When does an online shop have to use the OSS scheme?
As long as you only ship within Germany the topic is irrelevant. As soon as you sell to private customers in other EU states, a single number decides: €10,000 net per year.
Short answer
- The EU-wide threshold is €10,000 net per calendar year, aggregated across all EU member states.
- Below the threshold you charge the German VAT rate.
- Above the threshold you owe the destination country's VAT, starting with the sale that exceeds it.
- With the One-Stop-Shop you report these sales centrally to the Federal Central Tax Office instead of registering in each country.
- Goods delivered to private customers and electronically supplied services count towards the threshold together.
Before and after the threshold
What changes when the €10,000 line is crossed
| Area | Below €10,000 | Above €10,000 |
|---|---|---|
| VAT rate | German rate, 19 % or 7 % | Rate of the destination country |
| Reporting | Standard German VAT return | Additionally the OSS return to the BZSt |
| Foreign registration | Not needed | Avoidable via OSS, otherwise needed per country |
| Price display | One end price is enough | End price per country, otherwise the margin fluctuates |
A practical example
Example: you sell €6,000 net to Austria and €5,000 net to France. Together that is €11,000 — the threshold is crossed. From the sale that breaks €10,000, 20 % applies in Austria and 20 % in France instead of 19 % in Germany. At an unchanged end price of €60 your net revenue falls from €50.42 to €50.00.
Common mistakes
- Calculating the threshold per country; it applies to all EU states combined.
- Not counting electronic services, although they fall under the same limit.
- Continuing to invoice at 19 % after crossing and having to pay the difference later.
- Treating the OSS return as a replacement for the German VAT return — it comes on top.
How 4shopy helps
- VAT rates can be stored per country so the checkout automatically applies the right one.
- Turnover can be analysed by destination country, so you see how close you are to the threshold.
- Invoicing in the 4b2b ecosystem takes country and VAT rate from the order.