EU VAT and OSS for cross-border sales

If you sell from one EU country to consumers in other EU countries, the rules changed in July 2021. Here's the simplified version.

The €10,000 threshold

If your annual cross-border B2C sales (across the entire EU) are under €10,000, you charge your home-country VAT rate to all EU customers. Simple.

Cross €10k cumulative in a year? You now charge the *buyer's* country's VAT rate, not yours. A German seller shipping to France charges 20% French VAT, not 19% German VAT.

Settings → Tax → EU → switch on Automatic OSS once you cross. We start applying buyer-country rates from that moment.

OSS. One Stop Shop

Instead of registering for VAT in 26 EU countries, you register for OSS in your home country. File one quarterly return through your home country's tax portal listing the VAT collected per destination country. Your home country distributes the VAT to the others.

Registration: ~2 weeks via your national tax portal (Bundeszentralamt in Germany, French Government, etc.). Quarterly filings due 30 days after quarter end.

What we generate

Reports → Tax → EU OSS → quarterly summary. CSV with the columns the OSS portal wants: destination country, taxable amount, VAT rate, VAT collected. Paste into your portal's import tool. Most countries' portals accept the SellStein OSS export directly.

IOSS. For non-EU sellers shipping into EU

If you're outside the EU (US, UK, Australia) shipping low-value goods (under €150) to EU consumers, you can register for IOSS. Same single-return concept. Charge VAT at the buyer's rate at checkout, customer pays no extra at customs, package clears border quickly.

Without IOSS the package gets stopped at customs, the buyer pays VAT + a handling fee to the courier (usually €15+), and they hate you for it. Worth registering if you ship more than ~50 EU orders/year.

Registration through any one EU country's tax portal. Typically Ireland or the Netherlands for English-friendly UX. Or via an intermediary if you have no EU presence.

What's still hard

• Switzerland is not in the EU. Different VAT system, no OSS access
• UK left. UK is its own VAT regime since Brexit. Separate registration if you exceed UK's £85k threshold
• B2B differs. Selling to a VAT-registered EU business uses reverse charge, not OSS. Your invoice shows €0 VAT and the buyer self-reports

Reverse charge. Automatic

When a B2B buyer enters their VAT number at checkout, we verify it against VIES in real time. Valid number = no VAT charged, invoice marked "VAT reverse charge. Article 196 EU VAT Directive". Invalid number = treated as B2C, VAT charged.

Common mistake

Forgetting to register for OSS within 30 days of crossing €10k. The fine for late registration is annoying but small. The fine for charging your home-country rate when you should have charged the buyer's is much larger. It's tax fraud, technically.