Serving Spain and Portugal from one stock
One EU stock can serve Spanish and Portuguese buyers together. The VAT rules for B2B and consumer sales, Spanish labels, parcels and returns.
Suppose a maker of kitchenware outside the EU releases its stock for free circulation on arrival in Portugal. It sells to a Spanish retail chain, to Portuguese consumers through its own web shop, and to Spanish and French consumers through the same shop. One stock, three kinds of buyer, and three different tax treatments running side by side from the same shelf. The figures and buyers here are hypothetical, chosen only to walk through the mechanics.
The retail chain’s pallet orders ship as intra-EU B2B supplies. The chain’s Spanish VAT number is checked, and transport documents are kept for the dispatch. Once that is done, the sale is invoiced without VAT under Article 138(1) of the VAT Directive, Directive 2006/112/EC. That article exempts goods transported to a taxable person registered for VAT in another member state. The Portuguese consumer orders are domestic Portuguese sales, taxed as such. The Spanish and French consumer orders are cross-border consumer sales, reported through the One Stop Shop once VAT becomes due in the buyer’s country. Every pack sold in Spain carries its mandatory information at least in Spanish, regardless of which of the three channels it moves through. A Spanish customer’s return comes back to the same Portuguese base rather than to a second location.
Why one stock in Portugal can supply buyers in Spain
Portugal and Spain are both EU members inside the single market, with no internal border controls between them. Goods released for free circulation in Portugal cross the land border by road without further customs formalities. That is what lets the same stock serve buyers in both countries, and further afield, without duplication.
The usual route is release for free circulation on arrival in Portugal. Customs formalities run once, at release, and the stock then moves as ordinary intra-EU trade from there. A bonded warehouse suits some goods and some buyers better, a separate choice covered in bonded warehouse: deferral, not exemption. Delivery times into Spain still depend on the carrier, the service and the destination region. They get confirmed per lane before launch rather than assumed from a map.
The B2B side: Article 138 and a checked VAT number
A supply dispatched from Portugal to a Spanish business is zero-rated under Article 138(1). The exemption applies where the goods are transported to another member state for a buyer who is a taxable person there. The buyer’s VAT number, checked and kept on file, is the evidence that status was real at the time of sale.
In practice that means checking and recording the Spanish buyer’s VAT number before invoicing without VAT. It also means keeping transport documents for each dispatch. Zero-rated B2B sales from stock in Portugal covers that evidence trail in full. The same rule applies to a business buyer in any other member state, not only Spain.
How VAT works on consumer sales from Portugal to Spain
Consumer sales dispatched from Portugal to customers in Spain are taxed in Spain from the first sale and declared through the Union One Stop Shop registered in Portugal. The EU-wide EUR 10,000 threshold applies only to sellers established in a single member state, so a brand with no EU establishment cannot rely on it. The One Stop Shop lets the seller file one return for these sales instead of registering in each country.
The OSS only covers consumer sales. The retail chain’s purchases above stay on the Article 138 side of the line regardless of value. Pan-European FBA or your own EU stock covers who can use the threshold.
Labels: Spanish is required, other languages are not excluded
Article 18.3 of Royal Legislative Decree 1/2007 covers the mandatory labelling and presentation information for goods sold in Spain. It must appear at least in Castilian, the official Spanish language. For stock shared across markets, that means either a multilingual pack or a Spanish label applied before dispatch. “At least” leaves room for Portuguese and other languages beside it. Spain’s packaging and electrical equipment duties, separate from language, are covered in selling into Spain from stock in Portugal.
Size of the Spanish parcel market
Spain’s national markets and competition commission, the CNMC, counted 1,216.6 million parcels moving through the country in 2024, up 20% on the year. Ordinary letter volumes fell over the same period. That number describes the market, not any single lane. The carrier and service for a given Spanish region get chosen with that region’s actual deliveries in mind, not with the national total.
Returns come back to one place, not two
A Spanish customer’s return is received and checked at the same base where the stock is held. It is then either returned to available stock or set aside. Returns stay at one location, rather than at a second point to reconcile. That is part of what makes running Spain and Portugal from a single stock position work in practice, not only on paper. Every returned unit gets recorded where the rest of the stock is counted, Spanish or Portuguese in origin.
What the seller checks before selling into Spain from shared stock
- Stock released for free circulation on arrival, with release documents on file.
- Spanish business buyers’ VAT numbers checked and recorded before zero-rated invoicing.
- Transport documents kept for every B2B dispatch to Spain.
- Spanish VAT on consumer sales from the first order, declared through the Union OSS.
- Mandatory labelling at least in Spanish on any stock that sells there.
- Delivery lanes confirmed per region, and one returns address at the base where stock is held.
Whether a specific sale is taxed in Spain, taxed in Portugal, or zero-rated is a question for the seller’s own tax adviser. The list above prepares that conversation; it does not replace it. One EU stock pool for B2B and B2C buyers covers the operating side of running mixed channels from a single pool in more depth.
How EFC serves Spain and Portugal from one base
EFC’s base in Portugal, run with its logistics partner, holds the stock. After release for free circulation, it ships the stock to customers in Spain, Portugal and across Europe. Consumer parcels and business dispatches leave the same stock, returns come back to the same base, and EFC handles OSS reporting for consumer sales. We built it this way because a second stock position adds a location without adding capability for most volumes. EFC gives no legal or tax advice on how a specific sale is treated.
Sources
| Label | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| B2B zero-rating | Directive 2006/112/EC, Article 138(1): exemption for goods supplied to a taxable person identified for VAT in another member state, number communicated to the supplier | Directive 2006/112/EC, Article 138, EU text on EUR-Lex, opened 2026-08-19 |
| VAT Directive, consolidated | consolidated text of Directive 2006/112/EC | EUR-Lex, Directive 2006/112/EC, consolidated 1 January 2024, opened 2026-08-19 |
| Distance-sales threshold | EUR 10,000 a year, only for a supplier established in one member state; not for suppliers established outside the EU | European Commission, The One Stop Shop, opened 2026-10-16 |
| OSS | above the threshold, VAT due in the customer’s member state, declared through the One Stop Shop | KVK, VAT rules for e-commerce in the EU, opened 2026-08-19 |
| Spanish language | Royal Legislative Decree 1/2007, Article 18.3: at least in Castilian | BOE, Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2007, opened 2026-08-19 |
| Parcel volume | 1,216.6 million parcels in Spain in 2024, up 20%; letter volumes fell | CNMC, annual postal sector report 2024, opened 2026-08-19 |