VAT OSS explained: one registration, not 27
Do you have to register for VAT in every EU country you sell into? Almost certainly not. If you sell to consumers in other member states past a fairly low combined figure, EU law does make you charge VAT at the buyer's country rate — but one scheme, the One-Stop-Shop (OSS), lets you report and pay all of it through a single return, filed with your own country's tax authority, which forwards each country its share. Here is who actually needs it, and what registering involves.
The problem OSS was built to solve
Before 1 July 2021, every member state ran its own distance-selling threshold — from around €35,000 up to roughly €100,000 depending on the country — and crossing one meant registering for VAT in that specific country, filing a local return in a local format, often in a language that wasn't yours. A shop selling steadily into six countries could need six registrations, six sets of deadlines and six ways to get something wrong. OSS replaced that patchwork with one scheme.
Where the €10,000 line actually sits
The threshold is €10,000 per calendar year, and the operative word is combined: one running total across every EU country you sell into other than your own. €3,000 into France, €4,000 into Germany and €4,000 into Italy crosses the line at €11,000 combined, even though no single country individually looks large.
Which OSS scheme is actually yours
"OSS" is really an umbrella over three distinct schemes, and most small EU sellers only ever need one of them:
Union OSS — for businesses established in the EU. Covers B2C distance sales of goods shipped within the EU, plus B2C digital, telecom and broadcasting services sold to EU consumers. If you're an EU-based business selling to EU consumers, this is almost certainly your scheme.
Non-Union OSS — for businesses with no EU establishment selling digital services to EU consumers. Not relevant if you're EU-based.
Import OSS (IOSS) — a separate scheme for goods shipped from outside the EU directly to an EU consumer, for consignments worth €150 or less. It solves a different problem (import VAT at the point of sale rather than at the border) and isn't what an EU-established seller with EU stock needs.
Working out where you stand
1
Add up your cross-border total
2
Compare it to €10,000
3
Over it — switch the rate
4
Register and file quarterly
5
Keep the records anyway
How Olmira handles this
OSS decides which rate applies to a given sale; actually charging that rate correctly, invoice after invoice, across 27 possible destinations, is a separate job. Olmira ships the current standard VAT rate for every EU member state and your storefront charges it automatically: an order going to an EU delivery address is taxed at that country's standard rate, without you maintaining a spreadsheet of 27 figures.
Two limits worth knowing before you rely on that. It charges the buyer's-country rate on every EU sale — it doesn't track your running total against the €10,000 threshold, so if you're under the line and mean to keep charging your own domestic rate, checkout won't do that for you. And it applies standard rates only; the reduced rates most countries keep for specific categories aren't applied, and a reduced rate you set up yourself won't override the standard one on an EU sale.
What it doesn't do at all is register you for OSS or file your quarterly return — that part stays with your own tax authority's portal.
Related guides
Charging 0% to business buyers
Combined. It's one EU-wide running total covering every country you sell into other than your own, added together — not a fresh €10,000 allowance per country.
Yes, voluntarily, and plenty of sellers do, because it trades "track whether this month tips me over" for one predictable rate map and one return.
No. OSS is a consumer (B2C) scheme. A validated sale to a VAT-registered business in another EU country is usually zero-rated under the reverse-charge mechanism instead — a different set of rules, covered in the next guide.
Not on its own. Holding stock in another member state typically creates a VAT obligation in that country regardless of the distance-selling threshold — OSS covers the selling side, not where your inventory physically sits. Worth a specific conversation with an accountant if this applies to you.
The switch to buyer-country VAT applies from that sale onward, not retroactively across the quarter — but you'd register for OSS and start reporting from that point forward.
No. VAT thresholds and scheme rules are set by EU and national law and they do change — treat this page as a starting map, not a filing, and confirm your specific situation with an accountant before relying on it.