build anonymous statistics that show how goods are traded in the EU.

United Kingdom specifics

The VAT101 is an electronic ESL file for submission to HMRC, which may be uploaded via a CSV file to the Government Gateway Portal or transmitted using software accredited by HMRC to its website.

EC Sales Lists will not be required for any sales of goods exported to the EU or for services. As a result, any ESLs for periods with a start date falling after the end of the transition period that contain information about supplies of services will be rejected with an error code.