The OSS scheme (One Stop Shop) is the EU VAT arrangement that lets webshops report the VAT on sales to consumers in other EU countries through a single return in their own country, instead of registering separately in each country. The scheme has applied since July 2021 to distance sales above the EU threshold of €10,000 per year.
The OSS scheme in practice
In practical terms, OSS means: above the threshold you charge the VAT rate of the consumer's country (the French VAT rate for a French customer), and you report all that foreign VAT through a single OSS return to the Dutch tax authorities. Your webshop therefore has to apply the correct rates per country.
For your administration this is an integration question: orders have to land in the accounting system with the correct VAT rate and country, otherwise the OSS return becomes manual work. So when setting up a webshop-to-accounting integration, explicitly check how it handles foreign VAT — it's a well-known pitfall.
Related terms
- API integration — An API integration is a connection between two software systems that automatically exchange data via their APIs — for example orders from a webshop to the accounting system, or placements from an ATS to invoicing.
- ERP — An ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning system) is a single system that brings together a company's core administration: finance, purchasing, inventory, orders and often projects or production too.