May 6, 2026 · Compliance · 5 min read

One-Stop-Shop (OSS): Correctly Handling VAT for EU Sales

Since July 2021, the One-Stop-Shop (OSS) applies across Europe – a simplified procedure for VAT on cross-border consumer sales within the EU. For online retailers delivering to other EU countries, OSS is now standard – but the fundamentals aren't always fully understood.

Who Is Required to File OSS?

OSS is relevant for retailers who deliver goods to private customers (B2C) in other EU member states. As soon as annual net revenue from customers across all other EU countries together exceeds the threshold of €10,000, VAT must be calculated and paid in each recipient country.

Important: the €10,000 threshold applies cumulatively across all EU countries – not per country. A retailer delivering €4,000 to Austria, €3,500 to the Netherlands, and €3,000 to France totals €10,500 and is above the threshold, even if no individual market reaches it.

The OSS procedure consolidates all these filings: instead of registering for VAT separately in each EU country, a single report is submitted to Germany's Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) in Bonn. The contained taxes are then forwarded by German authorities to the respective EU countries.

What Must Be Included in the OSS Report

A quarterly OSS report must be filed. Submission deadlines are: April 30 (for Q1), July 31 (for Q2), October 31 (for Q3), and January 31 (for Q4 of the prior year).

The report contains for each EU country delivered to: the total net revenue, the applicable VAT rate, and the resulting tax amount. Different tax rates for different product categories – such as reduced rates for food or books – must be reported separately.

What Is Often Overlooked

OSS only applies to goods deliveries to end consumers (B2C). B2B transactions where the buyer has a valid VAT ID are subject to the reverse charge procedure and are exempt from OSS.

Also not processable via OSS: deliveries shipped from a local warehouse within the destination country (e.g., Amazon FBA in Poland). These must still be handled through a local VAT registration.

Colly.io and OSS Reporting

Colly.io records the delivery country and applied tax rate for each order. A quarterly OSS-compatible export can be generated containing all relevant data broken down by country and tax rate. The export is directly usable as a working document for the tax advisor or for manual OSS filing.