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VAT OSS: the EU One Stop Shop, the EUR 10,000 threshold and where you register

You sell to consumers across the EU and were told you need a VAT registration in every country.

The short answer

OSS lets you declare VAT on sales to consumers in other EU countries in one quarterly return. Based outside the EU, you register where your EU stock ships from. Domestic and B2B sales stay out.

The short answer

The one-stop shop (OSS) lets a business declare VAT due in EU countries where it is not established in one return, filed in one EU country, its EU country of identification. It holds three schemes (Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, Art. 57aImplementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, VAT implementing measures (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 57aClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.). The Union scheme takes distance sales of goods shipped from one EU country to consumers in another, by sellers inside or outside the EU (VAT Directive Art. 14(4)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 14, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 369b(a)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369b, point (a)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.); the domestic sales of a marketplace that is the deemed supplier (Art. 369b(b)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369b, point (b)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.); and services sold to consumers by a business established in the EU in EU countries where it has no establishment (Art. 369b(c)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369b, point (c)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). The non-Union scheme takes services sold to EU consumers by a business with no establishment in the EU (Art. 359Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 359Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). The import scheme (IOSS) takes parcels up to EUR 150 shipped from outside the EU (Art. 369lDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369lClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.). A distance sale of goods is taxed in the country where the transport ends (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.), unless the seller is established in one EU country only and its cross-border sales of goods and certain digital services stay at or under EUR 10,000 this year and last (Art. 59cDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 59cClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.); from 1 January 2027, a seller registered in the Union scheme is deemed to have opted out of the threshold (Directive (EU) 2025/516, Art. 2(4)Directive (EU) 2025/516, VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA)Article 2, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 6(2)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 6, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). A seller outside the EU has no threshold. With no establishment and no fixed establishment in the EU, it registers for the Union scheme in the EU country its goods ship from; with stock in several, it picks one and is bound for that year and the next two (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.). The scheme runs on the VAT number already held there (Art. 369dDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369dClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Returns are quarterly, due with payment by the end of the month after the quarter, nil returns included (Art. 369fDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369fClick opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 369iDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369iClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.; Implementing Regulation Art. 59aDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 59aClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Using the scheme is optional, but covers every eligible sale (Art. 369bDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369bClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.). It does not take sales to VAT-registered businesses (Art. 14(4)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 14, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 138Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 138Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.), sales from stock to consumers in the same country, other than by a deemed-supplier marketplace (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., Art. 369bDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369bClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.), or moves of your own stock between EU countries (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.): those stay in local VAT returns. From 1 July 2028 the Union scheme opens to same-country sales by sellers not established there, and a separate scheme opens for moves of own stock (Directive (EU) 2025/516, Art. 3Directive (EU) 2025/516, VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA)Article 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 6(3)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 6, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

Last checked
Rests on
Directive 2006/112/EC (VAT Directive), consolidated text of 14 April 2025Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)The whole regulationClick opens the law on EUR-Lex.
Topics
VAT, OSS, e-commerce, marketplaces

The VAT on a sale to a consumer in another EU country is due in that country. OSS does not change that. It changes where you declare it: in one EU country, in one return, instead of a VAT registration in each country you ship to (Commission, The One Stop Shop).

What you do:

  1. Find your scheme. Goods already in the EU, shipped to a consumer in another EU country: the Union scheme. Services sold to EU consumers by a business with no establishment in the EU: the non-Union scheme. Parcels up to EUR 150 shipped from outside the EU: the import one-stop shop (IOSS), a separate scheme (Art. 369bDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369bClick opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 359Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 359Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 369lDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369lClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
  2. Based in one EU country, check the EUR 10,000 threshold. While your cross-border sales to consumers stay at or under it, this year and last, you charge your home VAT, unless you choose destination VAT (Art. 59c(3)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 59c, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). From 1 January 2027, a Union scheme registration counts as that choice (ViDA Art. 2Directive (EU) 2025/516, VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA)Article 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., point (4)). Based outside the EU, you have no threshold: the destination country’s VAT applies from the first sale.
  3. Find your country of registration. Based in the EU: your home country. Based outside the EU with a fixed establishment in it: that country. Based outside the EU with stock in it and no fixed establishment in it: the EU country your goods ship from. With stock in several, pick one; you are bound to it for that year and the next two (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.).
  4. Hold a VAT number in that country first. The Union scheme runs on it; it issues no number of its own (Art. 369dDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369dClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Then register for OSS on that country’s tax portal, electronically (Commission, Register to OSS).
  5. Charge each customer the VAT of the country the parcel goes to, at that country’s rate (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.).
  6. File one OSS return per quarter and pay it by the end of the following month, for every EU country together. A quarter with no sales gets a nil return (Art. 369fDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369fClick opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 369iDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369iClick opens the article on EUR-Lex., Implementing Reg. Art. 59aImplementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, VAT implementing measures (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 59aClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
  7. Keep your local VAT returns for what OSS does not take: sales to consumers in the country the stock sits in, sales to businesses, and moves of your own stock between EU countries. Keep the records of every OSS sale for 10 years (Art. 369kDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369kClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
Your saleIn OSS?Where it goes instead
Goods from your stock in one EU country to a consumer in another EU countryYes, the Union scheme-
Goods from your stock to a consumer in the same EU countryNoThe VAT return of that country, under your VAT registration there
Goods to a VAT-registered business in another EU countryNoAn exempt sale, in your local return and your EC Sales List; the buyer accounts for the VAT
Your own stock moved from one EU country to anotherNo, until 1 July 2028A transfer, declared in the country it leaves and in the country it arrives in, in the usual case with a VAT registration in each
Parcels up to EUR 150 shipped from outside the EUNo, a separate schemeIOSS, or import VAT at the border
Based outside the EU, EU stock sold through a marketplaceNot by youThe marketplace is the seller for VAT and declares it. Your own sale to it is exempt, in your local return.
Digital services sold to EU consumers by a business outside the EUYes, the non-Union scheme-

The rows: 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. and Art. 369bDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369bClick opens the article on EUR-Lex. for the first two; Art. 14(4)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 14, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. and Art. 138(1)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 138, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. for the business buyer, since a distance sale is a sale to a consumer, or to a business or body whose purchases from other EU countries are not taxed; 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. and Art. 138(2)(c)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 138, paragraph 2, point (c)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. for the move of own stock; Art. 369lDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369lClick opens the article on EUR-Lex. for IOSS; 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. and Art. 136aDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 136aClick opens the article on EUR-Lex. for the marketplace; Art. 359Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 359Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. for services. The Commission gives its own example of the second row: a business in Cyprus with a fixed establishment in Bulgaria declares its Cyprus-to-Greece and Bulgaria-to-Cyprus sales in OSS, and its Cyprus-to-Cyprus and Bulgaria-to-Bulgaria sales in the domestic returns of those two countries (Commission, Declare and pay in OSS).

OSS is three schemes under one name

The one-stop shop is a way of declaring VAT, not a tax. Each scheme covers its own kind of sale and has its own return (Implementing Reg. Art. 57aImplementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, VAT implementing measures (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 57aClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

Union scheme Non-Union scheme Import scheme (IOSS)
Sales it covers Goods shipped from one EU country to a consumer in another; a deemed-supplier marketplace’s same-country sales; services sold to consumers by an EU business in EU countries where it has no establishment Services sold to EU consumers by a business with no establishment in the EU Goods shipped from outside the EU in parcels up to EUR 150, excise goods excluded
Who may use it Businesses inside the EU, and businesses outside it for goods Businesses outside the EU only Businesses inside and outside the EU; from outside, through an EU intermediary, unless you are established in, and ship from, a country with an EU VAT recovery agreement, such as Norway
Country of registration Home country; from outside the EU, the country of your fixed establishment, and with none, the country the goods ship from Any EU country you choose Home country, or the intermediary’s
Number The VAT number you already hold there A separate EU number A separate IM number
Return Every quarter Every quarter Every month

The articles: Art. 369aDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369aClick opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 369bDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369bClick opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 369dDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369dClick opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 369fDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369fClick opens the article on EUR-Lex. for the Union scheme; Art. 358aDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 358aClick opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 359Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 359Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 362Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 362Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 364Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 364Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. for the non-Union scheme; Art. 369lDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369lClick opens the article on EUR-Lex. onwards for IOSS, with Art. 369mDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369mClick opens the article on EUR-Lex. for the intermediary and the Norway exception. The number formats, EUxxxyyyyyz for the non-Union scheme and IMxxxyyyyyyz for IOSS, and the line that a business outside the EU “could possibly use all three schemes”, are the Commission’s (Commission, Register to OSS). An EU business can use the Union scheme and IOSS, not the non-Union scheme.

Two rules hold for every scheme:

  • It is optional, but all or nothing. Once you use a scheme, every sale it covers, to every EU country, goes through it (Art. 369bDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369bClick opens the article on EUR-Lex., last paragraph). You cannot keep France in OSS and declare Spain locally.
  • It adds a return; it replaces no return you already file. The OSS return is filed on top of the VAT return you already file at home or in a warehouse country (Commission, The One Stop Shop). What it removes is a registration in each country you only ship to.

EU VAT distance selling rules tax the sale where the parcel arrives

What is a distance sale in EU VAT? It is a sale of goods that you ship, or that are shipped on your behalf, from one EU country to a customer in another, where the customer is a consumer or a business or body whose purchases from other EU countries are not taxed. New means of transport and goods you install or assemble are not distance sales (Art. 14(4)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 14, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., point (1)). The sale is taxed in the country where the transport ends, at that country’s rate (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.), unless the EUR 10,000 threshold below keeps it on home VAT.

Being based outside the EU does not change this. The rule looks at where the goods are and where they go, not where the seller sits. A sale from a warehouse in Germany to a consumer in France carries French VAT, whether the seller is German, American or British.

“On your behalf” includes a seller who “intervenes indirectly” in the transport (Art. 14(4)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 14, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.); EU VAT for online sellers sets out what counts. Second-hand goods, works of art, collectors’ items and antiques sold under the margin scheme are outside the distance-selling rule (Art. 35Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 35Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.): they stay taxed in the country the goods ship from (Art. 32Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 32Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.), not in the destination country. Goods shipped into the EU from outside it are a different kind of distance sale, covered by IOSS.

The EUR 10,000 distance selling threshold is for a business in one EU country

Do you need OSS below EUR 10,000? Not if your business is established in one EU country only, and your sales shipped from there to consumers in other EU countries stay at or under EUR 10,000, without VAT, in the current calendar year and in the one before. Those sales are then taxed as home sales, in your ordinary home VAT return (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.).

  • It is one figure for all EU countries together, not EUR 10,000 per country. It also counts your telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services sold to consumers in other EU countries (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., point (b)).
  • Cross it mid-year, and destination VAT starts at that moment, not from the next 1 January (Art. 59c(2)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 59c, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Because last year counts too, the whole of the next year is over the line as well.
  • You may choose destination VAT below it. That choice binds you for at least two calendar years (Art. 59c(3)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 59c, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). From 1 January 2027, registering in the Union scheme counts as making that choice (ViDA Art. 2Directive (EU) 2025/516, VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA)Article 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., point (4), new Art. 59c(3)).

The Commission adds that a business established outside the EU with one or more fixed establishments in the EU cannot use the threshold either, because it is not established in one EU country “and nowhere else”. It also states that once you are over the threshold, “the general rule applies without exception”, and that the threshold does not apply to services other than telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic ones, or to imported goods (Commission, The One Stop Shop).

How a seller outside the EU with stock in the EU uses the Union scheme

Do you need to register for VAT in every country where you warehouse product? In each warehouse country, yes. In the countries you only ship to, no. OSS replaces the registrations in the countries you only ship to. It does not replace the registration in each country your stock sits in. Where that country requires a business from outside the EU to appoint a tax representative, the national rule applies: see fiscal representative.

  1. Register for VAT in each EU country where you hold stock. You sell to consumers there, which calls for a VAT number in that country (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., point (a)). Stock moved in from another EU country is an acquisition there, which calls for one too (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., point (b)). Stock imported from outside the EU carries import VAT there, paid by the person that country names (Art. 201Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 201Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). What is a VAT number covers who needs one and where.
  2. Pick your OSS country. It is the EU country your goods ship from. With stock in several, you choose one of them, and the choice binds you for that calendar year and the next two (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., third subparagraph).
  3. Register for the Union scheme there, with the VAT number of that country. List in the registration the VAT numbers you hold in the other countries your goods ship from (Commission, Register to OSS).
  4. Declare every cross-border sale to a consumer in the OSS return, from every warehouse. For goods shipped from a country other than your OSS country, the return shows them per country they ship from, with your VAT number there (Art. 369g(2)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369g, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
  5. Declare the rest locally. Sales to consumers in the warehouse country, sales to businesses and moves of stock between countries go in that country’s own VAT return.

Stock moved for you between EU countries. When your stock is moved from one EU country to another by you or on your behalf, for your business, the move is a supply in the country it leaves (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.), exempt there (Art. 138(2)(c)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 138, paragraph 2, point (c)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.), and an intra-Community acquisition in the country it arrives in (Art. 21Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 21Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). In the usual case, each move needs a VAT registration at both ends. Some moves are not transfers, such as call-off stock sent to a known business buyer (Art. 17(2)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 17, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 17aDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 17aClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.). A fulfilment service that spreads your stock across several countries adds a registration in each country your stock is sent to; OSS takes none of these moves until .

Selling through a marketplace. If you are not established in the EU and a marketplace facilitates the sale of your EU stock to a consumer, the marketplace is treated as the seller for VAT, for cross-border and same-country sales alike (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.). It declares those sales in its OSS return or through its local registrations. The Commission’s example: a business in China sells a tablet stored in Belgium to a consumer in Belgium through a marketplace; the marketplace declares that domestic sale in its Union scheme return (Commission, Declare and pay in OSS). Your own deemed sale to the marketplace is exempt, with the right to deduct (Art. 136aDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 136aClick opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 169(b)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 169, point (b)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.), and goes in your local return. Sales from your own website stay yours: the cross-border ones go in your OSS return, the same-country ones in that country’s local return.

OSS and IOSS are two schemes for two kinds of sale

Is OSS the same as IOSS? No. OSS, the Union scheme, covers goods already in the EU. IOSS covers goods shipped into the EU from outside it, in parcels up to EUR 150. A seller can need both: one for its EU warehouse, one for parcels posted from home.

OSS (Union scheme) IOSS (import scheme)
Where the goods ship from An EU country Outside the EU
Value limit None Parcels up to EUR 150, excise goods excluded
Your number The VAT number you already hold in your OSS country A separate IM number
Intermediary from outside the EU Not needed Needed, unless you are established in, and ship from, a country with an EU VAT recovery agreement, such as Norway
Return Every quarter Every month
What it saves your customer Nothing at the door: the goods are already in the EU Import VAT at the door

The articles: Art. 369aDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369aClick opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 369dDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369dClick opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 369fDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369fClick opens the article on EUR-Lex. for OSS; Art. 369lDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369lClick opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 369mDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369mClick opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 369sDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369sClick opens the article on EUR-Lex. for IOSS. Registering for IOSS, where its number goes and why VAT gets charged twice are on IOSS.

The quarterly OSS return and its deadlines

One return covers every EU country you sold to in the quarter. For each country it shows the sales without VAT, the rates, the VAT per rate and the total due (Art. 369g(1)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369g, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). You pay the total to your OSS country when you file, at the latest by the deadline, and it passes each country its share (Art. 369iDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369iClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.; Commission, The One Stop Shop).

Quarter Return and payment due
1 January to 31 March 30 April
1 April to 30 June 31 July
1 July to 30 September 31 October
1 October to 31 December 31 January of the next year

A deadline on a weekend or a public holiday does not move, and a return cannot be filed before the quarter ends (Commission, Declare and pay in OSS).

  • Currency. The return is in euro, unless a country outside the euro asks for its own currency. Sales in another currency are converted at the European Central Bank rate of the last day of the quarter (Art. 369hDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369hClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Amounts are reported exactly, not rounded (Implementing Reg. Art. 60Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, VAT implementing measures (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 60Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
  • Corrections. A mistake in a filed return is fixed in a later return, within three years of the date the first one was due (Art. 369g(4)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369g, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Implementing Reg. Art. 61Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, VAT implementing measures (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 61Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). A credit note to a customer is a correction of the return in which the sale was declared (Commission, Declare and pay in OSS).
  • VAT you paid in other EU countries. It is not deducted in the OSS return. It comes back through the EU refund procedure, or through the local return of a country where you are registered anyway (Art. 369jDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369jClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
  • Invoices. A distance sale between EU countries needs an invoice unless you declare it through OSS (Art. 220(1)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 220, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., point (2)). If you issue one, the invoicing rules of your OSS country apply (Art. 219a(2)(b)Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 219a, paragraph 2, point (b)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
  • Records. For each sale: the country of consumption, the goods and quantity, the date, the price and currency, any later change to it, the VAT rate and amount, the payments received, any invoice, where the transport began and ended, and any proof of a return (Implementing Reg. Art. 63c(1)Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, VAT implementing measures (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 63c, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Kept for 10 years from 31 December of the year of the sale, and sent electronically on request (Art. 369kDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369kClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.). The Commission’s SAF-OSS file is a format every EU country accepts (Commission, Record keeping and audits in OSS).
  • Two schemes, two returns. Registered in the Union and the non-Union scheme, you file and pay each separately (Implementing Reg. Art. 59(3)Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, VAT implementing measures (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 59, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

The non-Union scheme covers services sold by a business outside the EU

The non-Union scheme is for services, not goods. A business with no establishment in the EU that sells services to consumers in the EU, such as e-books, courses or downloads, may declare them all in one quarterly return in any EU country it chooses (Art. 358aDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 358aClick opens the article on EUR-Lex., point (2), Art. 359Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 359Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 364Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 364Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Electronic services to a consumer are taxed where the consumer lives (Art. 58Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 58Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.), and a business outside the EU has no EUR 10,000 threshold for them.

The country of registration issues a separate number for the scheme, used for nothing else (Art. 362Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 362Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.), in the format EUxxxyyyyyz. Holding an ordinary EU VAT number does not stop you using the scheme (Commission, The One Stop Shop). The return, its deadline, payment and the 10-year records follow the same pattern as the Union scheme (Art. 364Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 364Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 365Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 365Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 367Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 367Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 369Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). VAT paid in the EU is refunded under the procedure for businesses outside the EU, not deducted (Art. 368Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 368Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

Digital products sold on a marketplace. Where electronic services are sold through a marketplace or app store, the platform is presumed to act in its own name, and so to make the sale to the consumer itself (Art. 28Directive 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 28Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Implementing Reg. Art. 9aImplementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, VAT implementing measures (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 9aClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.). A platform that authorises the charge to the customer or the delivery, or sets the general terms, cannot name you as the supplier instead. Your own website has no platform between you and the customer: the VAT is yours.

An EU business sells its services to consumers in other EU countries through the Union scheme, for the countries where it has no establishment (Art. 369bDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369bClick opens the article on EUR-Lex., point (c); Implementing Reg. Art. 57cImplementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, VAT implementing measures (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 57cClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

Joining, changing country and leaving OSS

  • Start. The Union and non-Union schemes apply from the first day of the quarter after you tell your OSS country. Make your first sale earlier and the scheme applies from that sale, if you tell your OSS country by the 10th day of the following month (Implementing Reg. Art. 57d(1)Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, VAT implementing measures (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 57d, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Miss that date, and the Commission states you must register and account for the VAT in each country of consumption directly (Commission, Register to OSS).
  • Changes. A change to your registration details, or to your activities, is reported by the 10th day of the following month (Implementing Reg. Art. 57hImplementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, VAT implementing measures (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 57hClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
  • Moving your OSS country. Based outside the EU, you move it when you stop shipping from that country, to another country your goods ship from (Implementing Reg. Art. 57f(1)Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, VAT implementing measures (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 57f, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). With stock in at least two countries you may also switch by choice, effective at the end of a quarter, and are bound again for that year and the next two (Commission, Register to OSS).
  • Leaving. Tell your OSS country at least 15 days before the end of a quarter; you are out from the first day of the next one. From then, the VAT on those sales goes directly to each country of consumption (Implementing Reg. Art. 57g(1)Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, VAT implementing measures (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 57g, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Two years without a single OSS sale count as having stopped (Implementing Reg. Art. 58aImplementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, VAT implementing measures (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 58aClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

Selling from the UK

A business in Great Britain is outside the EU. With stock in an EU warehouse, it uses the Union scheme like any seller from outside the EU: in the EU country its goods ship from, with its VAT number there (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.). Parcels shipped from Great Britain are not OSS sales; they are IOSS or import VAT. A business selling goods from Northern Ireland to consumers in the EU can use the OSS Union scheme through HMRC. HMRC states that it must be registered for UK VAT and sell goods worth more than GBP 8,818 (EUR 10,000) a year to consumers in the EU (GOV.UK, Check how to report and pay VAT on distance sales of goods from Northern Ireland to the EU).

What changes on 1 January 2027 and 1 July 2028

Directive (EU) 2025/516Directive (EU) 2025/516, VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA)The whole regulationClick opens the law on the EU Publications Office., VAT in the Digital Age, changes OSS in two steps. EU countries apply the first from 1 January 2027 (ViDA Art. 6(2)Directive (EU) 2025/516, VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA)Article 6, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.) and the second from 1 July 2028 (ViDA Art. 6(3)Directive (EU) 2025/516, VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA)Article 6, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

  • From 1 January 2027, an OSS registration ends the threshold. A seller registered in the Union scheme is deemed to have chosen destination VAT, so the EUR 10,000 threshold no longer keeps its sales on home VAT (ViDA Art. 2Directive (EU) 2025/516, VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA)Article 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., point (4), new Article 59c(3)).
  • From 1 January 2027, the marketplace rule widens. A marketplace facilitating sales of EU stock by a seller not established in the EU is also the deemed seller when the buyer is a business or body whose purchases from other EU countries are not taxed, not only a consumer (ViDA Art. 2Directive (EU) 2025/516, VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA)Article 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., point (1), new Article 14a(2)).
  • From 1 July 2028, same-country sales join the Union scheme. A seller not established in the country where the goods are taxed may declare sales to consumers from stock in that same country through OSS (ViDA Art. 3Directive (EU) 2025/516, VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA)Article 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., point (19), new Article 369b, point (e)). The warehouse-country registration for consumer sales then has a way out; until then, it stays.
  • From 1 July 2028, a scheme for moves of own stock. A new special scheme takes transfers of your own goods between EU countries, with a monthly return, in the same country as your Union scheme registration (ViDA Art. 3Directive (EU) 2025/516, VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA)Article 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., point (23), new Articles 369xa, 369xb and 369xf).

What happens if you do nothing

The VAT is due in each destination country whether or not you charged it. Without OSS, each of those countries needs its own VAT registration and its own returns (Commission, The One Stop Shop). A quote per country for filing VAT returns is a quote for that route.

Registered and failing at it costs more. Interest and penalties for a missing, late or wrong return are set by each country of consumption (Implementing Reg. Art. 63bImplementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, VAT implementing measures (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 63bClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.). A seller who persistently fails is excluded (Art. 369eDirective 2006/112/EC, the VAT Directive (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 369eClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.), barred from every OSS scheme in every EU country for two years (Implementing Reg. Art. 58b(1)Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, VAT implementing measures (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 58b, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.), and from then deals with each country of consumption directly (Implementing Reg. Art. 58cImplementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, VAT implementing measures (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 58cClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

Persistent failure includes three quarters in a row with the return not filed, or the VAT not paid, within 10 days of a reminder, unless less than EUR 100 per quarter remains unpaid; and records not supplied one month after a reminder (Implementing Reg. Art. 58b(2)Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, VAT implementing measures (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 58b, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). The first reminder comes from your OSS country on the 10th day after the deadline; later reminders and collection are each country of consumption’s (Implementing Reg. Art. 60aImplementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, VAT implementing measures (consolidated text of 14 April 2025)Article 60aClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

What you can skip

Sources

23 sources
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  19. Commission guidance, not lawEuropean Commission, The One Stop Shop (VAT e-Commerce portal) - the three schemes, who may use which, all sales or none, the OSS return on top of the domestic return, the EUR 10,000 threshold. Accessed 2026-10-05
  20. Commission guidance, not lawEuropean Commission, Register to OSS (VAT e-Commerce portal) - EU country of identification per scheme; the VAT number needed first; electronic registration; the EU number format; start date and the late-notice rule. Accessed 2026-10-05
  21. Commission guidance, not lawEuropean Commission, Declare and pay in OSS (VAT e-Commerce portal) - what goes in which scheme, the Cyprus and Bulgaria and the China tablet examples, the quarterly deadlines, nil returns. Accessed 2026-10-05
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