IOSS
- From July 1st 2021 all commercial goods imported into the EU from a third country or third territory will be subject to VAT irrespective of their value.
- The IOSS facilitates the collection, declaration and payment of VAT for sellers that are making distance sales of imported goods to buyers in the EU.
- As an online seller, you are responsible for checking the conditions of the IOSS and for ensuring your compliance with those conditions if you want to make use of the IOSS.
- It is your responsibility to ensure the integrity of data when passing any IOSS information to Scurri
Importing IOSS into Scurri
Scurri will provide different options for our customers to pass through the IOSS number. If this number is passed to us, Scurri will then pass this information to the carrier and the shipment will be deemed to be an IOSS shipment. The carrier may or may not perform additional checks. Please check with your carrier for further information.
IOSS Import Methods
There are 3 main ways in which IOSS data can be imported into Scurri. These are manual entries via the UI, CSV upload or API. Please see below information on how each of these methods shall accommodate IOSS.
UI Manual Entry
The UI has an “Order Info” tab where shipment information such as shipping cost, package information and harmonisation codes may be captured. It is here that the IOSS number can be captured for this shipment.
CSV
When importing shipments via CSV there will be an additional optional field for IOSS number. This field will be called “IOSS Number”
API
When importing shipments via the API there will be an additional optional field for IOSS number. This field will be called ioss_number as part of the export_customs structure.
IMPORTANT: As with the other elements of "export_customs" please only include the "ioss_number" field if the value will be populated. If the value will be empty or null, please do not include the field.
Shipment Rules Engine
Shipment rules can be created within the carrier allocation rules engine. For IOSS, it will also be possible to create and store logic within the shipment rules engine and specify the IOSS number to be attached to that shipment. This means that should the rule be executed and if an IOSS number is specified within that shipment rule, the shipment will now be an IOSS shipment and the IOSS number will be passed onto the carrier.
This option gives you full control over when a shipment should contain an IOSS number or not, based on your own configured rules logic.
Please remember that the carrier allocation rules are the responsibility of the customer in ensuring that they are accurate. It is also the responsibility of the customer to ensure that the shipment rules have been tested. Testing should be carried out in Sandbox.
Rules Engine Priority:
It is important to note that should a shipment be passed into Scurri, via the API for example, with an IOSS number present, and if the shipment rules engine also contains logic for IOSS, then the IOSS number as provided by the API will take precedence.
In another example, should a shipment be created with the API and not contain any IOSS number, but the rules engine is run, and a rule with an IOSS number is executed, then an IOSS number will be associated with this shipment.
In summary,
- When an IOSS number is provided when creating a shipment, this takes precedence over what’s in the rules
- When no IOSS number is provided, the IOSS logic of the rule which the shipment allocates against is used
It is very important to test your shipment rules engine to ensure that IOSS shall only be applied when necessary. This should be carried out in Sandbox.
New Rule Conditions:
We are also adding two new rule conditions to support adjusting your rules for IOSS:
- Currency
- Company name
As IOSS should not be used for B2B shipments, you now have the option to add a condition that allows the Company name equal to a blank field.
Go-Live information
Please note, some carriers are enabling the IOSS field prior to July 1st.
This is to allow shipments to reach customs with an IOSS number in time for July 1st.
As we will be making these fields live prior to July 1st, we advise that any testing is carried out in Sandbox only.
We cannot guarantee that dummy IOSS numbers in production will not be sent to the carrier prior to July 1st as some carriers are going live earlier.
FAQs
Q1) I understand that Scurri will not validate my IOSS shipment, however, will the carrier perform such checks?
A1) This will be on a carrier by carrier basis. Please check with your carrier providers.
Q2) Do I need to use certain incoterms for an IOSS shipment?
A2) Our understanding is this may vary from carrier to carrier. Please check with your carrier providers.
Q3) Does the IOSS number need to go on the commercial invoice?
A3) As we understand it the IOSS number does not need to
Carriers Integrations which are ready to support IOSS from 1st July
Please review our Carrier Readiness for IOSS article for a breakdown of the carriers.