What this guide covers that the overview doesn't

This page is the mechanics: how to actually register for each EU VAT scheme, when returns fall due, what a tax authority checks first, and where sellers lose money to mistakes that are entirely avoidable. For the bigger picture — why VAT changes at a border at all, and how it sits alongside customs and platform reporting — start with Trade & Cross-Border, the overview this guide sits under; it isn't repeated here.

Four scheme-specific guides go deeper still on a single topic each: the OSS scheme, explained simply, IOSS for goods shipped from outside the EU, what DAC7 actually reports about you, and VAT on cross-border B2B sales. Read this page for how the whole system fits together; use those for one scheme in full depth.

Deadlines and thresholds reflect current EU rules as of mid-2026 (europa.eu, vat-one-stop-shop.ec.europa.eu, sme-vat-rules.ec.europa.eu). Exact national implementation of the EC Sales List cadence and SME national thresholds varies by member state — confirm with an accountant before filing.

Registering and filing OSS, in the order it actually happens

OSS registration is a single one-off step in your home country's tax portal, not a per-country process — you pick your 'Member State of Identification' (almost always where your business is established), register before the calendar quarter you want the scheme to start, and every subsequent quarter you log back in to file.

A few mechanics catch sellers out. First, the mid-quarter start: if your cross-border sales cross the €10,000 threshold partway through a quarter, you can still register with an effective date of that first sale, but only if you notify your tax authority by the 10th day of the following month — miss that window and OSS only applies from the start of the next quarter, leaving a gap you'll need to cover with separate local VAT filings. Second, each quarterly return asks for net sales and VAT collected broken down by destination country, at that country's VAT rate — not your home rate — so you (or your invoicing software) need to be tracking the customer's delivery country and applying the correct rate at the point of sale, not retrofitting it at filing time. Third, OSS covers the sale; it doesn't cover where your stock sits. A seller using a fulfilment centre or marketplace warehouse in a second EU country still needs a local VAT registration for the cross-border stock movement into that warehouse, even if every sale from it is later reported through OSS.

The non-Union scheme is the separate OSS variant for businesses with no EU establishment selling digital services (not goods) to EU consumers — the mechanics are the same quarterly cadence, but the business picks any one member state to register in, since there's no 'home' state to default to.

Persistent non-compliance has a real penalty: a tax authority that sends reminders for three consecutive missed returns or payments can exclude a business from all three OSS schemes at once, with a two-year quarantine before it can rejoin any of them — during which every cross-border sale needs its own local VAT registration and return.

IOSS in practice: intermediaries, the €150 test, and where it goes wrong

IOSS registration itself is simple for an EU-established seller — one country's IOSS portal, one monthly return — but the scheme has two mechanics that trip up sellers who assume it works like OSS.

Appointing an intermediary

A seller with no EU establishment cannot register for IOSS directly. It must appoint an EU-established intermediary — typically a customs agent or VAT compliance firm — who registers on the seller's behalf, files the monthly return, and is jointly and severally liable for the VAT declared. That liability is why intermediaries vet clients and charge accordingly; it's not a rubber-stamp service. An EU-established seller importing its own stock, by contrast, can register for IOSS directly without an intermediary.

Where IOSS claims trip up sellers

The €150 test applies to the whole consignment, not per item — splitting one €200 order into two parcels to stay under the line is exactly the kind of pattern customs risk-scoring is built to catch, and it doesn't change the underlying liability if discovered. Marketplaces add a second layer: since the 2021 e-commerce VAT package, an online marketplace facilitating a sale of imported goods valued at €150 or less is treated as the 'deemed supplier' — the marketplace charges and remits the VAT, not the underlying seller — which is why a seller listing the same product on their own site and through a marketplace can find two different VAT mechanics applying to what looks like the same sale. Above €150, IOSS simply doesn't apply at all: the parcel goes through standard import VAT and customs clearance, and the seller who advertised 'no surprise fees at delivery' on a consignment that quietly exceeded the threshold is the one fielding the complaint.

The SME scheme in practice: one EX number, one quarterly report

Registering for the cross-border SME scheme is a single application in your home member state, but qualifying for it means clearing two thresholds at once, not one: total EU-wide turnover at or below €100,000, and turnover under whichever national threshold the specific country you want exemption in has set (commonly around €85,000, but member states set their own figure, so check the destination country, not just the EU-wide cap).

Once approved, the home state issues a single 'EX' identification number — typically within 35 working days — valid in every member state where the business applies the exemption, replacing what would otherwise be a separate VAT registration per country. The ongoing obligation is one quarterly turnover notification, due within a month of each quarter-end, filed even if turnover in a given quarter is nil; it replaces normal periodic VAT returns for the exempted sales, though records must still be kept for the standard EU retention period. The scheme has no soft landing: if EU-wide turnover crosses €100,000 during the year, the exemption stops applying from that point, not retroactively, but immediately — a business tracking the number quarterly rather than annually is far less likely to be caught mid-invoice with the wrong VAT treatment applied.

Reverse charge on B2B invoices: what has to be on it, and why VIES matters

Reverse charge means the seller issues an invoice with no VAT charged, and the buyer self-assesses the VAT at their own country's rate on their own return — it applies automatically to qualifying cross-border B2B transactions between two VAT-registered businesses, it isn't a choice either party makes.

Checking VIES before you invoice

The entire mechanism depends on the buyer holding a valid, active VAT number at the moment of invoicing. VIES, the EU's VAT number validation system, lets a seller check a customer's number against the issuing country's register in real time. Skip this check and apply reverse charge to a number that turns out to be invalid, and the seller — not the buyer — becomes liable for the VAT that should have been charged, plus any penalty for late payment. It takes thirty seconds and is the single cheapest compliance habit in this entire guide.

The paperwork that proves the goods actually left

For goods (an 'intra-Community supply'), zero-rating under reverse charge also requires proof the goods physically left the seller's country for another member state — a signed CMR consignment note, courier tracking, or equivalent transport evidence kept on file. Without it, a tax authority can deny the zero rate on audit even if the VAT number was valid, because reverse charge for goods is conditional on the cross-border movement actually happening, not just on paper. Most home countries also require the sale to be listed on a periodic EC Sales List (recapitulative statement), separately from the standard VAT return, cross-referenced by tax authorities against what the buyer declares on their own return — a mismatch between the two is a routine audit trigger. The full B2B picture, including services versus goods and where the 'place of supply' actually sits, is covered in VAT on cross-border B2B sales.

Reverse charge isn't 'no VAT' — it's VAT the buyer accounts for instead of the seller. Get the paperwork wrong on either side and the seller is the one holding the liability.

DAC7 and the e-invoicing transition: preparing rather than reacting

The seller-side reality of DAC7 is mostly administrative: a platform will ask for a verified tax ID, business registration details and a bank account (IBAN) once your activity nears the roughly €2,000-or-30-transaction threshold in a calendar year, and will freeze the account if that information isn't supplied after repeated requests. What's easy to miss is that DAC7 thresholds apply per platform, not summed across platforms — a seller doing €1,800 each on three different marketplaces may not be reported by any single one of them, but the underlying income is taxable regardless of whether a platform reports it, and the directive's existence doesn't create a new tax exemption. How DAC7 works and what it changes covers the full mechanics.

E-invoicing is the one where waiting for the EU-wide 2030 deadline is the wrong instinct for a seller already trading with some markets. National mandates are landing years ahead of the EU-wide cross-border requirement — sellers invoicing business customers in Belgium, Poland or Greece face domestic mandates arriving in 2026, with France and Germany following on their own national timelines shortly after. The practical prep, regardless of country, is the same: confirm your invoicing or accounting software can produce structured e-invoices in the EN 16931 European standard (most mainstream European accounting platforms already support this, or route through a Peppol access point), and check now — not at the deadline — whether the software you use for cross-border B2B invoicing is on that list, because an invoice that isn't in the mandated structured format will simply stop being valid for B2B use in that market once its national deadline passes.

Once the VAT is right, two problems remain

Getting the VAT scheme right doesn't move a pallet or find a distributor — those are separate mechanics covered elsewhere on Great Partners. Import, export & logistics covers incoterms, customs declarations, and the physical side of shipping across an EU or non-EU border, which VAT compliance doesn't touch. Partners by region covers the harder problem for most site owners entering a new market: finding a genuine distributor, reseller or supplier rather than a cold-outreach lead list.

Quick answers

Do I need an accountant to register for OSS, or can I do it myself?

You can register and file OSS yourself through your home country's tax portal — the process is designed for self-service. Many sellers still use an accountant or VAT compliance service once cross-border sales grow, mainly to manage destination-country VAT rates correctly and to catch mid-quarter registration deadlines, not because the portal itself requires one.

What happens if I miss an OSS filing deadline?

A single missed deadline typically triggers a reminder and possible late-payment interest, set by your home tax authority. The serious consequence is repetition: three consecutive missed returns or payments despite reminders can get a business excluded from all three OSS schemes for a two-year quarantine, during which every cross-border sale needs a separate local VAT registration.

If I register for OSS, do I still need local VAT numbers anywhere?

Possibly. OSS covers the VAT on the sale itself, but it doesn't cover holding stock in another EU country. A seller using a fulfilment centre or marketplace warehouse abroad still needs a local VAT registration for that stock movement, even if the eventual sales are reported through OSS.

Does reverse charge mean I don't have to think about VAT at all on a B2B sale?

No — it means the buyer accounts for the VAT instead of you, but only if you've verified their VAT number on VIES at the time of invoicing and, for goods, kept proof the goods actually left your country. Get either wrong and the liability for the unpaid VAT falls back on the seller.

I sell on three different marketplaces, none of which individually hits the DAC7 threshold. Am I in the clear?

Not from a tax perspective. DAC7 thresholds are assessed per platform, so it's possible for no single marketplace to be obliged to report you even if your combined cross-platform income is substantial. The income is still taxable in the normal way — DAC7 not reporting it doesn't make it exempt, it just means no platform is required to tell a tax authority about it on your behalf.