EU VAT registration from outside the EU: when, which country, the documents and a tax representative

EU VAT registration is how a business gets a VAT number in one EU country, and with it the duty to charge that country’s VAT and file its returns. Each EU country runs its own registration and issues its own number (VAT Directive Art. 214Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 214Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 215Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 215Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Based outside the EU, you have no threshold: one sale can be enough.

What you do:

1. Find each country where the law reaches your sales. You register where your stock is stored and sold from, where your own stock arrives from another EU country, and where you import goods as the person liable for the import VAT (Art. 214(1)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 214, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 32Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 32Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). The table below has each case.
2. Leave out the parcels you send from outside the EU with your customer as the importer. They need no EU registration. Up to EUR 150, the import one-stop shop (IOSS) gives a separate number used only for that scheme (Art. 369q(4)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369q, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
3. Appoint a tax representative, also called a fiscal representative, where the country requires one. The VAT Directive lets each country decide (Art. 204(1)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 204, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). France requires one for a US company, which is not on the exemption list of the arrêté of 15 May 2013. A UK company is exempt: the UK has been on that list since the arrêté of 16 February 2021. The Netherlands does not: its form takes a registration from a business outside the EU without one.
4. Apply to that country’s tax administration, on its own form. The Dutch form shows what to have ready: a tax statement from your home country, always, plus your company register entry if you have one; proof of identity for a sole trader; your company’s founding document; and the authorisation if someone applies for you. Translate what is not in a language the office accepts.
5. Once registered, file a VAT return for every tax period that country sets (Art. 250Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 250Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 252Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 252Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). With stock in one EU country and buyers in others, register for the one-stop shop (OSS) on that same number.
6. When you stop selling there, tell the tax office and cancel the registration (Art. 213(1)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 213, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

Based outside the EU, you register from the first sale

Is there a turnover threshold before you must register? Not for a business established outside the EU. The EUR 10,000 rule keeps home VAT only for a supplier established in one EU country (Art. 59c(1)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 59c, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.), and the small-enterprise VAT exemption is open only to businesses established in the EU (Art. 284Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 284Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Ireland’s tax administration puts it in plain words: non-established traders “are required to register, regardless of the level of their turnover”, among other cases where they “import goods into the State” or “supply goods in the State” (Revenue, Non-established traders supplying goods and services in Ireland).

There is no EU-wide registration. The European Commission: “Every EU country issues its own national VAT number. This means that businesses supplying goods or services in several EU countries may have to get a VAT number in each of these countries.” (Commission, VAT identification numbers) The one-stop shops, OSS and IOSS, replace some of those registrations, not all.

Which EU country you register in

The country follows the goods, not your choice of a convenient office.

• Where your stock sits and is sold. A sale of goods not shipped takes place where the goods are; a sale of goods shipped takes place where the transport begins (Art. 31Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 31Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 32Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 32Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Stock in a German warehouse sold to a German consumer is a German sale. A parcel from that warehouse to a consumer in another EU country is taxed where it arrives instead (Art. 33(a)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 33, point (a)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
• Where your own stock arrives. Moving your stock from one EU country to another counts as a supply in the country it leaves and an acquisition in the country it arrives in, which calls for a registration there (Art. 17(1)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 17, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 21Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 21Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 214(1)(b)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 214, paragraph 1, point (b)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
• Where you import, if the import VAT is yours. If the country of import makes you liable for the import VAT, your sale and every later sale of those goods take place in that country, if the goods are delivered in that country (Art. 32Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 32Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., second paragraph; Art. 201Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 201Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). A parcel imported into one EU country and delivered to a consumer in another is taxed where it arrives (Art. 33(b)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 33, point (b)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). You get the import VAT back as a deduction in that country’s return (Art. 168(e)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 168, point (e)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Shipping duty paid as the importer is on DDP shipping to Europe.
• For OSS, where your goods ship from. A business outside the EU registers for the Union scheme in the EU country its goods ship from; if they ship from several, it picks one and keeps it for that year and the two following (Art. 369a(2)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369a, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

How a non-EU seller registers in Germany is on Germany VAT registration. How a non-EU seller registers in France, and which tax office issues the number, is on France VAT registration. How a non-EU seller registers in Italy, and what the representative route asks for, is on Italy VAT tax representative. For Spain, see Spain VAT tax representative. For the United Kingdom, outside the EU, see UK VAT registration.

Amazon Pan-EU and EFN: you register where your stock is stored

Do you really need to register for VAT in every country where Amazon warehouses your product? Under Pan-European FBA, yes. Amazon’s own description of the programme reads “VAT number required where goods are stored” (Amazon, Fulfilment by Amazon). The law gives the same answer. Each time your stock moves to a warehouse in another EU country, that is a transfer of your own goods, and the country it arrives in needs your registration (Art. 17(1)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 17, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 214(1)(b)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 214, paragraph 1, point (b)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Your sales from each warehouse are deemed sales to Amazon in that country, and those usually call for the same registration.

Under the European Fulfilment Network (EFN), your stock stays in one EU country and Amazon ships from there to buyers in other countries. The stock does not move between your warehouses, so the registration you usually need is the one in the storage country. Amazon, as the deemed supplier, declares the VAT on the sale to each consumer (Art. 14a(2)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 14a, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

What the tax office asks for when you apply

EU law does not list the documents. Each country sets its own registration procedure, and may impose other obligations it needs to collect the VAT (Art. 213(1)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 213, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 273Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 273Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). The Netherlands’ form for foreign companies is one example. It asks, among other things, for:

• documents that show in which line of business you are active in your own country;
• proof of entry in a Chamber of Commerce abroad, if you are registered in one;
• for a business based outside the EU, “a tax statement of that country”;
• for a natural person, a copy of proof of identity;
• for any other legal form, a copy of the instrument of incorporation;
• a copy of the authorisation, if an authorised representative acts for you.

Anything not in Dutch, German or English goes with a translation. The signed form goes by post to the Belastingdienst in Heerlen (Belastingdienst, Registration form Foreign companies).

A sole trader can register. No company number, no national ID number from the country you apply to: the Dutch and Irish forms for foreign businesses are built for that. On the Dutch form, a sole proprietorship is one of the legal forms you tick. A business based outside the EU sends a tax statement from its own country, and a copy of its chamber of commerce entry only if it has one. Ireland has a separate paper form for non-established individuals and sole traders, TR1(FT), and TR2(FT) for companies; its online registration is for businesses established in Ireland (Revenue, How do you register for VAT).

When a country requires a tax representative

An EU country may require a business not established there to appoint a tax representative where the business’s home country has no mutual assistance instrument of similar scope. The representative then becomes the person liable for the VAT (Art. 204(1)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 204, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., second subparagraph). The countries, what the representative does and the joint liability are on fiscal representative. Any EU country may also let you appoint one by choice, on its own conditions (Art. 204(1)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 204, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., first subparagraph; Art. 204(2)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 204, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). This is a different role from the IOSS intermediary.

France is one country that requires it. Its tax administration: “If your company’s registered office is outside the European Union, you must appoint a tax representative in France who will, on your behalf, accomplish the various formalities” (DGFiP, My company carries out transactions that are liable for VAT in France). Companies from the countries it lists deal with its foreign-business tax office directly instead.

What an EU VAT registration gives you

• A VAT number with the issuing country’s prefix, DE for Germany, FR for France (Art. 215Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 215Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). What it is and how others check it is on what is a VAT number.
• A VAT return each tax period. Each country sets the period, usually at one, two or three months and never more than a year, and the deadline at no more than two months after the period ends (Art. 250Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 250Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 252Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 252Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Each registration is one more return, in that country’s system.
• The right to deduct. VAT you pay in that country on costs used for your taxed sales, and import VAT you pay there, is deducted in that return (Art. 168Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 168Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
• The number OSS runs on. The Union scheme uses the VAT number you already hold in your country of identification. The Commission: a business not established in the EU “will be allocated a VAT number by the Member State of identification before registering for the scheme” (Art. 369dDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369dClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.; Commission, Register to OSS). OSS then replaces a registration in each country you ship to from that stock.

It does not give you an IOSS number: that is a separate registration, used only for IOSS (Art. 369q(4)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369q, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Nor is it a customs number: customs use the EORI number.

How to deregister when you stop selling in a country

Tell the tax office when your activity there stops. Every taxable person must state when its activity starts, changes or ceases (Art. 213(1)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 213, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Each country runs its own cancellation. In Ireland, for example, a registration can be cancelled when you have ceased to trade or no longer make taxable supplies there, by contacting your Revenue office. If you do not, “return forms and demands for estimated VAT liability will continue to issue automatically” (Revenue, Cancelling your VAT registration).

Cancel once you no longer hold or sell stock in that country: while you do, the registration rules above still apply.