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Foreign trade statistics; transmission of data

As a company, you must report your trade in goods between Germany and other EU member states to the Federal Statistical Office under certain conditions.

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Procedure details

Foreign trade statistics record the movement of goods imported and exported across the borders of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Foreign trade statistics primarily record the quantities and values of imported and exported goods by type of goods and country. However, other data is also collected that is of fundamental interest in connection with the physical movement of goods.
You can access monthly and annual foreign trade results according to various goods classifications in different data formats (xlsx, xls, csv, html) via the GENESIS-Online information database.

The most important survey characteristics for publication include

  • Commodity code,
  • value,
  • quantity,
  • country of origin,
  • Country of dispatch on import,
  • country of destination on export,
  • Type of transaction,
  • Federal state,
  • mode of transport.

A distinction is made in foreign trade statistics between

  • Intra-trade statistics (Intrastat), the recording of trade in goods with countries within the European Union (EU), and
  • and extra-trade statistics (Extrastat), the recording of trade in goods with countries outside the EU (trade in goods with third countries).

The Federal Statistical Office collects data on the cross-border movement of goods either

  • through your declaration as a company obliged to provide information (intra-trade)
  • or via the customs administration (extra-trade).

Companies subject to VAT that are involved in the intra-Community movement of goods are obliged to report for the intra-Community trade statistics. However, to ease the burden on companies, a declaration threshold is set on the basis of EU regulations or national law on the degree of coverage. Only if your company exceeds the registration threshold is it required to report for intra-Community trade statistics for the year in question and the following year.

In the direct company survey in the Intrastat system, companies are exempt from the reporting obligation if their intra-Community goods traffic in the previous year or in the current year

  • the value of goods received currently exceeds EUR 800,000
  • the dispatch value of which currently does not exceed EUR 500,000

are not exceeded. If your company exceeds the value limit with the cumulative values for the current year, you must submit statistical declarations from this month onwards.

  • Required document/s
    • none

There are 2 reporting procedures available to you for transmitting the data on intra-trade statistics to the Federal Statistical Office on a monthly basis:

  • Either you transmit the data to the Federal Statistical Office using the online reporting procedure IDEV (Internet data collection in the network).
  • Or you can send the data as a data package (XML format) to the common data entry point for official statistics ("CORE"). You must register once for this.

The Federal Statistical Office collects data on extra trade from customs declarations. As a rule, you do not have to send a report to the Federal Statistical Office:

  • The data recorded in the IT procedure ATLAS (Automated Tariff and Local Customs Clearance System) or by customs form is automatically forwarded to the Federal Statistical Office by the German customs administration.

In exceptional cases, you can send direct declarations to the Federal Statistical Office via IDEV, for example in the case of cancellations or corrections. However, a direct report via IDEV always requires the prior consent of the Federal Statistical Office.

There are no costs.

You must send the data for intra-trade statistics to the Federal Statistical Office using the online reporting procedures described above no later than the 10th working day after the end of the reference month.

Various online reporting procedures can be used to submit the reports. In addition, the number of reports to be submitted varies greatly between companies. Depending on the number of reports to be submitted and the procedure used, you will need an average of 15 to 100 minutes to submit the reports. The Federal Statistical Office will immediately confirm the transmission of your data. (0 to 2 hours)

  • Objection
  • Detailed information on how to lodge an objection can be found in the notice of appeal from the Federal Statistical Office.
  • Administrative appeal

Status: 14.10.2025
Editorially responsible for procedure description: Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie
Source: Federal Portal
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