What is the difference between OSS and IOSS?

OSS is for intra-EU distance sales of goods that are already inside the EU when sold. IOSS is for distance sales of goods imported from outside the EU in consignments of €150 or less. Both let you report VAT through a single return, but they cover different flows.

What is the €10,000 OSS threshold?

It is an EU-wide annual threshold covering your total cross-border B2C distance sales of goods and certain digital services to all other EU countries combined. Below it you can usually charge home-country VAT; above it you charge the customer's country VAT, which you can report through OSS.

Do I still need local VAT registrations if I use OSS?

Sometimes. OSS handles cross-border distance sales, but if you store stock in another EU country — for instance in a fulfilment centre there — dispatching from that stock is usually a domestic supply requiring a local VAT registration in that country.

How often do I file an OSS return?

The Union OSS scheme uses a quarterly return through which you report and pay the VAT due across all the member states you sold to during that period, filed in the single member state where you registered for OSS.

Glossary

VAT OSS

One-Stop Shop · Union OSS

VAT OSS (One-Stop Shop) is an EU scheme that lets sellers report and pay the VAT due on cross-border distance sales of goods and certain services to consumers in other EU member states through a single registration and a single periodic return, instead of registering for VAT in every country they sell to.

Last updated: June 2026

Key facts

OSS covers intra-EU cross-border distance sales to consumers — it is for goods already inside the EU, not imports from outside.
It was introduced as part of the EU VAT e-commerce reforms that took effect on 1 July 2021.
A single EU-wide distance-selling threshold of €10,000 applies; above it you charge the customer's country VAT and can report it via OSS.
OSS replaces the need to register for VAT separately in each member state where you make distance sales, using one quarterly return.

What VAT OSS does

When you sell goods to consumers in other EU countries from stock that is already in the EU, you are making intra-EU distance sales. Beyond a combined EU-wide threshold of €10,000 in annual cross-border B2C sales, you must charge VAT at the rate of the customer's country rather than your own. Without OSS, that would mean registering for VAT in every country you sell into.

The One-Stop Shop solves this by letting you register for OSS in a single member state and then report all your cross-border B2C distance sales across the EU in one periodic OSS return, paying the various national VAT amounts through that single channel. The scheme then distributes the VAT to the relevant countries.

OSS specifically applies to goods that are already in the EU when sold and dispatched to a consumer in another member state, and to certain cross-border services. It does not cover importing goods from outside the EU — that is what the separate Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS) is for.

The €10,000 threshold and how OSS fits together

The €10,000 threshold is an EU-wide annual figure covering your total cross-border B2C distance sales of goods (and relevant TBE services) to all other member states combined. Below it, you can generally charge your home-country VAT; above it, you charge destination-country VAT. Once over the threshold, OSS is the simple way to handle the resulting multi-country VAT in one place.

OSS does not remove every local VAT obligation. If you hold stock in another country — for example using a fulfilment warehouse there — you typically still need a local VAT registration in that country, because storing and dispatching goods from there is a domestic supply, not a distance sale. OSS handles the cross-border distance-selling layer, while local registrations handle local stock.

Example

A Dutch store sells goods from its warehouse in the Netherlands to consumers in Germany, France and Belgium. Once its total EU cross-border B2C sales pass €10,000 in the year, it charges each customer their own country's VAT and reports all of it through one OSS return filed in the Netherlands, instead of registering for VAT in Germany, France and Belgium separately.

Why it matters for marketplace sellers

OSS lets you sell across the EU without registering for VAT in every destination country, which dramatically reduces the admin of cross-border expansion.
Once your cross-border B2C sales pass €10,000 EU-wide, you must apply destination-country VAT rates, so your pricing and checkout need to handle multiple VAT rates correctly.
OSS does not cover stock you store in another country — fulfilment in a foreign warehouse usually still triggers a local VAT registration there.
OSS is for intra-EU sales; for goods imported from outside the EU you use IOSS instead, so know which scheme each order falls under.