EU VAT for Marketplace Sellers — Complete Guide (2025)
Selling across EU marketplaces means dealing with 27 different VAT regimes. Get it wrong and you're under-charging buyers, over-paying tax authorities, or creating invoicing errors you'll spend months correcting. This guide explains the rules, shows you the rates, and explains how to automate VAT correctly in Odoo so you never have to think about it order by order.
- The basics — destination VAT since 2021
- OSS — One Stop Shop explained
- The €10,000 threshold
- EU VAT rates by country — full table
- B2B sales — zero-rating and VAT numbers
- How fiscal positions in Odoo handle this automatically
- VAT and marketplace-collected tax
- Common VAT mistakes marketplace sellers make
The basics — destination VAT since July 2021
Before July 2021, EU B2C sellers could apply their home country's VAT rate to cross-border sales until they hit country-specific distance selling thresholds (typically €35,000–€100,000 per country). The EU reformed this completely.
Since July 1, 2021, the rule is simple: B2C sales are taxed at the VAT rate of the buyer's country, from the first euro, with no per-country threshold (only a combined EU-wide €10,000 threshold). A Dutch seller shipping to a German buyer on Amazon.de charges 19% German MwSt — not 21% Dutch BTW. Always.
This affects every marketplace seller shipping B2C goods across EU borders. If you sell on Amazon EU all-sites, Kaufland DE, Fnac Darty FR, or any other cross-border marketplace, this rule applies to every order.
OSS — One Stop Shop explained
The EU created OSS (One Stop Shop) as the compliance mechanism for destination VAT. Without OSS, you'd need to register for VAT in every EU country where your cross-border B2C sales exceed the local threshold — which quickly becomes unmanageable for multi-marketplace sellers.
With OSS, you register once in your home EU country and file a single quarterly return that covers all your cross-border EU B2C sales. The tax authorities in your home country distribute the VAT to the correct destination countries. One return. One payment. All 27 EU countries covered.
The €10,000 threshold
If your total cross-border B2C sales to other EU countries are below €10,000 per year in aggregate, you have two options:
- Apply your home country VAT rate to all cross-border EU B2C sales (the simplified rule for micro-sellers)
- Register for OSS voluntarily and apply destination country rates from the start
The moment you exceed €10,000 in cross-border EU B2C sales in a calendar year, you must apply destination country VAT rates — either via OSS registration or individual country VAT registrations. Most marketplace sellers hit €10,000 quickly once they're active on more than one EU marketplace.
EU VAT rates by country — 2025
Standard and common reduced rates across all EU member states. Rates are correct as of 2025 — always verify current rates with your tax advisor as these can change.
| Country | Standard rate | Reduced rate(s) | VAT name |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇩🇪 Germany | 19% | 7% | MwSt / USt |
| 🇳🇱 Netherlands | 21% | 9% | BTW |
| 🇧🇪 Belgium | 21% | 6%, 12% | BTW / TVA / MwSt |
| 🇫🇷 France | 20% | 5.5%, 10% | TVA |
| 🇪🇸 Spain | 21% | 4%, 10% | IVA |
| 🇮🇹 Italy | 22% | 4%, 5%, 10% | IVA |
| 🇵🇱 Poland | 23% | 5%, 8% | PTU / VAT |
| 🇷🇴 Romania | 19% | 5%, 9% | TVA |
| 🇸🇪 Sweden | 25% | 6%, 12% | MOMS |
| 🇩🇰 Denmark | 25% | – | MOMS |
| 🇦🇹 Austria | 20% | 10%, 13% | MwSt / USt |
| 🇨🇿 Czech Republic | 21% | 12% | DPH |
| 🇸🇰 Slovakia | 20% | 10% | DPH |
| 🇭🇺 Hungary | 27% | 5%, 18% | ÁFA |
| 🇵🇹 Portugal | 23% | 6%, 13% | IVA |
| 🇬🇷 Greece | 24% | 6%, 13% | ΦΠΑ |
| 🇫🇮 Finland | 25.5% | 10%, 14% | ALV / MOMS |
| 🇮🇪 Ireland | 23% | 9%, 13.5% | VAT |
| 🇧🇬 Bulgaria | 20% | 9% | ДДС |
| 🇭🇷 Croatia | 25% | 5%, 13% | PDV |
| 🇱🇻 Latvia | 21% | 5%, 12% | PVN |
| 🇱🇹 Lithuania | 21% | 5%, 9% | PVM |
| 🇪🇪 Estonia | 22% | 9% | KM |
| 🇸🇮 Slovenia | 22% | 5%, 9.5% | DDV |
| 🇱🇺 Luxembourg | 17% | 3%, 8% | TVA / MwSt |
| 🇲🇹 Malta | 18% | 5%, 7% | VAT |
| 🇨🇾 Cyprus | 19% | 5%, 9% | ΦΠΑ |
B2B sales — zero-rating and VAT numbers
B2B sales to VAT-registered businesses in other EU countries are generally zero-rated — you charge 0% VAT, and the buyer applies reverse charge in their own country. This applies to marketplace sales only when the buyer is a registered business making a genuine intra-community acquisition, which is rare on consumer marketplaces like Amazon and Bol.com.
In practice, B2B zero-rating on marketplace orders requires:
- The buyer provides a valid EU VAT number
- The VAT number is verified via the VIES system
- The goods are shipped to the buyer's business address in another EU member state
- You retain proof of the intra-community supply (transport documents, VAT number record)
Most consumer marketplace platforms (Amazon, Bol.com) don't reliably capture buyer VAT numbers — making B2B zero-rating difficult to apply correctly at scale. If you have B2B buyers on marketplaces, consult your tax advisor on the practical handling.
How fiscal positions in Odoo handle VAT automatically
Manually applying the correct VAT rate per buyer country on every marketplace order is not viable at volume. Odoo's fiscal position system automates this — and ERP2MARKET applies it on every imported marketplace order.
How Odoo fiscal positions work for marketplace VAT
Configure fiscal positions once in Odoo, and every marketplace order across every channel — Amazon, Bol.com, Kaufland, Zalando — automatically gets the correct VAT. No manual intervention per order.
VAT and marketplace-collected tax (MCT)
Some marketplaces collect VAT on behalf of sellers in certain circumstances — particularly for non-EU sellers selling into the EU, or for low-value imports from outside the EU. This is called Marketplace Collected Tax or Marketplace Facilitator VAT.
For EU-registered sellers selling on EU marketplaces to EU buyers, you are generally responsible for VAT yourself — the marketplace does not collect it on your behalf. Amazon's VAT Calculation Service (VCS) can calculate and display VAT on invoices, but the liability remains yours.
Key points for EU sellers:
- Amazon EU: For EU-registered sellers, VAT is your responsibility. Amazon VCS helps with invoicing but doesn't remit VAT for you.
- Bol.com: Bol.com does not collect VAT for EU-registered sellers. You charge and remit VAT yourself via OSS or country registrations.
- Non-EU sellers into EU: For goods under €150 imported from outside the EU, the marketplace may be the deemed supplier and collects IOSS VAT. This applies to non-EU sellers, not EU-registered businesses.
Common VAT mistakes marketplace sellers make
1. Applying home country VAT to all orders
The most widespread mistake — and the one most likely to trigger a VAT audit. Applying Dutch BTW at 21% to every order regardless of buyer country is incorrect for cross-border B2C sales above the €10,000 threshold. The EU tax authorities actively cross-reference marketplace sales data.
2. Not registering for OSS after crossing €10,000
Many sellers don't realise they've crossed the aggregate €10,000 threshold because they're tracking sales per channel rather than in aggregate. Monitor your total cross-border EU B2C revenue across all channels combined — not per marketplace.
3. Ignoring reduced VAT rates
If you sell books, food, medication, children's clothing or other reduced-rate categories, the destination country's reduced rate applies — not the standard rate. Charging 19% MwSt on a book sold to a German buyer (where the reduced rate is 7%) means you're over-collecting VAT and creating invoicing errors.
4. Not separating OSS VAT in your accounting
If all your cross-border VAT posts to a single tax account, OSS reporting becomes a manual reconciliation exercise at quarter end. Set up separate VAT accounts per destination country in Odoo from the start — it takes 30 minutes to configure and saves hours of quarterly reconciliation.
5. Treating all marketplace orders as B2C
Most marketplace orders are B2C, but not all. B2B buyers on marketplaces with valid EU VAT numbers may qualify for zero-rated intra-community supply treatment. If you have significant B2B volume via marketplaces, put a process in place to identify and handle these orders correctly.