Germany to miss postal operators IOSS July 2021 launch

The German customs authorities have warned that the portal to support the new Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) by postal operators will not be ready for the EU ecommerce VAT package on 1 July 2021. This will present problems for postal operators, express carriers and customs agents until at least 1 January 2022 being able to report and pay sales VAT on imported sales not exceeding €150 to German consumers under the Special Arrangements option. This allows these parties to collect the VAT due from the end customer instead of the seller or facilitating marketplace at the online checkout. 

Germany has already failed to have the EU reforms delayed for a second time to 1 January 2022. With the support of the Netherlands, it voiced concerns that COVID-19 crisis meant it would not be ready. The Netherlands has already proposed an emergency technical fix on its import system to ensure it is ready for 1 July 2021.

Germany is updating its import platform to process declarations, the ATLAS-IMPOST, for reporting by postal and couriers. ATLAS allows importer to generate all import declarations for Germany and transmit them to the ATLAS e-customs system. 

The supporting software for the 2021 ecommerce package is behind schedule and will not be certified until October 2021. This means it will not be ready to go live until at least 1 January 2022.

A new customs declaration type APK (declarations of postal and courier shipments with a goods value of up to €150) will be created for ATLAS users. APKs can be submitted as customs declarations prior to presentation or as non-early customs declarations after presentation.