Companies often need to deliver goods to their customers based in UE and adopt different solutions, one of the most widely used is the "call of stock".

We must first specify as with this contractual form, the goods are available to the customer of another Member State by the transfer of the deferred property at the time when the withdrawal takes place from the deposit or at the expiry of the agreed term without the goods being returned to the supplier.

As a general rule, the dispatch of goods to another Member State in the execution of the agreement of call of stock results in intra-Community acquisition, ex Article 20 of Directive No. 2006/112/EC, with the consequent obligation for an Italian company to open an on-site VAT position.

As many Member States apply simplified procedures, the European Commission, in doc. COM (2015) 566 of 4 October 2017, has harmonized the call-off stock-related requirements related to transfers of goods within the EU.

Germany, until 31 December 2017, is one of the Member States which requests non-resident providers to open VAT in Germany.

Therefore, until that date, the procedure that Italian companies must apply for the transfer of goods made in a "call-off stock" agreement with German customers implies:

• issue of the non VAT tax invoice in accordance with Article 41, paragraph 2, lett. c), of D.L. 331/1993 with respect to its German VAT position;
• record the invoice, distinctly, in the bill of invoices issued within the issuing time and with reference to the month of transfer of goods to Germany;
• presentation of the INTRA model by the 25th day of the month following the invoice registration period;
• issue the sales invoice by the German VAT number of the Italian company, with local VAT charge.

Starting from January 1, 2018, Germany, as semplification, will no longer require to open a German VAT position from other Member States.

The condition to apply the above semplification is that the German customer is "known and defined" at the time of departure of the goods, the opening of a VAT position in Germany by the non-resident supplier will no longer be obligatory.

"Known and defined" customer means that which has not only the full availability of the goods but has already paid the goods subject to the contract of “call of stock” or who has been obliged to purchase the goods themselves.

In such situations, the Italian supplier will comply with the following new obligations:

• record in a special register of goods sent to Germany;

And after the withdrawal of the goods by the customer:

• issue the invoice under non-taxable duty as referred to in Article 41, paragraph 1, lett. a) of D.L. 331/1993;
• record the invoice, distinctly, in the bill of invoices issued within the issuing time;
• elimination from the special register of goods sent to Germany;
• presentation of the INTRA model by the 25th day of the month following the invoice registration period;
• at the end of the financial year, the balance sheet of the remaining assets existing abroad.