What the One-Stop-Shop actually is
OSS (One-Stop-Shop) lets you report cross-border B2C sales to consumers across the EU in a single quarterly return, instead of registering for VAT in every country you sell to. It applies once your goods are already inside the EU (for example, shipped from a German warehouse) and you sell B2C across borders.
- The €10,000 threshold. Below €10,000 in total cross-border B2C sales a year, OSS is optional. Above it, you charge destination-country VAT, and OSS is the simple way to report it.
- Member State of Identification (MSI). OSS is filed through one country. A non-EU company with German stock files through Germany; an EU-established company files through its home country.
- OSS is not iOSS. Union OSS covers goods already in the EU. Import OSS (iOSS) is a separate scheme for goods imported from outside the EU at or under €150. Vaytax files Union OSS as an add-on; it does not file iOSS.
- OSS never replaces your German registration. If you store stock in Germany, you still need a German VAT registration for your domestic German sales. OSS sits on top, for the cross-border B2C part.
For the full picture, see our OSS for German VAT guide.
Free to cite with a link: Vaytax, "Do I Need EU OSS? One-Stop-Shop Checker", https://vaytax.com/oss-checker