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EU VAT & OSS · Compliance

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

On the screenThe same €40 product, sold into four EU countries
€6.39€33.61Germany19% inside the price
€6.67€33.33France20% inside the price
€6.94€33.06Netherlands21% inside the price
€7.48€32.52Ireland23% inside the price

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. Profflow uses the rate of the country the customer bought from, per order.

€1,429 of that headline belongs to six different tax authorities before it belongs to you. A margin calculated on €7,940 instead of €6,344 is not conservative — it is wrong.

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 / 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.

03 / 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.

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 price
  • 01Order destination
  • 02Country VAT rates
  • 03Cross-border total
  • 04OSS threshold
  • 05Refund adjustments
  • 06Currency
EU VAT & OSS
  • Destination VAT
  • OSS-ready split
  • Threshold monitor
  • VAT inside the price

05 / How it is worked out

From the account
to the figure on the screen.

  1. 01ReadsThe delivery country on every Shopify order.
  2. 02AppliesThe destination VAT rate, not a single home rate.
  3. 03SeparatesThe VAT inside each price from the revenue you keep.
  4. 04WatchesThe €10,000 cross-border OSS threshold.

[ Asked of the figures ]

How much of last month’s revenue was actually VAT?

€1,429 sat inside the €7,940 taken, spread across six destination countries. Germany at 19% and Hungary at 27% account for about half of it.

How Profflow reasons

06 / How the figure is kept honest

The same four rules,
on every screen.

  • Read-only, on every plan

    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.

  • Measured stays measured

    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.

  • Every figure opens

    Follow any number to the dated rows underneath it. A figure nobody can check is a figure nobody acts on.

  • You approve

    The product prepares a decision and shows the evidence. Nothing consequential happens until you say so.

About
EU VAT & OSS.

Can’t find the answer to your question?
Contact us by clicking here.

  • 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.

  • From the delivery address on each Shopify order, matched to that country’s VAT rate.

  • Below it, cross-border sales can use your home VAT; above it, OSS applies. Profflow watches the line as sales accumulate.

  • Yes. A refund is removed from the VAT base on the date it happened.

See 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.