OSS threshold calculator: the EUR 10,000 limit for distance sales
Enter last year’s and this year’s cross-border B2C sales. The calculator shows how much of the EUR 10,000 threshold is used, whether the customer’s country VAT already applies and, with a monthly estimate, the month in which you are likely to cross it.
- Runs in your browser
- One EU-wide threshold
- VAT Directive art. 59c
Reviewed by Silvia, Chartered Accountant (CECCAR) · updated
The tool
Enter your sales to see how much of the EUR 10,000 threshold is used.
Rates and rules used
- EU-wide threshold
- EUR 10,000excluding VAT, all other member states together — Directive 2006/112/EC, art. 59c
- Romanian equivalent
- 46,337 leifor sellers established in Romania — Fiscal Code, art. 278^1(5)
- Years tested
- Previous and currentexceeded in either one, the customer’s country taxes — art. 59c(1)(c)
- When the rule changes
- From the crossing supplynot from the following period — art. 59c(2)
What counts toward the threshold
Two kinds of sale are added together: intra-Community distance sales of goods, meaning goods shipped from your country of establishment to consumers in other member states, and telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services supplied to non-taxable customers in other member states. The total is taken excluding VAT and across all other member states together. There is no separate figure for Romania.
Left out: sales to customers in your own country, B2B sales to VAT-registered buyers, sales of goods shipped from stock held in another member state, and distance sales of goods imported from outside the EU.
The test looks at two years. If the total did not exceed EUR 10,000 in the previous calendar year and has not exceeded it in the current one, you may keep charging the VAT of your own country. Sellers established in a member state outside the euro area test against the fixed national equivalent, not the exchange rate of the day: 46,337 lei in Romania (Fiscal Code, art. 278^1(5)).
What happens when you cross it
The place of supply moves to the customer’s country from the supply that takes the total over EUR 10,000 (Directive art. 59c(2); Romanian Fiscal Code art. 278^1(2)). Earlier sales keep home-country VAT and are not restated. Every later cross-border B2C sale, into every member state, carries the VAT of the customer’s country for the rest of the year and for the whole of the following calendar year.
An example: a seller shipping from Germany has EUR 7,400 of qualifying sales by the end of June. In July a Romanian order of EUR 3,200 takes the total to EUR 10,600. That order is taxed in Romania at 21%, which is EUR 672 of Romanian VAT.
From there you have two ways to account for the tax: a VAT registration in each customer country, or the Union one-stop shop (OSS), with one quarterly return filed in your own member state. You may also opt for customer-country VAT before reaching the threshold, and the option binds you for at least two calendar years (art. 59c(3)).
Why stock in a Romanian warehouse takes you out of the threshold and out of OSS
The threshold is a relief for small sellers operating from one country. It requires that you are established in only one member state and that the goods leave from that member state (art. 59c(1)(a) and (b)). Goods stored with a fulfilment provider in Romania, or in a marketplace warehouse such as eMAG’s, do not leave from your country of establishment, so the threshold does not cover them at all.
A sale from Romanian stock to a Romanian consumer is not a distance sale. It is a domestic supply in Romania: VAT registration before the first local sale, with no threshold available to a non-established company, Romanian VAT at 21% or 11% on the invoice, and the Romanian VAT return instead of the OSS return. OSS does not cover these sales. Check your position with the VAT registration check and read the registration procedure for non-residents.
Sales shipped from the Romanian warehouse to consumers in other member states are distance sales taxed in the customer’s country from the first euro, and they can go into the OSS return. Moving your own goods into Romania is itself a reportable transfer, explained in the e-commerce VAT guide.
What the calculator does not cover
IOSS. Distance sales of goods imported from outside the EU, in consignments up to EUR 150, go through the import one-stop shop. The EUR 10,000 threshold does not apply to them.
Sellers established outside the EU. The threshold is available only to a business established in one member state. A non-EU seller charges the customer’s country VAT from the first sale.
Marketplaces as deemed suppliers. Where the platform is treated as the seller (imported goods in consignments up to EUR 150, and goods already in the EU sold through the platform by a seller established outside the EU), the platform accounts for the VAT on the consumer sale, and that sale is not part of your total.
The calculator does not check the amounts either: which sales are B2C, which value is net of VAT, how a sale in another currency is converted. That is settled on your records.
Frequently asked questions
01Is the EUR 10,000 threshold per country?
No. It is one EU-wide total: distance sales of goods plus telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services to consumers in all other member states are added together. The old per-country thresholds of EUR 35,000 or EUR 100,000 ended on 1 July 2021.
02Does exactly EUR 10,000 count as exceeded?
No. The text requires that the total “does not exceed” EUR 10,000, so at exactly 10,000 you are still under it. The rule changes from the supply that takes the total above that amount, and that supply is already taxed in the customer’s country.
03I crossed the threshold last year but sell less this year. Can I go back to home-country VAT?
Not this year. The condition also covers the previous calendar year: if you exceeded the threshold then, the customer’s country VAT applies for the whole of the current year, however small the sales. You can go back only in the year that follows a full calendar year under the threshold.
04If I register for OSS, do I need a Romanian VAT number?
No, as long as you ship from your own country. OSS is filed in your member state of identification, and the Romanian VAT on sales to Romanian consumers is paid through that return. A Romanian VAT number becomes compulsory when you hold stock in Romania or carry out other taxable operations here.
05I sell on eMAG from their Romanian warehouse. Does the threshold help?
No. The goods do not leave from your country of establishment, so the threshold does not apply. A sale from Romanian stock to a Romanian customer is a domestic supply and requires Romanian VAT registration before the first sale, with no threshold available to a non-established company.
06Do sales to businesses count?
No. The threshold covers sales to non-taxable persons, which in practice means consumers. Supplies to VAT-registered businesses in another member state are intra-Community supplies, with a different regime and different reporting, and are not added here.
Sources and legal basis
- Council Directive 2006/112/EC on the common system of VAT — Art. 59c: the EUR 10,000 threshold, the conditions in paragraph 1, application from the moment the threshold is exceeded in paragraph 2, and the two-calendar-year option in paragraph 3.
- Council Directive (EU) 2017/2455 of 5 December 2017 — Inserted art. 59c into the VAT Directive; the distance sales rules apply from 1 July 2021.
- Romanian Fiscal Code (Law 227/2015), ANAF consolidated text — Art. 278^1: paragraph 1 the cumulative conditions, paragraph 2 application from the moment of crossing, paragraph 3 the option for at least two years, paragraph 5 the equivalent of 46,337 lei; art. 316 for the registration of non-established persons.
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