This article explains the documents retailers receive when exporting goods with SmartGate Flex and how these documents are provided.
What documents will I receive when exporting goods with SmartGate Flex?
Export Accompanying Document (EAD)
The export is registered electronically in ATLAS. After the export declaration has been released, the customs office issues the EAD. Due to the fact that returns get handled via SmartGate Flex as well, the EAD usually has no practical significance for the retailer and is therefore not necessarily provided by the Swiss Post. In cases where the retailer requests the EAD for customs compliance reasons, it can be provided.
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Exit Note (EN)
When the goods are actually exported, the customs system issues an exit note. The EN can be used to prove to the respective tax authorities that the goods have actually been exported. It is therefore of great importance from a tax point of view and is provided by Swiss Post.
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Background
For customs clearance reasons, the Swiss Post system consolidates all orders and divides them into various exports. These exports each have a statistical value of less than 3000 euros. Why is that? If the statistical value all goods exceeds €3000, a so-called two-stage export customs clearance must take place. This makes the process more complex and expensive for retailers/fulfillers and Swiss Post. In addition, delivery times may be longer by 1 to 2 days due to presentation periods.
Here is a screenshot from the AgV showing the statistical value of the export.
Concrete documentation for the dealer
Due to the above-described customs background, the retailers receives various export notes for large export volumes. Here is an example: Suppose the retailer exports goods with a value of 100,000 euros and an average of 2900 euros of goods are grouped together for each export. Ergo, the retailer would receive 100,000/2900=104 ENs as documentation. The individual ANs would then in turn contain all the orders grouped together there with the respective recipients and items as an endless PDF (see example image below).
Exit Note information as an Excel summary
In order to process the information from ALL outbound notes in a structured and efficient manner, the dealer is provided with an Excel extract containing all the relevant information.
The retailers accounting department can process this data automatically. This enables the merchant to efficiently document the status of VAT-exempt export.
In generell the excel summary has no legal relevance for the tax authorities. In individual cases, the corresponding PDF Exit Notes may have to be presented during tax audits.
Exit Note information as an excel summary
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How do I get this information?
The EADs (optional), ENs and the excel summary are sent to the merchant daily by email. If requested, the data can be stored on an FTP server. Future developments will enable this data to be delivered via API.
SmartGate Flex allows for individualized processing of the documentation for larger cases.