Selling to other EU countries: a checklist for online sellers

You want to ship parcels to customers in other EU countries and wonder what to sort out first? For tax it is a few steps: check your VAT ID, clarify whether you sell to consumers or businesses, watch the 10,000-euro threshold, and register for the OSS. Packaging and product safety come on top, with their own authorities.

Last updated: October 27, 2026

In brief

Tax: up to 10,000 euros of sales to consumers in other EU countries, all countries together, you charge German VAT. Above that you charge the destination country's VAT, but report it centrally in the OSS.
Order: VAT ID and threshold first, then OSS registration in the BZStOnline portal, then deadlines.
Outside tax: packaging recycling and product safety are handled by their own bodies. Both can be done, but they have nothing to do with VAT.

Step 1: Do I have a VAT ID?

Anyone supplying goods or services in the EU single market needs a valid VAT identification number (USt-IdNr.). The BZSt issues it in addition to your tax number. Without it you cannot register for the OSS, because the application runs under your VAT ID. If you do not have one, apply before you start delivering to other countries.

Are you a small business (Kleinunternehmer)? Read OSS for small businesses first.

Step 2: Do I sell to consumers or to businesses?

This decides which procedure applies.

To consumers in another EU country: this is an intra-Community distance sale. You deliver, or have someone deliver for you, and the goods move from one EU country to another. The 10,000-euro threshold and the OSS apply (steps 3 and 4).
To businesses in another EU country: if the customer gives you a valid VAT ID from another EU country, this is a tax-free intra-Community supply (section 6a UStG). You file a recapitulative statement (Zusammenfassende Meldung) for it. The OSS does not cover these sales. Without a valid VAT ID from the customer the supply is not tax-free; clarify that case with your tax adviser.

If you sell both, both routes apply side by side.

Step 3: Where is the 10,000-euro threshold?

As long as your sales to consumers in other EU countries, added up over all countries, were at most 10,000 euros net in the previous year and do not exceed that in the current year, you treat them like sales in Germany. You charge German VAT and declare it to your tax office (section 3c (4) UStG). This applies only if you are established in a single EU country and ship the goods from Germany. If your goods ship from a warehouse in another EU country, the threshold does not apply to those sales.

Once you exceed the threshold, the destination-country principle applies: you account at the VAT rate of the country where the parcel arrives. Calculation and examples: the 10,000-euro threshold.

You can opt out of the threshold rule. That binds you for at least two calendar years.

Step 4: How do I register for the OSS?

Without the OSS you would have to register in every country you sell into above the threshold. With the OSS you report these distance sales centrally through the BZSt. If you store goods in another EU country and sell them from there to customers in that same country, that does not go into the OSS; you need a registration in that country for it.

The application is electronic in the BZStOnline portal, under your VAT ID. Login needs a certificate; an ELSTER certificate is enough.
Participation applies uniformly to all EU countries.
Registration generally starts on the first day of the quarter after the application.
If you cross the threshold mid-quarter, you can register up to the tenth day of the following month. In the form, under the start of registration, you choose the option "erstmalige Leistungserbringung" (first supply) and enter the day you crossed it. After that, retroactive registration is not possible.

The steps in the portal: OSS registration in Germany.

Step 5: Which VAT rate do I charge?

The rate of the destination country. Which rate applies where is shown in OSS VAT rates by EU country. Set your prices, invoices and shop calculation accordingly before the first order above the threshold arrives.

Step 6: Deadlines, payment and record keeping

Return: electronically to the BZSt each quarter, by the end of the following month: April 30, July 31, October 31, January 31. Even without sales you file a nil return.
Payment: by bank transfer to the Bundeskasse, with Kassenzeichen and tax period in the payment reference, by the same date. There is no direct debit.
Records: ten years, available electronically on request.

All dates and the process: file the OSS return.

What about packaging and products?

This is not VAT, but an honest checklist includes it because it puts many sellers off. These duties have their own bodies, and you can tackle them one after the other.

Packaging: the Zentrale Stelle Verpackungsregister states that anyone placing packaged goods on the market in Germany must be registered in the LUCID packaging register. As a producer you bear the cost of recycling in the EU member state where the packaging becomes waste. Whether and how that applies in the country you ship to is something to clarify with the body there. The Zentrale Stelle explains the German situation on its page "Versand- und Onlinehandel".
Product safety: the EU General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) has applied since December 13, 2024. For the products it covers, information on a responsible economic operator in the EU must be present.
Further requirements depend on your goods and the destination country. Check with the official body of the destination country before you start.

Common mistakes

Registering too late. If you have already crossed the threshold and register after the tenth day of the following month, you cannot register retroactively.
Keeping the German rate although the threshold is exceeded.
Looking only at the OSS and forgetting recapitulative statements for sales to businesses.
Forgetting the nil return. Quarters without EU sales also need a return.
Paying without the Kassenzeichen.
Clarifying packaging only after the first parcel.

How VAT GPT helps

You upload your Amazon and eBay reports for the quarter.
VAT GPT breaks the VAT down for Germany and the EU (OSS) and calculates the OSS return for all EU countries. You check and confirm.
Sending the OSS return to the BZSt is a Pro feature. You register and deregister for the OSS yourself in the BZStOnline portal.

There is Free, Go and Pro. Try for free now

Not tax advice: the content does not replace individual advice.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to register in every EU country? Not if you take part in the OSS. Taking part frees you, for the sales covered by the scheme, from registering in each country. If you store goods in another EU country, you still need a registration there.

What if I cross the threshold without noticing? Work out when you crossed it. What happens next: OSS registration too late.

Does this apply to Switzerland too? Switzerland is not in the EU, and other rules apply: selling to Switzerland and VAT.

Do I need a tax adviser for this? You can run the OSS yourself. A tax adviser helps with individual questions.

Where is an overview of my taxes as an online seller? In taxes for Amazon and eBay sellers in one place.