The EU OSS scheme

The One Stop Shop (OSS) is the EU's way of letting you charge VAT on cross-border sales to consumers without registering for VAT in every member state. Instead of filing in each country where you sell, you file one quarterly return in the country where you are established, and that country distributes the tax.

When OSS applies

The main cases are:

• distance sales of goods to consumers in other EU countries,
• cross-border B2C services that would be taxed where the customer is, and
• imports of low value goods under the separate IOSS arrangement.

The key condition is that your customer is a consumer, not a business. Sales to VAT registered businesses use the reverse charge and stay outside OSS.

The €10,000 threshold

If your total cross-border B2C distance sales stay under the annual threshold of €10,000, you can keep charging your own country's VAT. Once they pass it, you charge the VAT rate of each customer's country and report through OSS.

The threshold applies to the total of cross-border distance sales, not per country. A business selling 3,000.00 into each of four countries is over it in total and must use OSS.

What the return needs

The OSS return asks for sales grouped by member state and by VAT rate. This is where a rate table earns its keep: the 20% you charge in France, the 22% in Italy and the 23% in Poland all sit on the same return. The VAT rates by country page lists the standard and reduced rates, and the VAT calculator applies any of them to your prices.

What OSS does not fix

OSS handles the VAT on your sales. It does not cover the import VAT when goods enter the EU (that is the separate IOSS scheme for low value parcels), and it does not make you exempt from local rules about what is taxable in each country. The rate you charge still depends on the nature of the goods and the customer's location.

Registration is done through your home member state's tax portal. The deadlines and the quarterly cycle are set by the Commission and your national authority, and they change from time to time, so check the official guidance before your first return.