Scrap sales to Estonia need transport proof for EU-sales line

A buyer, not the seller, accounts for VAT on qualifying domestic scrap sales: the invoice carries the VAT-exclusive price with a reverse-charge note, the buyer's VAT identifier and the legal basis, and the buyer calculates and pays the tax at the general 25.5 per cent rate. The seller still reports total scrap sales in the Rakentamispalvelun ja metalliromun myynnit line, while the buyer reports purchases and the tax in the corresponding ostot and vero lines and deducts the tax in Verokauden vähennettävä vero to the extent the purchase is deductible. Reverse charge applies where the goods are scrap metal or waste, both parties are businesses in the VAT register, and the goods are sold in FinlandVero — that is, handed over in Finland or with transport to the buyer starting in Finland.

A sale of scrap to an Estonian company that takes the goods to Estonia is reported in the Tavaroiden myynnit muihin EU-maihin line only where the seller holds the buyer's proof that the scrap was transported from Finland to Estonia.Vero Sales of scrap from Finland to another EU country are otherwise reported as intra-Community supplies in the same way as other goods sold to another EU countryVero, and a recapitulative statement (yhteenvetoilmoitus) is additionally filed on those salesVero.

A sale of scrap exported outside the EU, where the seller holds Tulli confirmation that the goods left the EU, is a goods export on which no VAT is chargedVero, and it is reported in the 0-verokannan alainen liikevaihto lineVero.

A scrap dealer's collection of purchased scrap is not a transport service sold to the seller: where the dealer factors the collection costs into the price it pays the seller for the scrap, the costs count as part of the scrap's purchase price. Where the dealer collects scrap it received for free, with neither a price paid nor transport costs charged, there is no sale for VAT purposes — a sale means supply of goods for consideration — and no tax is due.

Scrap bought in Finland from a foreign trader that is not VAT-liable in Finland follows the general reverse charge under AVL 9 § rather than the scrap rule: the buyer is liable and reports the purchase and the tax in the same Rakentamispalvelun ja metalliromun ostot and Vero rakentamispalvelun ja metalliromun ostoista lines as purchases from a domestic company. The same buyer liability applies even where the foreign seller has a Finnish fixed establishment that does not take part in the sale.

Legal basis: Arvonlisäverolaki 8 d § and 9 § and Council Directive 2006/112/EC Article 199, as reflected in Vero's scrap reverse-charge guidance and FAQ.