EU VAT & OSSComplianceLive
The VAT sitting inside
every European price.
Destination VAT split by the country the customer bought from — the figure the OSS return asks for — kept inside the model so European revenue is never overstated.
Measured, not estimated EU-hosted Read-only by default
01 / The case for it
A fifth of the headline was never revenue.
Without it
In Europe the tax is inside the price, not added to it. A store reading its Shopify total is reading its own money and the tax authority’s money as one figure, and every margin worked out from that top line is wrong by the rate.
What Profflow does
Taken out first, by the buyer’s country.
VAT comes out before anything else is measured, at the rate of the country the order went to. What is left is the revenue that is actually yours, and every figure downstream is built on that instead.
02 / What it looks like
One price, four countries, four rates
Germany19%€40.00€6.39 tax
France20%€40.00€6.67 tax
Netherlands21%€40.00€6.94 tax
Ireland23%€40.00€7.48 tax
Shown at the rates in force for standard-rated goods. Profflow uses the rate of the country the customer bought from, per order.
The price is the price in every one of them. What changes is how much of it was never yours — which is why revenue read gross is wrong by a different amount in each country.
€1,429 of that headline belongs to eight different tax authorities before it belongs to you. A margin calculated on €7,940 instead of €6,344 is not conservative — it is wrong.
03 / Worth understanding
What the OSS return actually asks for
Inside the price, not on top of it
European prices are quoted with tax included. A US-built tool that subtracts a tax column from an order is doing the right arithmetic for the wrong continent — and a store selling at €40 in Ireland keeps €7.48 less than the screen says.
The rate belongs to the customer, not the store
Under the One Stop Shop scheme, cross-border B2C sales inside the EU are taxed at the destination country’s rate once the threshold is passed. That makes VAT a per-order question, not a monthly percentage, and it is why the split by country is on the screen all quarter rather than assembled at the end of one.
The return is a by-product, not a project
Because destination VAT is taken out as each order is read, the figure the OSS return asks for already exists. Nothing is recalculated at quarter end and nothing is discovered there either.
04 / What it is built from
EU VAT & OSS is assembled
from accounts you already run.
01Order destination02Country VAT rates03Cross-border total04OSS threshold05Refund adjustments06Currency
EU VAT & OSS
Destination VATOSS-ready splitThreshold monitorVAT inside the price05 / How it is worked out
From the account
to the figure on the screen.
- 01ReadsThe delivery country on every Shopify order.
- 02AppliesThe destination VAT rate, not a single home rate.
- 03SeparatesThe VAT inside each price from the revenue you keep.
- 04WatchesThe €10,000 cross-border OSS threshold.
Asked of the figures
How much of last month’s revenue was actually VAT?
€1,432 sat inside the €7,940 taken, spread across six destination countries. Germany at 19% and Sweden at 25% account for most of it.
How Profflow reasons06 / What it lets you do
What follows
from getting EU VAT & OSS right.
Destination VAT
The rate of the country the customer bought from, per order.
OSS-ready split
Sales grouped by country, the way the OSS return asks for them.
Threshold monitor
The €10,000 cross-border line watched as sales accumulate.
VAT inside the price
European revenue read VAT-inclusive, never overstated.
Refund adjustments
Returns removed from the VAT base on the date they happened.
One currency at a time
Countries compared without silently adding unlike currencies.
07 / How the figure is kept honest
The same four rules,
on every screen.
Profflow observes the accounts it is connected to. It does not write an order, a price, a campaign or a payout back to any of them.
A charge read from an account is labelled measured. Anything modelled — a forecast, a projection, a filled gap — is labelled as such on the screen it appears on.
Follow any number to the dated rows underneath it. A figure nobody can check is a figure nobody acts on.
The product prepares a decision and shows the evidence. Nothing consequential happens until you say so.
Questions
About EU VAT & OSS.
- Is this tax advice?
- No. It shows the VAT contained in your sales by destination, so the figures are ready for your OSS return. Filing stays with you or your accountant.
- How is the destination decided?
- From the delivery address on each Shopify order, matched to that country’s VAT rate.
- What is the €10,000 threshold?
- Below it, cross-border sales can use your home VAT; above it, OSS applies. Profflow watches the line as sales accumulate.
- Are refunds handled?
- Yes. A refund is removed from the VAT base on the date it happened.
One operating system
The rest of the picture,
one view away.
Each part is useful on its own. Profflow holds them in one model, so a figure here carries the context from everywhere else.
See the whole productSee EU VAT & OSS on your own figures.
Destination VAT split by the country the customer bought from — the figure the OSS return asks for — kept inside the model so European revenue is never overstated.