EU VAT and OSS
Selling across borders, with the VAT right
How VAT works when a shop sends parcels to other countries, and what we do about it for you. A general explanation, not tax advice: for your own shop, ask your accountant.
The rules, in short
At home, your own VAT
A sale to a customer in your own country carries your country’s VAT, included in the price they see.
Across the EU, one threshold for all of it
Sales to consumers in other EU countries carry your own VAT until they pass €10,000 in a calendar year. That is the total across every other EU country, not €10,000 each. From the sale that crosses it, each parcel carries the VAT of the country it goes to.
The One-Stop Shop
Once you charge other countries’ VAT, you declare and pay it in your own country, once a quarter, through the One-Stop Shop (OSS), rather than registering in each country. Registered for OSS, every EU parcel carries its destination’s VAT from the first sale.
Business customers
A business in another EU country that gives a valid VAT number pays no VAT at checkout: it accounts for the VAT in its own country (the reverse charge). The number is checked against the EU’s VIES service before the VAT comes off.
Parcels to the UK
At or below £135 of goods, UK VAT is charged at checkout, which means being registered for UK VAT. Above it, the parcel goes without VAT and the recipient pays UK import VAT and any duty when it arrives.
Everywhere else
Parcels outside the EU and the UK are zero-rated for export. The customer is told at checkout that duty and local taxes may be due on arrival.
What we do for you
- The right VAT on every order
- The checkout works out which rule applies to each order, with the sale in hand counted towards the threshold, and says on the order why it charged what it did.
- Where you stand on the threshold
- The VAT report adds up this year’s sales to other EU countries and shows how much of the €10,000 is used, with each country underneath.
- The figures for your OSS return
- One row per country and rate for the quarter, which is how the return asks for them, with the date it is due. Export them for your accountant.
- VAT numbers checked
- A business customer’s VAT number is checked against VIES at checkout. When VIES cannot be reached, the number counts as unchecked and VAT is charged, rather than taken off on a guess.
Nothing is filed for you: the shop gives the figures, and you or your accountant submit the return. Registering for OSS is done with your own tax office, and recorded in the shop’s settings once it is.
Your country
See it running before you decide
Walk round a real shop: its dashboard, its POS and its storefront. No sign-up, no card.