In its 30th anniversary year, AEB celebrated its 5,000th customer. Though our customer base more than doubled in 2009, we at AEB—together with our partner company AFI and consulting subsidiary AOB—wish to thank each and every one of our customers personally and individually. These thanks will be conveyed through a holiday card on genuine hand-made card stock featuring an original drawing by our company founder and manually printed by the CEOs of AEB, AFI and AOB.

Original Belz, individually printed by hand
Company founder Peter Michael Belz keeps a sketchbook to capture his impressions on his many business trips: “We put a very special effort into this personal holiday greeting as a gesture to show all of you that you’re worth the extra effort.”
Management executive Markus Meissner adds: “With this group effort, we wish to demonstrate to our customers and business partners that we go beyond the normal level of commitment and offer an individualized service. It was also a special treat for us to create something tangible for a change, since we spend most of our time working in the virtual world.”

Insert, crank, handle with care: software managers in action
The CEOs of AEB, AFI and AOB spent an entire day printing holiday cards on two vintage printing presses. A short film shows the executives hard at work, and a photo gallery conveys the mood of the holiday event.
>> View the film and photo gallery at www.aeb-international.com/christmas.

Starting in January 2010, HM Revenue and Customs will no longer require supplementary units on declarations for some 360 commodity codes. Customers using ASSIST4 should check their master files to ensure all entries are correct and in accordance with this latest UK policy. Should you prefer AEB to conduct this review on your behalf, please contact our UK office directly for details of our chargeable tariff update service.
>> Detailed information can be found on HM Revenue & Customs website.
You can download the list of commodity codes from the HM Revenue & Customs website.

The following aspects of cross-border VAT changes will be modified effective January 1, 2010:

• Place of supply of services and who must account for VAT on the supply of those services
• Rules governing the time of supply
• New EC sales lists for services, changes to EC sales lists for goods
• Procedure for obtaining refunds of VAT paid in other EU member states

For further details, please refer to the official HMRC notifications:
>> Cross-border changes
>> EC sales list

The HMRC has issued a brief on the changes for Intrastat reporting taking effect January 1, 2010. These include:

• Changes to the reporting threshold for both arrivals and dispatches
• New inclusions and exclusions for Intrastat reporting (supplies to British embassies, consulates and British armed forces bases situated in other member states now excluded)

To review the HMRC brief, please go to www.hmrc.gov.uk

Question 1: How does U.S. (re-)export control law affect me as a non-American company?
U.S. export law is the only national export law that claims extraterritorial jurisdiction. U.S. authorities assert a worldwide claim to control the commercial trade of American products and technologies. That’s why even non-American companies who export are regularly confronted with the provisions of U.S. export controls. The critical question for non-American exporters is whether a U.S. permit is required for a particular export.
It is entirely conceivable that a shipment of goods from the UK to Germany might require a U.S. export permit from the relevant authority. Any violations—even if due only to ignorance of the law—invite a series of U.S. sanctions that could force a business into bankruptcy. Sanctions are generally enforced through a denial order, which temporarily or permanently revokes export privileges. The foreign company or individual is added to a blacklist, which means that the U.S. authorities will no longer issue export permits
We will answer one question on U.S. export control laws in each of the upcoming newsletter issues. All the question and answers can be found on the AEB website under Products >> ATC :: Series >> ATC :: Export Controls >> U.S. (re-)export Q&A.

The consulting subsidiary of Technical Control Association of the German state of Hesse (TÜV Hessen) has certified the quality of AEB’s sanctions list screening software. The first phase was for TÜV Hessen Consulting to certify that the two AEB software packages Compliance Engine version 3.1 and ATC :: Compliance version 3.0 enable proper compliance screening when the operational and organizational procedures of AOB are applied. AOB, the consulting subsidiary of AEB, has since December 1 been the exclusive partner of TÜV Hessen Consulting GmbH (THC), itself a wholly owned consulting subsidiary of TÜV Hessen.

Passive support for ATC :: Compliance version 2.1 will end in July 2010. Reasons to upgrade to ATC :: Compliance 3.0:

• Bookkeeping documents and banks also monitored
• Compliance Monitor includes separate sheet for employee master data, applicant master data also checked
• Batch screening of sales documents
• Many more optimizations and improvements in version 3.0

The magazine Procurement Asia, published in Singapore, has introduced a new advice column. Each month, “Helpline: Tips from the Expert” answers a new reader question. Dr. Torsten Mallée, Business Development Director at AEB (Asia Pacific), is the expert behind the column. In November, he responds to the question of whether it is better to use a centralized or decentralized system to monitor corporate-wide freight costs.
Mallée explains the benefits of a corporate-wide system—for example, the option of having one individual who manages the freight costs of the entire corporate organization. A centralized system is also easier to maintain, since all the data is in one place. One weakness of a centralized system is the difficulty of introducing standardized processes throughout the corporation. But the standardization of such processes also yields benefits.
You can read the complete advice column: „helpline.Tips from the expert“