OSS VAT for Amazon FBA sellers: what it covers and what it doesn't

If you sell on Amazon to customers across the EU, the VAT One Stop Shop (OSS) saves you from registering in every country you ship to. But OSS has a limit many sellers find out about late: it does nothing for the inventory Amazon spreads across other countries under Pan-EU.

What is the OSS and which sales does it cover?

The Union scheme of the One Stop Shop has applied since 1 July 2021. You register in a single Member State (your "Member State of identification"), file one return there, and that state passes the VAT on to your customers' countries. You always charge the VAT rate of the destination country.

According to the European Commission, the Union scheme covers:

• Intra-Community distance sales of goods: the product leaves one Member State and arrives with a consumer in another.
• Cross-border services to consumers in a Member State where you are not established.

OSS is optional, but it is all or nothing: once you opt in, you must declare every sale that falls under the scheme through it, in every Member State. And it does not replace your domestic VAT returns: you file it on top of them.

What does OSS not cover if you use Amazon FBA?

Today's OSS leaves out two things:

• Transfers of your own stock between countries. When your goods move from a warehouse in Spain to one in Germany, the VAT Directive treats it as an intra-Community transaction reported in both the country of departure and the country of arrival, where you need a VAT number.
• Domestic sales from local stock. If the product sits in Germany and a German customer buys it, that is not a distance sale: it is a German domestic sale. The Commission only lets platforms acting as "deemed supplier" declare domestic supplies through OSS.

To check which countries Pan-EU switches on, see Pan-EU FBA requirements: Netherlands now, Belgium from 2027.

When do you have to charge destination-country VAT?

There is one annual threshold of €10,000 (excluding VAT) for the whole EU. While you stay under it, you can keep charging your home country's VAT. The Commission sets three conditions:

• You are established in only one Member State.
• The goods are dispatched from that same Member State.
• Your total intra-Community distance sales plus telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic (TBE) services to consumers in other countries does not exceed €10,000 in the current or the preceding calendar year.

The threshold is pooled, not per country. As soon as you exceed it, the general rule applies without exception: destination VAT from that sale onwards. You can also waive the threshold and tax at destination from the first euro, but that decision binds you for two calendar years.

What are the OSS return deadlines?

The Union scheme return is quarterly, and both the return and the payment are due by the end of the month after the quarter ends. In Spain, registration is done with form 035 and the return is form 369.

• The deadline does not move. The European Commission states that the due date stays the same even if it falls on a weekend or public holiday.
• You file even with no sales. While you are registered, a return is due every quarter, including nil returns.
• Corrections go in a later return, within three years of the date the original return was due.
• Not filing has consequences. You get a reminder on the tenth day after the due date; three consecutive periods without filing within ten days is a ground for exclusion.
• Records are kept for ten years from the end of the year in which the sale was made.

What changes with ViDA from 2027?

Directive (EU) 2025/516, adopted on 11 March 2025 as part of the "VAT in the Digital Age" (ViDA) package, extends OSS in stages. According to the Spanish Tax Agency's summary: minor OSS and IOSS clarifications from 1 January 2027; single registration from 1 July 2028, with OSS extended to certain domestic supplies to final consumers and to intra-Community transfers of goods; and near-real-time reporting for cross-border business-to-business transactions from 1 July 2030.

For an FBA seller, the date that matters is 1 July 2028: that is the date from which the directive provides for moving your own stock between countries to be reported through the One Stop Shop. Until then, today's rules apply. Each Member State has to transpose the directive, so check the details again closer to the date.

Checklist: getting your EU VAT in order on Amazon

1. List the countries where your stock is held, including any you have enabled under Pan-EU.
2. Confirm you have a VAT number in each of those countries. If you don't, switch off storage there until you do, and sort out with your adviser any stock already held there.
3. If you are EU-established, add up your sales to consumers in other EU countries for this year and last. If they exceed €10,000 excluding VAT, or you dispatch from a country other than the one where you are established, charge destination VAT.
4. Register for OSS in your Member State of identification. Registration takes effect on the first day of the following quarter; if you have already started selling, you can use it from your first sale provided you notify by the tenth day of the month following that first sale.
5. Put the four return deadlines in your calendar, file nil quarters too and keep your records for ten years.

One way to keep things simple is to hold your inventory in one country and serve the rest of Europe from there: with a single storage country, that country's VAT plus OSS is usually enough for your consumer sales. At ax Prep Center, in Preixens (Lleida), an hour and a half from Barcelona, we prepare your goods for FBA. Do take the tax decision with your adviser, though: this article is for information and is not professional advice.

Frequently asked questions

Is OSS mandatory to sell on Amazon?

No. OSS is optional. What is mandatory is paying the destination country's VAT once you exceed the €10,000 threshold. Once over the threshold, without OSS you would have to register for VAT in every country where you have consumer customers.

Can I use Pan-EU with OSS and no extra VAT numbers?

No. OSS does not currently cover moving your stock to another country or domestic sales from that stock. You need a VAT number in every country where you store inventory. The extension of OSS to those transfers is scheduled for 1 July 2028.

How often is the OSS return filed?

Quarterly under the Union scheme. The return and the payment are due by the end of the month following each calendar quarter, and the deadline does not move for weekends or public holidays.

Do I have to file an OSS return if I sold nothing?

Yes. While you are registered, a return is due every quarter, including a nil one.

Can a non-EU seller use OSS?

It can, but only for sales it makes on its own account (for example, through its own website). The Member State of identification is the one the goods are dispatched from; if they leave from several, you choose one and are bound for the current year and the next two. Non-EU sellers cannot use the €10,000 threshold. For sales to EU consumers made through a marketplace, the platform acts as deemed supplier and accounts for that VAT itself.

Sources: European Commission · One Stop Shop, European Commission · Declare and pay in OSS, European Commission · Register in OSS, European Commission · Record keeping and audits, Spanish Tax Agency · Form 369 and Spanish Tax Agency · Directive (EU) 2025/516. Checked on 9 October 2026.