EU withdraws VAT distance selling thresholds 1 July 2021

The EU has now withdrawn its e-commerce distance selling thresholds from 1 July 2021. This is part of its e-commerce VAT package reforms.  EU or non-EU sellers will have to charge the VAT rate of their customer when selling them across an EU internal border (distance selling). However, the new One-Stop Shop OSS VAT return means there is no need to VAT register in each country. Check EU VAT registration thresholds via VAT Calc’s live tracker.

What were EU distance selling VAT registration thresholds?

VAT is a consumer tax, charged in the country of residence of a consumer. Under the EU’s destination principle , this means the VAT rate must be charged based on the country the consumer is located, and it should be remitted to the local tax office. This would compel sellers around the EU to VAT register in each territory immediately.

To assist small sellers, the EU introduced distance selling VAT registration thresholds. Below this level of local sales, an e-commerce merchant selling stocks from one EU state to a consumer in another, could just charge and remit the VAT of the country where their stocks started from – typically their home EU state. This simplification enabled smaller sellers to get started without expense compliance obligations.

One-Stop Shop OSS Return from 1 July 2021

To reduce the compliance burden of withdrawing the distance selling threshold, the EU introduced a single pan-EU return for e-commerce distance selling (cross-border sales of stocks). This is actually an extension of the 2015 MOSS return, introduced for the same model of selling e-services across EU borders without needing multiple VAT registrations. If you need to complete OSS or IOSS returns, our VAT Filer can accurately populate any country submission with verified VAT data from our VAT Calculator or VAT Auditor

services