VATNIEU7610 | EC Sales Lists (ESLs): Background

To combat the risk of fraud, information on movements of goods between VAT registered businesses within the EU is collected via the submission of EC Sales Lists (ESLs).

All those registered for VAT in the UK and operate under the terms of the Windsor Framework and make intra-single market supplies of goods must (along with other VAT registered businesses throughout the EU complete an ESL. This is a statement listing the aggregate value of supplies of goods made by the Northern Ireland business to each VAT registered customer in the EU. The information gathered from ESLs is stored on the VAT Information Exchange System (VIES) (see VATNIEU7700). This data is used by tax authorities in each member state to ensure that VAT has been correctly accounted for. In legislation ESLs are known as recapitulative statements.