For businesses, selling across Europe adds scale and complexity. Each country has its own value-added tax (VAT) rules, filings, and deadlines. The EU’s One Stop Shop (OSS) scheme brings them under one system and lets a business report and pay VAT for all EU B2C sales through its home country’s portal.

Below, we’ll explain how the OSS Union scheme works in the Netherlands, who needs to register, how to file an OSS return, and the difference between OSS and Import One Stop Shop (IOSS).

What’s in this article?

• What is the OSS VAT scheme?
  
• Who needs to register for OSS in the Netherlands?
  
• How do you file an OSS declaration with the Belastingdienst?
  
• What are the benefits of using OSS for Dutch businesses?
  
• What’s the difference between OSS and IOSS?
  
• How Stripe Tax can help
  

What is the OSS VAT scheme?

Selling across the EU often means working with a web of VAT rules, with different registrations, filings, and tax authorities in every country where you have customers. The OSS scheme was created to simplify these different processes. It gives businesses a single EU portal to report and pay VAT on cross-border sales to customers.

The OSS went into effect in July 2021 as an expansion of the Mini One Stop Shop (MOSS), which applied to only B2C digital services. The new framework covers B2C sales of goods and services within the EU. Instead of registering for VAT separately in every country where you sell, you register once through your home country’s VAT OSS portal.

Here’s how the process works:

• You charge each customer the VAT rate of their country.

• You include those sales in your quarterly OSS return.

• You file and pay everything through your domestic tax portal. (For Dutch businesses, that’s Mijn Belastingdienst Zakelijk.)

• The Netherlands Tax Administration (Belastingdienst) distributes the collected VAT to the other EU countries for you.

You still file a regular Dutch VAT return, which covers domestic transactions. The OSS covers only VAT on cross-border B2C sales within the EU.

The scheme is optional. But once your total EU-wide customer sales exceed €10,000 annually, you must charge VAT based on the customer’s country. Using the OSS is the most efficient way to meet that obligation. The OSS turns a fragmented, multicountry process into one unified system.

Who needs to register for OSS in the Netherlands?

No one is required to register for the OSS, but the scheme is open to any business in the Netherlands that sells to customers in other EU countries. It’s especially relevant for ecommerce and digital service providers that want to simplify VAT compliance as they grow across borders.

Under EU rules, once your total cross-border B2C sales within the EU exceed €10,000 in a calendar year, you’re required to charge the VAT rate of your customer’s country rather than that of the Netherlands. That threshold covers all EU customer sales combined, not per country. When you exceed it, registering for the OSS scheme through the Belastingdienst becomes the most efficient way to handle your obligations. If you don’t register for the OSS, you have to register for VAT and file returns in each individual country where you have customers. Even smaller businesses below the threshold can opt in for consistent VAT management across all EU markets.

The scheme is built for B2C transactions: sales to private individuals or nontaxable entities. B2B transactions generally fall under the reverse charge mechanism or require separate VAT handling.

Typical Dutch users of the OSS include:

• Ecommerce retailers that ship goods to EU customers

• Digital product or software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers that sell software, subscriptions, or content online

The registration process is simple: log in to the Belastingdienst’s online portal and register for the Union OSS scheme.

How do you file an OSS declaration with the Belastingdienst?

Once you’re registered for the OSS scheme in the Netherlands, your VAT filings for EU customer sales take place in the Belastingdienst’s online portal. The process looks similar to your regular Dutch VAT filing, but it’s expanded to cover your EU sales. Here’s a step-by-step guide to filing.

Log in to the OSS portal

Go to the Belastingdienst’s online portal and select “EU VAT One Stop Shop” (EU-btw éénloketsysteem in Dutch). Choose “VAT returns” (Btw-meldingen) to start your OSS return.

Report your sales by country

Every quarter, list your sales and VAT amounts by destination country. For example, if you sold to customers in France and Germany, record the taxable sales and VAT amounts for each. Maintain your transaction records for at least 10 years.

File each quarter

OSS returns are due quarterly. Submit by the last day of the month following the quarter (April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31). You can’t submit before the quarter ends. Even with no cross-border sales, a nil return is required. Missed or late OSS returns can lead to estimated VAT assessments or, after repeated noncompliance, removal from the OSS scheme. This will force you to do separate VAT registrations in each country.

Pay the total VAT owed

After you submit, make one payment to the Belastingdienst that covers all VAT due for the quarter. The Dutch tax office then distributes the funds to each relevant EU country.

Correct past filings as needed

If you discover an error, correct it in your next OSS return. Corrections can be made for up to three years.

What are the benefits of using OSS for Dutch businesses?

Dutch businesses that sell across the EU can use the OSS scheme to centralize what used to be dozens of small, disconnected VAT obligations into one coordinated process. Here’s a closer look at the advantages of this consolidated setup.

One registration, one portal

The OSS lets you register once in the Netherlands and handle all EU VAT through the Belastingdienst. You don’t need separate VAT numbers or local filings in every member state.

A single quarterly return

All EU customer sales appear on one OSS return each quarter. That eliminates multiple deadlines, language barriers, and filing systems and keeps everything visible in one dashboard.

Accurate VAT at checkout

You charge the correct VAT rate for each customer’s country, but you never have to log in to foreign tax systems. The Belastingdienst distributes those payments for you.

Lower costs and lighter admin

Centralization minimizes accounting fees and manual reconciliation. You make one payment in euros, and the tax office handles the rest.

Scalability

Whether you’re selling to 1 EU country or 20, the OSS scales with you. You can add new markets without taking on new registrations or compliance overhead.

What’s the difference between OSS and IOSS?

The OSS and IOSS are two parts of the EU’s 2021 VAT reform. Both simplify tax reporting across borders, but they apply to different types of sales.

Here’s a closer look at the main differences.

OSS

The OSS covers intra-EU B2C sales of goods and services. For instance, think of a Dutch company that sells to customers in France or Germany. It’s used by EU-based businesses that report customer sales across member states and by non-EU businesses that provide digital services to EU customers. OSS returns are filed quarterly.

IOSS

The IOSS covers goods imported into the EU from outside it that are worth €150 or less. It’s mainly used by non-EU sellers or EU businesses that import goods for direct sale to EU customers. Non-EU sellers register through an EU intermediary to use it. IOSS returns are filed monthly.

How Stripe Tax can help

Stripe Tax reduces the complexity of tax compliance so you can focus on growing your business. Stripe Tax helps you monitor your obligations and alerts you when you exceed a sales tax registration threshold based on your Stripe transactions. In addition, it automatically calculates and collects VAT on both physical and digital goods and services.

Start collecting taxes globally by adding a single line of code to your existing integration, clicking a button in the Stripe Dashboard, or using our powerful application programming interface (API).

Stripe Tax can help you:

• Understand where to register and collect taxes: See where you need to collect taxes based on your Stripe transactions. After you register, switch on tax collection in a new state or country in seconds. You can start collecting taxes by adding one line of code to your existing Stripe integration or add tax collection with the click of a button in the Stripe Dashboard.

• Register to pay tax: Let Stripe manage your global tax registrations and benefit from a simplified process that prefills application details—saving you time and simplifying compliance with local regulations.

• Automatically collect tax: Stripe Tax calculates and collects the right amount of tax owed, no matter what or where you sell. It supports hundreds of products and services and is up-to-date on tax rules and rate changes.

• Simplify filing: Stripe Tax seamlessly integrates with filing partners so your global filings are accurate and timely. Let our partners manage your filings so you can focus on growing your business.

Learn more about Stripe Tax, or get started today.