The OSS VAT regime — what every online shop selling into the EU must know

Online shops selling goods to consumers across the EU quickly reach the threshold above which VAT must be charged at the customer’s country rate rather than the Bulgarian one. The OSS (One Stop Shop) regime is what saves you from registering for VAT in every single Member State.

When the obligation arises

On distance sales of goods to consumers in other EU countries, once you exceed a combined threshold of 10,000 EUR of annual turnover across all Member States together (a different threshold from the Bulgarian national registration one), the seller must charge VAT at the buyer’s country rate.

How the OSS regime works

Instead of registering for VAT separately in each Member State, the trader registers once with the Bulgarian Revenue Agency for the OSS and files a single consolidated quarterly return, showing turnover and VAT due for each country separately, at each country’s rate. The Revenue Agency then distributes the amounts to the relevant states.

What falls outside the OSS

• Sales to business customers with a valid VAT number — the general intra-Community supply rules apply.
• Goods sold from a warehouse outside Bulgaria (for example through fulfilment centres in another country) may require a separate VAT registration in the warehouse country, regardless of the OSS.
• Imports from non-EU countries sold directly to EU consumers, up to 150 EUR per consignment, fall under the separate IOSS (Import One-Stop Shop), not the standard OSS.

Practical steps to register

• Check whether your cumulative turnover to EU customers outside Bulgaria has already crossed the 10,000 EUR threshold.
• Register for the OSS through the Revenue Agency portal.
• Configure your shop (Shopify, WooCommerce and the like) to apply the correct VAT rate automatically, based on the delivery country.

What ViDA brings next

Under the VAT in the Digital Age package the OSS is gradually widening — to further B2C supplies and to a single VAT registration from 2028. That will reduce the need for local registrations still further, but it requires processes to be updated. Online traders should track the changes alongside their current OSS obligations.

Conclusion

The OSS was designed to lighten the administrative burden of cross-border e-commerce, but it requires the threshold to be tracked properly and the sales system to apply the right rates automatically, not by hand.

The 10,000 EUR threshold — what counts towards it

The 10,000 EUR threshold is cumulative across all distance B2C sales of goods to customers in other EU countries taken together — not per country. Certain telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services to consumers also count towards it. Once crossed, it applies for both the current and the following year. Tracking must be automated in the sales system: manual monitoring is almost always late, and late registration means VAT owed retrospectively.

Frequently asked questions