Tax, accounting, and operational guides for Germany

If you sell goods or digital services B2C to customers in other EU countries, you can't avoid the One-Stop-Shop (OSS) scheme — whether you're a sole trader, freelancer, UG or GmbH. Once cross-border sales pass €10,000 in a calendar year, you owe VAT at the rate of each destination country — and OSS lets you handle all of it through one quarterly filing with Germany's Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt). Bookkeeping stays German, the VAT rates go European. This guide covers registration, deadlines, payment, corrections and the single biggest pitfall: the foreign warehouse.

The One-Stop-Shop is the EU-wide VAT scheme for cross-border B2C sales. Since 1 July 2021, any German business selling goods or digital services to private customers in other EU countries can settle the VAT owed across all member states through a single quarterly return filed with the BZSt.

Before 2021, every business had to register for VAT separately in each EU country once it crossed that country's national distance-selling threshold. OSS bundles everything into one return — you keep one German tax number and file once per quarter for all EU-wide B2C sales.