Annual customer listing

What is a customer listing? 

Every VAT-registered taxable person must prepare an annual customer listing that reports to the government the sales amounts of transactions with other VAT-registered persons for that year (excl. VAT). The customer listing is a list of the Belgian VAT numbers of the customers to whom your company supplied goods or provided services during the past calendar year. This customer listing must be submitted before 31 March of the year following the calendar year. The details to be included are:

  • the VAT number of each customer
  • the turnover for this customer during the calendar year. The list only includes customers who generated more than € 250,- excluding VAT.

The customer listing only includes Belgian VAT numbers, not foreign customers, unless they also use a Belgian VAT number and have again purchased more than € 250,-.

You can easily submit the customer listing online via Intervat, either yourself or via your accountant. If there were no sales in the previous calendar year that need to be included in the customer listing but you are VAT-registered, you tick the relevant box in the Intervat application in the last periodic VAT return of the calendar year – monthly or quarterly. In that case, you do not need to submit a customer listing.

Nil listing

Even a so-called nil listing must be submitted. This is a list stating ‘nil’, i.e. without any further details, which you submit:

  • when none of the customers invoiced has a Belgian VAT number, for example when sales were only to private individuals
  • when no customer with a VAT number purchased more than € 250,-.

In that case, the return states the amount ‘0’ for both total turnover and total VAT.

Negative customer listing

It is possible that the total of the sales, for example due to issuing credit notes, results in a negative final amount on the listing. This is then indicated with a minus sign before the listing amount.

Exceptions

  • Does your business only carry out transactions that are exempt from VAT under article 44 of the VAT Code and that do not give a right to deduct VAT? Then you do not need to submit a customer listing. However, if you are partially VAT-liable, you must submit a customer listing, but without including the transactions exempted by article 44
  • If you operate under the small business VAT exemption scheme and you have a nil customer listing, you no longer need to submit a customer listing.