How to submit an OSS VAT return in Germany: threshold, deadlines and steps for online sellers

The OSS return is due every quarter: by 30 April, 31 July, 31 October and 31 January. Return and payment must have reached the Federal Central Tax Office (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern, BZSt) by then; you submit it only electronically in the BZStOnline Portal. This applies once your distance sales to other EU countries together exceed €10,000 net in the previous year or in the current year.

Last updated: 27 October 2026

By when do I have to file the OSS return?

Quarter	OSS return and payment by
Q1 (January to March)	30 April
Q2 (April to June)	31 July
Q3 (July to September)	31 October
Q4 (October to December)	31 January of the following year

The return and the payment must be there by this day, as a nil return too. What applies if you miss the deadline or want an extension is explained further down.

In short

Below the threshold: German VAT in your advance VAT return; waiving the threshold binds you for two calendar years.
In the advance return: OSS sales appear only as a net amount in box (Kennzahl) 45.
Login: BZStOnline Portal with a certificate; the steps are further down.

What is the OSS, and who is it for?

The OSS (One-Stop Shop, an EU scheme) is a special VAT procedure: one return and one payment to the BZSt for all EU countries concerned, instead of registering in each country separately. Taking part is an option, not an obligation – without the OSS, however, you would have to register in each of those countries and file and pay there.

The OSS is meant for you if these points apply:

You are established in Germany (registered office or place of management in Germany). Then you register for the OSS with the BZSt – and only there.
You sell goods to private customers in other EU countries, and the goods are shipped there by you or on your behalf. The law calls this an “intra-Community distance sale” (“innergemeinschaftlicher Fernverkauf”, § 3c (1) UStG). Strictly speaking, all customers whose EU acquisitions are not subject to VAT count – usually these are private customers.
Your distance sales are above the €10,000 threshold – or you have voluntarily waived the threshold.

The OSS also applies to certain services to private customers in other EU countries; this article is about goods.

When does the €10,000 threshold (“delivery threshold”) apply?

As long as your distance sales to private customers in other EU countries were in total – that is, for all countries together – not above €10,000 in the previous year and do not rise above €10,000 in the current year, you sell with German VAT and declare the sales in your normal advance VAT return (Umsatzsteuer-Voranmeldung) to the tax office (Finanzamt) (§ 3c (4) UStG). The total also includes telecommunications, broadcasting and television services as well as electronically supplied services to private customers in other EU countries. The calculation is made without VAT.

As soon as the total rises above €10,000 in the current year, the VAT of the destination country applies to these sales (destination principle). If you were already above it in the previous year, the destination principle applies from 1 January.

You can also apply the tax of the destination country voluntarily below the threshold. You declare this waiver to the tax office; it binds you for at least two calendar years. The threshold only applies if you are established in only one EU country.

Sale	VAT	Where you declare it
To customers in Germany	German VAT	Advance VAT return to the tax office
To private customers in other EU countries, threshold not exceeded	German VAT	Advance VAT return (box 81 for 19%, box 86 for 7%)
To private customers in other EU countries, threshold exceeded or waiver declared	VAT of the destination country	OSS return to the BZSt; in the advance VAT return only the net amount in box 45
To businesses in other EU countries with a valid VAT ID number (USt-IdNr.)	exempt (intra-Community supply)	Advance VAT return box 41 and recapitulative statement (Zusammenfassende Meldung) to the BZSt

What applies to payment, a missed deadline and extensions?

The tax period in the OSS is the calendar quarter. You submit the return within one month after the end of the quarter; the tax is due on the last day of the following month (§ 18j (4) UStG).

The deadlines are in the table at the top of this page.

Nil return: Even if you had no OSS sales in a quarter, you submit a return by the deadline.
Payment: The money must have been received by the Federal Treasury (Bundeskasse) by the end of the deadline. A direct debit is not possible. The payment reference must contain your reference number (Kassenzeichen) and the quarter. The BZSt tells you your Kassenzeichen in the BZStOnline Portal after your first return.
Weekend and public holiday: On its OSS page the BZSt names fixed calendar days and does not mention a postponement to the next working day. For Q3 2026 that is Saturday, 31 October 2026, for Q4 2026 Sunday, 31 January 2027. Plan so that the return and the transfer arrive before then.

Missed deadline: what applies?

The deadlines are set by law: the return is due within one month after the end of the quarter, and the tax is due on the last day of the following month (§ 18j (4) UStG).
Submit the return immediately. The BZSt requires the return by the deadlines as a nil return too.
Exclusion after repeated breaches: if you repeatedly fail to meet your obligations under § 18j (4) UStG or fail to meet them on time, the tax authority excludes you from the OSS (§ 18j (6) sentence 1 UStG). The exclusion applies from the tax period that begins after it is announced to you (sentence 2). It also entails exclusion from the procedures under §§ 18i and 18k UStG (sentence 3).
What happens after a single delay, for example whether surcharges apply, is not stated on the BZSt's OSS page (checked on 26 October 2026). Ask the BZSt.

Extension of the deadline: is there one for the OSS?

The deadline is set by law (§ 18j (4) UStG). On its OSS page and in the ELSTER help on the OSS, the BZSt names no extension of the deadline (checked on 26 October 2026). § 18j (7) UStG lists the provisions of the Fiscal Code that apply to the OSS procedure; the extension of deadlines under § 109 AO is not among them. So do not plan on it; if you need more time, ask the BZSt before the deadline ends. The due date of the tax is regulated separately in § 18j (4) sentence 3 UStG.

How do I register for the OSS?

You need a German VAT identification number (USt-IdNr.). The BZSt issues it on request.
You apply for participation electronically in the BZStOnline Portal (BOP) and state your USt-IdNr.
Participation generally starts on the first day of the quarter that follows your application. So register before the quarter from which you want to use the OSS.
Participation applies uniformly to all EU countries.
The BZSt writes to you via the BZStOnline Portal (reminders, feedback). Switch on the notification function there.

If you exceed the threshold in the middle of a quarter and are not yet registered, you can register for the OSS until the tenth day of the month following the month in which you exceeded the threshold: in the registration form you choose the option “first supply” (“erstmalige Leistungserbringung”) for the start of the registration and enter the day on which you exceeded the threshold as the date. After the tenth day of the following month, retroactive registration is no longer possible; the registration then applies only from the next quarter.

After that, the following applies: you report changes to your registration data (for example e-mail address, bank details, website) to the BZSt by the tenth day of the following month – company name, tax number and address only to the tax office. If you stop selling, you deregister by the tenth day of the following month. A withdrawal takes effect at the beginning of a quarter, subject to a period of 15 days.

How to file an OSS VAT return in Germany: step by step in the BZStOnline Portal

The OSS return is a tax return that you transmit electronically to the BZSt: all forms in the One-Stop Shop procedure must be transmitted electronically because of statutory requirements, and the return in the officially prescribed data set via the officially designated interface (§ 18j (4) UStG). You find the form in the BZStOnline Portal (BOP). Proceed like this:

Check the prerequisites: In the BZStOnline Portal, the businesses registered for the OSS submit their returns – so register first (see above). For the login you need a certificate; an existing certificate for the BZStOnline Portal or the ElsterOnline portal is enough, and you get one by registering in the ElsterOnline portal.
Open the form: The return form is under the heading Forms (“Formulare”). On the start page you enter the tax period, that is the quarter; the return also contains your VAT ID number (USt-IdNr.).
Choose the country of consumption: On the page List of Sales and Corrections (“Liste der Umsätze und Berichtigungen”) click Add More Data (“Weitere Daten hinzufügen”) and first choose the country of consumption (“Land des Verbrauchs”) – the EU country in which the taxable sales were made, for distance sales therefore the country where the goods arrive. The form then loads the tax types and tax rates of that country.
Enter the sales: For the chosen country you create sales entries, broken down by tax rate and in euros; distance sales that you ship from Germany are the goods supplies (“Warenlieferungen”) in the form. When a country is finished, you go back to List of Sales and Corrections (“Liste der Umsätze und Berichtigungen”) via the tree structure at the left margin and start again from step 3 for the next country.
Enter corrections if needed: Corrections of earlier quarters belong on the sub-page Correction of Earlier or Later Tax Periods (“Berichtigung früherer oder späterer Besteuerungszeiträume”). More on this: Correcting an OSS return: amending earlier quarters.
Send and pay: A return that has been sent can in principle only be corrected together with a following return – so check before sending. After your first submission the BZSt tells you your reference number (Kassenzeichen) and its bank details; watch your mailbox in the BZStOnline Portal. The transfer must have been received by the Federal Treasury (Bundeskasse) by the end of the deadline.

By hand, that means adding up the reports per country and tax rate in Excel and entering the values in the portal. How VAT GPT takes this calculating off your hands is in the section “How VAT GPT helps”.

What goes into the OSS return, and what does not?

your distance sales to private customers in other EU countries – broken down by each EU country and the tax rates that apply there,
all amounts in euros; foreign currencies are converted uniformly at the European Central Bank rate of the last day of the quarter,
corrections of earlier quarters: you make these in a later OSS return, within three years.

Not included are your domestic sales – you declare them to the tax office as before – and sales to businesses with a valid VAT ID number. You cannot deduct input VAT from EU countries in which you only have OSS sales in the OSS return; the input VAT refund procedure (Vorsteuer-Vergütungsverfahren) exists for that. You keep your records of the OSS sales for ten years.

Which mistakes happen often?

Calculating the threshold per country. The €10,000 applies to all other EU countries together.
Taxing OSS sales twice. Anyone who additionally declares OSS sales at 19% in the advance VAT return pays tax on them twice. Only the net amount in box 45 belongs in the advance return.
Forgetting the nil return. Even without sales, the return is due.
Paying too late or without the Kassenzeichen. What counts is receipt by the Federal Treasury; without the Kassenzeichen the payment cannot be allocated correctly.
Entering business customers in the OSS return. Sales to businesses with a valid VAT ID number of another EU country are VAT-exempt intra-Community supplies: box 41 in the advance return and a recapitulative statement to the BZSt.
Entering warehouse sales abroad in the OSS return. If you sell from a warehouse in another EU country to customers in exactly that country, the goods are not moved to another EU country – that is not a distance sale and does not belong in the OSS return.
Repeatedly missing deadlines. Anyone who repeatedly fails to meet their obligations, or fails to meet them on time, is excluded from the OSS.

How VAT GPT helps

Upload: You upload your Amazon or eBay CSV report and your invoices. The AI reads amounts, countries and tax rates.
Check: VAT GPT calculates the OSS return for all EU countries and the advance VAT return. You check and confirm.
Send: With VAT GPT Pro, the OSS return goes directly to the BZSt and the advance return via ELSTER to the tax office.

You apply for your OSS registration yourself beforehand in the BZStOnline Portal. There is Free (basic features, free of charge), Go (30 days free with all Pro features) and Pro (€49 per month or €444 per year, each including VAT). Try for Free Now

Frequently asked questions about the OSS return

Where and how do I submit the OSS return? Electronically in the BZStOnline Portal of the BZSt: the return form is under the heading Forms (“Formulare”). You log in with a certificate, choose the tax period, enter your sales by country of consumption and tax rate, and send the return. The steps are in the section “How to file an OSS VAT return in Germany: step by step in the BZStOnline Portal”.

Do I need a certificate for the BZStOnline Portal? Yes, a certificate is required for the login. You can use an existing certificate for the BZStOnline Portal or the ElsterOnline portal; you get one by registering in the ElsterOnline portal.

Do I have to take part in the OSS? No, the OSS is an option. If you are above the threshold and do not take part, however, you must register in every EU country to whose private customers you sell, and file and pay there.

Does the €10,000 threshold apply per country? No. What counts is your distance sales to all other EU countries together, without VAT, plus certain electronic and telecommunications services to private customers.

What do I do if I sold nothing to other EU countries in the quarter? You submit a nil return – by the same deadline.

How do I correct an OSS return that has been submitted? In a later OSS return in which you state the quarter and the country concerned. This is possible within three years.

Can I deduct input VAT in the OSS return? No. Input VAT from EU countries in which you only have OSS sales is refunded to you through the input VAT refund procedure. You deduct German input VAT as usual in the advance VAT return.

From when does my OSS registration apply? Generally from the first day of the quarter that follows your application. Exception: if you exceed the €10,000 threshold in the middle of a quarter, you register by the tenth day of the following month with the option “first supply” and the day you exceeded the threshold as the date.

What happens if I miss the OSS deadline? The deadlines are set by law. Submit the return immediately. If you repeatedly submit late or not at all, the tax authority excludes you from the OSS (§ 18j (6) UStG). For a single delay, the BZSt's OSS page says nothing.

Can I get an extension of the OSS deadline? The BZSt names no extension on its OSS page. If you need more time, ask the BZSt before the deadline ends.