Selling online
OSS and IOSS VAT explained for webshops
When your webshop sells to consumers in other EU countries, you may have to charge the VAT of your customer's country instead of your own. The EU One Stop Shop (OSS) lets you declare and pay that VAT through one return in your own country, instead of registering everywhere you sell. For goods imported from outside the EU there is a separate Import One Stop Shop (IOSS). This guide explains when the rules apply, how the schemes work and what the deadlines are.
In short
- The EU rules for VAT on cross-border online sales to consumers have applied since 1 July 2021.
- Below 10,000 euro in cross-border sales to EU consumers, a seller established in one EU country may charge its own VAT; above it, the VAT of the customer's country applies.
- The One Stop Shop (OSS) is optional: one quarterly return in your own country instead of a VAT registration in every country where you sell.
- The Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) is for goods imported from outside the EU in consignments up to 150 euro, with a monthly return.
- OSS and IOSS records must be kept for 10 years.
What changed on 1 July 2021
On 1 July 2021 the EU changed the VAT rules for online sales to consumers. The old Mini One Stop Shop, which covered certain digital services, was extended into the One Stop Shop, covering a wider range of supplies. Since then, distance sales of goods to consumers in other EU countries follow one EU-wide approach.
The basic principle: VAT is due in the country where the goods arrive or the consumer is based. The One Stop Shop makes that manageable for small sellers, because you declare that VAT in one place.
Good to know
This guide is general information, not tax advice. VAT rules are detailed and your situation may differ. Check with your tax authority or an accountant before you change how you charge VAT.
The 10,000 euro threshold
The EU sets a threshold of 10,000 euro, excluding VAT. It counts the total of your intra-EU distance sales of goods and your cross-border telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services to consumers, in the current and the preceding calendar year. The threshold is only available to a seller established in just one EU country.
As long as you stay below it, those sales are taxed under the rules of your own country, so you charge your own VAT. Once you go above it, the general rule applies: VAT of the country where the transport of the goods ends, or where the consumer of the service is. You may also choose to apply the customer's VAT below the threshold, but that choice binds you for two calendar years.
- Below 10,000 euro: you may charge the VAT of your own country
- Above 10,000 euro: you charge the VAT of the customer's country
- The total counts the current and the preceding calendar year
- Choosing destination VAT voluntarily binds you for two calendar years
How the One Stop Shop works
The One Stop Shop is optional. Instead of registering for VAT in every EU country where you sell to consumers, you register for the scheme in one country, your member state of identification. For a business established in the EU that is the country where it is established.
If you use the scheme, you must use it for all supplies that fall under it, in all EU countries concerned. You declare the VAT due in each country of consumption in one return, using that country's VAT rate, and pay the total to your own tax authority. It then passes the money on. The EU publishes the VAT rates of all member states in its Taxes in Europe Database.
Quarterly returns and deadlines
- One return per calendar quarter
- Q1 due by 30 April, Q2 by 31 July, Q3 by 31 October, Q4 by 31 January
- Payment by the same deadline, to your member state of identification
- A nil return when you had no sales under the scheme that quarter
- The OSS return comes on top of your normal domestic VAT return
IOSS: goods imported from outside the EU
The Import One Stop Shop covers distance sales of goods imported from outside the EU in consignments with an intrinsic value of no more than 150 euro. The threshold applies per consignment. With IOSS, the seller charges VAT at the moment of sale and declares it through the scheme.
IOSS has a monthly return, due by the end of the month after the month it covers. Sellers established outside the EU must, as a rule, appoint an intermediary established in the EU to use the scheme. Products subject to excise duties, such as alcohol and tobacco, cannot be declared under IOSS.
- Consignments of up to 150 euro, per consignment
- One return per calendar month
- Due by the end of the following month
- Sellers outside the EU usually need an EU intermediary
- Excise goods are excluded
Good to know
Without IOSS, VAT on imported goods is still due when they enter the EU. Tell your customers upfront if they may have to pay import VAT on delivery, so nobody is surprised at the door.
Keeping records
Sellers who use OSS or IOSS must keep records of their transactions for 10 years from the end of the year in which the transaction took place. That applies even if you later stop using the scheme. Keep order data, the customer's country, the VAT rate you applied and proof of where the goods were shipped.
A practical checklist
Before you start selling across borders, a few checks keep your VAT in order.
- Add up your cross-border sales to EU consumers for this year and last year
- Decide with your accountant whether to register for the One Stop Shop
- Check the VAT rates of the countries you sell to most
- Make sure your prices and invoices show the right VAT
- Note the quarterly deadlines in your calendar
- Keep your records for 10 years
Selling across Europe with SitePack
On SitePack you sell to customers in other countries from one webshop. You set shipping rates per country, take payments through SitePack Payments with local methods such as iDEAL, Bancontact, Bizum, Wero, PayPal and cards, and translate your shop into other languages. How you apply OSS in your prices and your bookkeeping is something to agree with your accountant, because it depends on your sales and your country.
Keep reading
- How to sell online Channels, payments, shipping and first customers.
- What is dropshipping? Including VAT and customs on imported goods.
- Terms and conditions for an online store What to include and when to show it.
- European Accessibility Act Accessibility rules for webshops since 2025.
- Cookie banner rules in the EU When you need consent and how to ask for it.
- What a webshop costs Every cost of a webshop, explained.
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