European sales without OSS
Fiscal Representation: Vat Registration in Other EU Countries
If you’re keeping stock in a warehouse in another EU country than the Netherlands and are shipping your goods to consumers from there, it’s necessary to VAT register in that country. Once registered, you need to fulfill your VAT obligations in this country of registration, charge local VAT to your customers and pay this VAT to the local tax authorities.
If you’re customs clearing goods in the Netherlands with fiscal representation by Neele-Vat, we will report the transfer of your own goods from the Netherlands to your country of registration as a fictitious intra-Community supply to your VAT number in that country.
For the Tax Law this transaction is called a “distance sale”. When a company imports goods and customs clears them in the Netherlands and sells these goods to a private person.
EU B2C sales without OSS
If you’re selling business-to-consumer (B2C) from the Netherlands to other EU countries, you can charge Dutch VAT to your customers until you’ve reached a revenue threshold of €10 000,00 within one calendar year. From that moment, you either do need to register for the union scheme One-Stop-Shop (OSS) or you need to VAT register in the countries to which you’re making distance sales to consumers.
You could VAT register in every EU country where you’re selling your goods to private individuals. The drawback is that each VAT registration will cost you extra money and you will need to submit a periodic VAT declaration in each country of registration throughout the year.
Neele-Vat offers OSS registration for both EU and non-EU businesses, providing general fiscal representation (GFR) and taking care of your VAT declaration and registration for the OSS system in the Netherlands. With GFR and an article 23 license, your goods can be imported from outside the EU, customs cleared without payment of VAT, and stored in a Dutch warehouse before shipment to your customers. Even if your company is not based in the Netherlands, you can sell from there to consumers all over the EU with your Dutch OSS registration.
Your customers will pay VAT on their purchases, and Neele-Vat will declare your sales after receiving the correct data from your administration. Once the declaration has been submitted, you will pay the collected VAT amount to the Dutch tax authorities. You’ll charge your customers the VAT percentage used in their country, and the Dutch tax authorities will forward this VAT to the tax authorities in the relevant countries.
Note that not all EU sales qualify for the OSS. If you keep stock in warehouses in other EU countries and sell to customers from there, you will need to register for VAT in those countries and file your VAT returns with the local tax authorities. B2C sales to customers in the Netherlands, B2B sales, and transfers of own goods from the Netherlands to your other EU warehouses and vice versa will still need to be declared with the regular Dutch VAT return. Stay informed and simplify your VAT compliance with Neele-Vat.
Selling to Platforms
You could use this as a second option when you’re based outside the EU and are using an E-commerce platform, such as Amazon, to sell your goods. In certain situations, platforms will have to take care of the VAT payment on the online B2C sales, instead of your company. This is called platform fiction. When platform fiction is applicable, we can declare this for you as an intra-Community supply to the platform’s VAT number in another EU country and there will be no need to pay VAT on this sale.
