Glossary
OSS
Also called One Stop Shop, EU VAT OSS
The One Stop Shop, OSS, is the EU system that lets a seller report and pay VAT on sales to consumers in every EU country through a single quarterly return in one country.
What it means
When you sell an ebook to a reader in the EU, VAT is usually due at the rate of the reader’s country. Without OSS, you would need to register for VAT in each country you sell to. With OSS, you register in one EU country and file one return covering all of them.
OSS started on 1 July 2021. It extended the older Mini One Stop Shop (MOSS), which ran from 2015 for digital services such as ebooks. It has three schemes: the Union scheme for businesses set up in the EU, the non-Union scheme for businesses outside the EU selling services such as ebooks, and the import scheme for low-value goods posted into the EU.
There is a threshold for small sellers based in the EU. If your cross-border sales of digital services and distance sales of goods to other EU countries stay under €10,000 a year in total, you can charge your own country’s VAT instead.
Why it matters when you sell direct
If you sell ebooks or audiobooks from your own store to EU readers, you are the seller, so these rules are yours. A romance author in the US selling to readers in Germany, or a nonfiction author in Spain selling to readers in France, is in the same position.
Print books posted to readers are goods and can fall under the Union or import schemes too.
How Lanternbee handles it
Stripe Tax works out the right VAT for the reader’s country at checkout, and you file and pay it, through OSS if you register. Coming: Lanternbee acting as merchant of record for digital editions, so EU VAT on ebooks is handled for you. It is planned, not live.