The EU €10,000 OSS Threshold Is Changing on 1 January 2027 (ViDA)

For most small e-commerce sellers and SaaS founders, the €10,000 threshold is the single most valuable line in EU VAT law. Stay under it, and every cross-border sale to a consumer is taxed at your home rate under one VAT registration. Cross it, and you owe VAT at 27 different rates across the Union — collected through the One Stop Shop (OSS), but still at destination rates that often differ sharply from your own. From 1 January 2027, the way that line is drawn changes. The amendment is not a scare headline: it is Council Directive (EU) 2025/516 of 11 March 2025, and the Commission published revised explanatory notes and OSS guidelines in July 2026 to explain it. The short version: if you hold stock in a Member State other than the one you are established in, part of your turnover will simply stop counting toward the threshold.

What the €10,000 threshold actually is

The threshold lives in Article 59c of Council Directive 2006/112/EC. It was introduced in 2019 and extended to intra-EU distance sales of goods on 1 July 2021 by Council Directive (EU) 2017/2455, which replaced the old country-by-country distance-selling thresholds with a single EU-wide figure. Four features define it, and all four survive the 2027 reform:

• One combined figure, EU-wide. The €10,000 is not per country. It covers telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic (TBE) services and intra-EU distance sales of goods together, tested against the same limit.
• Excluding VAT. Turnover is counted net of VAT.
• Current plus preceding calendar year. You add this year's qualifying turnover to last year's. A strong November can push you over the line in the same tax year — there is no annual reset on 1 January.
• Only single-country establishments. The threshold exists only if you are established, or resident, in one Member State. A business with fixed establishments in two Member States cannot use it at all.

What the threshold does not cover: services that are not TBE services (ordinary consulting, transport, and so on follow the general B2C place-of-supply rules from the first euro), and distance sales of goods imported from outside the EU, which fall under the separate Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) with its own €150 consignment limit. You can test your own position in seconds with the OSS €10,000 threshold calculator, which implements both the current rules and the post-2027 rules.

What changes on 1 January 2027

Article 59c is amended by Council Directive (EU) 2025/516, and the amended text applies from 1 January 2027. Two clarifications matter in practice.

1. Only dispatches from your home Member State count. Under the new wording, intra-EU distance sales are included in the €10,000 calculation only where the goods are dispatched or transported from the Member State where you are established. Distance sales made from a stock of goods located in another Member State are excluded from the threshold calculation — and, as the Commission's explanatory notes of July 2026 put it, they remain subject to the normal place-of-supply rules, meaning VAT is due where the transport ends.

2. Registering for the Union OSS waives the threshold. The amended Article also confirms that registering for the Union OSS is treated as exercising the option to apply the general destination-based place-of-supply rules. Once you are in the OSS, you are in for the bound period — the threshold no longer offers a way back for that period.

Nothing else moves: the €10,000 amount itself is unchanged, the two-year test window is unchanged, and the single-establishment condition is unchanged. The Commission's revised OSS guidelines and explanatory notes were published on 24 July 2026 and are the reference documents for the transition.

Worked example: a French seller with German stock

The Commission's own example is worth stating in full, because it is the case most European sellers will recognise. A business established in France makes:

• €8,000 of distance sales dispatched from France to consumers in other Member States, and
• €20,000 of distance sales from a stock of goods located in Germany to consumers in other Member States.

From 1 January 2027, only the €8,000 counts toward the €10,000 threshold. The business therefore stays under the threshold for its French dispatches and may charge French VAT on those supplies. The German-stock sales are not sheltered by that result: they are taxable under the normal rules of the Member State where transport ends, at that country's VAT rate. In practice that means a local VAT registration in the destination countries (or another available simplification, depending on the Member State and the timing of the wider OSS extensions), regardless of the threshold outcome for the French dispatches.

Before 2027 the arithmetic looks different: every intra-EU distance sale counted toward the €10,000, so the same business would test at €28,000, cross the threshold, and owe destination VAT on everything for the rest of the year and the following year. That is precisely the cliff edge the reform removes — and precisely the reason to model your turnover under both rule sets before January. The threshold calculator switches between the two modes so you can see both outcomes.

What happens the moment you cross the line

Once the combined current-plus-preceding-year turnover exceeds €10,000, the general rule applies immediately and without exception:

• VAT becomes due in each customer's Member State, at that country's rate, from the moment of crossing.
• You must register for the Union OSS in your Member State of identification and declare those sales in quarterly OSS returns.
• The destination rule applies for the remainder of the calendar year in which you crossed, and the entire following calendar year.
• You may return to the threshold regime only in the second following calendar year, and only if your combined turnover stays under €10,000 again.

Because the test is continuous, the practical discipline is monthly tracking, not a year-end surprise. Our calculator shows your headroom against the limit, and the 2026 VAT rates table gives you the destination rates you would owe once you cross. If you sell digital services, the related digital services VAT guide covers the B2B and B2C split in full.

Who cannot use the threshold at all

Three groups should stop reading the threshold rules entirely. First, businesses established in more than one Member State — the option requires a single establishment, and a fixed establishment elsewhere disqualifies you. Second, suppliers established outside the EU with one or more fixed establishments inside it, for the same reason. Third, anyone already registered for the Union OSS, because registration is now explicitly treated as having exercised the destination option. Note also that platforms facilitating supplies can act as deemed suppliers and test thresholds in their own right — if you sell through a marketplace, ask who is responsible for the VAT on your sales before you model anything.

IOSS is a separate scheme (€150, not €10,000)

Do not confuse the Union OSS threshold with the Import One Stop Shop. IOSS covers distance sales of goods imported from third countries with an intrinsic value up to €150 per consignment. Those sales never counted toward the €10,000 threshold, and the 2027 reform does not change that. If you import small consignments from the UK, China or the United States and sell them to EU consumers, the IOSS registration — and the customs and VAT treatment at import — are the questions that matter. See the OSS vs IOSS comparison for the full split.

Checklist: what to do before 1 January 2027

1. Map your stock locations. List every warehouse, fulfilment centre and 3PL where your goods physically sit on 1 January 2027. Anything outside your Member State of establishment changes your threshold arithmetic.
2. Run both scenarios. Enter your current-year and prior-year turnover into the threshold calculator in both rule modes. If the answers differ, you have planning to do.
3. Separate home-dispatch sales from stock sales. Your accounting system needs a field that distinguishes them — from 2027, that distinction is a legal requirement for the threshold test, not a reporting nicety.
4. Check destination registrations. For stock-held-in-another-MS sales, confirm with a local adviser whether you need VAT registrations now, or whether the destination country's rules allow another route until the wider OSS extensions arrive.
5. Decide on OSS deliberately. If you are near the line anyway, registering for the Union OSS is often simpler than tracking the threshold monthly — remembering that registration binds you for two calendar years.
6. Verify your customers' VAT numbers where B2B is claimed. A wrongly-taxed B2C sale is a common and expensive error; the free VAT number validator checks numbers against VIES live.

Frequently asked questions

Does the €10,000 amount change in 2027? No. The threshold stays at €10,000 EU-wide, excluding VAT, tested on the current plus preceding calendar year. Only the calculation of which sales count changes.

I sell only digital services. Does the reform affect me? Only if you dispatch goods as well. TBE services were always counted in full toward the threshold; the change concerns distance sales of goods dispatched from a stock located in another Member State.

What if I hold stock in two other Member States? Only the dispatches from your Member State of establishment count from 2027. Every other distance sale follows normal destination rules — VAT where the transport ends.

Once I register for OSS, can I leave after two years and use the threshold again? Registration binds you for two calendar years as an exercise of the destination option. Whether you can revert to threshold treatment afterwards depends on your turnover in the relevant years — take advice before registering on a short-term view.

Where can I check my current position? Use the OSS threshold calculator for the legal position and the VAT calculator to price sales at destination rates.

Sources

Council Directive 2006/112/EC, Article 59c (as amended). Council Directive (EU) 2025/516 of 11 March 2025 amending Directive 2006/112/EC as regards VAT rules for the digital age (Articles 1(4) and 2; transposition and application dates). Council Directive (EU) 2017/2455 (original €10,000 threshold for intra-EU distance sales, applicable from 1 July 2021). European Commission, VAT e-Commerce Explanatory Notes and OSS Guidelines, revised 24 July 2026 (threshold calculation clarification; OSS registration as exercise of the option). European Commission, VAT One Stop Shop portal (vat-one-stop-shop.ec.europa.eu). Content checked October 2026; confirm the national implementation with your tax adviser before filing.

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