In short: what's changing?
Starting 1 July 2028, a VAT-registered business will be able to declare the movement of its own goods into another EU country through a new optional scheme, using nothing more than its home-country VAT number. This is aimed at a very specific situation: say, an Estonian company sends stock from its own warehouse to a fulfillment center in Latvia, before that stock has been sold to anyone. Under Directive (EU) 2025/516, this kind of transfer no longer automatically forces you to register for VAT in the destination country, because the intra-Community acquisition, the VAT event that normally arises when goods cross into another Member State, is exempt under the scheme. There's no turnover threshold attached to it: any business with full input VAT deduction rights (the right to reclaim the VAT it pays on its own purchases) on the transfer can opt in.
A transfer is not a sale
Moving your own goods means shifting inventory from your own warehouse to a warehouse in another Member State. Ownership doesn't change, and there's no customer yet. That's the whole point. This is different from a sale to a customer abroad: under the Estonian VAT Act, an intra-Community supply is the transfer of goods to a taxable person or a limited taxable person in another Member State, delivered from Estonia into that country. The new scheme doesn't cover everything that looks like a transfer, though. Based on the definition in Article 17(1), any transfer where the business does not have full deduction rights in the destination country simply falls outside the scheme.
How does the registration requirement disappear?
Once you're using the scheme, your business remains a VAT payer only in its country of registration, and it keeps using the VAT number it already has there, as the directive spells out. Once you opt in, it applies to every eligible transfer you make, not just to specific countries you choose. In shape, it resembles the logic behind the EU's existing One-Stop Shop reporting: one registration, one filing point, instead of one per country. The technical plumbing, the shared rules for the electronic register and the declaration messages that tax authorities exchange, comes from Commission Implementing Regulation 2026/1869, which entered into force on 17 August 2026.
Monthly filings and deadlines
Once enrolled, you file an electronic declaration every month, including months where you made no transfers at all. The deadline is the end of the month following the reporting month, as set out in the directive. Each filing shows the VAT-exclusive value of your transfers, broken down by destination country; if the goods actually left from a Member State other than your country of registration, you also report that country's value and the tax reference issued there. You get three years to correct errors in a later declaration, and records need to be kept for 10 years, counted from 31 December of the year the transfer happened. Joining the scheme takes effect from the beginning of the calendar month after you notify the tax authority. You can move faster if you notify by the 10th of the following month. To leave the scheme, you need to give notice at least 15 days before the end of the previous month.
Call-off stock winds down, the new scheme takes over
The call-off stock simplification, the earlier mechanism that lets goods sit in a customer's warehouse abroad without triggering VAT registration until the sale, doesn't disappear overnight. New arrangements can still be set up until 30 June 2028, and existing ones keep running under their old terms after that. But the whole Article 17a regime shuts down completely 30 June 2029. After that date, the new scheme is the only route left for moving your own stock across a border without a destination-country VAT registration.
When is registration still required?
The new scheme doesn't wipe out every destination-country registration obligation you might have. If you also run activities there that fall outside the scheme, for instance local sales directly to end consumers without using the EU's One-Stop Shop, you still need to register locally for that activity and use the local VAT return to reclaim any input VAT incurred there, as the directive states plainly. The European Commission's ViDA work program confirms that the same 1 July 2028 start date also brings in the single VAT registration reforms. It's worth mapping out now, well before that date, which of your activities in each country will fall under the new scheme and which won't.
FAQ
What’s the core idea behind ViDA’s own-goods transfer scheme starting 1 July 2028?
Starting 1 July 2028, you’ll be able to declare moving your own goods into another EU country through a voluntary special scheme, using your home-country VAT number. The scheme fits situations where stock moves from one warehouse to another, with no customer in the picture yet.
Is a transfer of own goods the same as a sale?
No. Moving your own goods means shifting inventory from your own warehouse into a warehouse in another Member State, without any customer having bought the goods. A sale is an intra-Community supply, the transfer and delivery of goods from Estonia to another Member State.
Does the scheme always remove the destination-country registration obligation?
No. The scheme doesn’t wipe out every destination-country registration obligation. If you also carry out other activities there that fall outside the scheme, for instance local sales directly to end consumers, you may still need a local VAT return and registration.
When does call-off stock wind down, and when does the new scheme become the only option?
New call-off stock arrangements can still be set up until 30 June 2028. At the same time, the Article 17a regime under the directive shuts down completely on 30 June 2029, after which the new scheme is the only route left for moving your own goods without triggering a registration obligation.