Use Stripe to register for VAT

Learn how Stripe can register you for VAT in the EU.

Stripe can register digital services businesses based outside of the European Union for value-added tax (VAT) through a single registration covering sales to EU customers.

Non-Union OSS

Non-Union One Stop Shop (OSS) is an EU tax filing scheme for businesses based outside the EU that supply services to individual consumers in the EU.

The European Union provides several OSS filing schemes, depending on where your business is based and what type of goods or services you sell. Learn more about tax in the European Union.

Eligibility

To qualify for Non-Union OSS tax registration through Stripe, your business must meet the following criteria:

Your head office must be based outside of the EU.
You must have no fixed establishment in the EU.
You must sell services to consumers in the EU.

A fixed establishment is a location that’s permanent enough and has the human and technical resources to receive services or make supplies. Not every physical presence is a fixed establishment. A legally separate subsidiary isn’t by itself a fixed establishment of its parent, and a local VAT registration doesn’t create one either. Whether a location qualifies depends on the specific facts and circumstances. Consult your tax advisor if you need help determining whether you have a fixed establishment in the EU.

Non-Union OSS doesn’t cover supplies of physical goods. If you sell both goods and eligible services, you might still be able to use Non-Union OSS for your eligible service sales, but you might need a separate VAT registration or another OSS filing scheme for your sales of goods.

The Stripe filing partner, Taxually, can support additional VAT registrations and other OSS filing schemes.

Under Locations on the Tax page:

Click Collect and file .
Select any member EU country.
Select Register for me .

Complete the prompts based on your business’s activity. If you’re eligible for Non-Union OSS, you’ll see the following option:

What to expect

Gather information needed to register

Gather key business information such as address, business tax ID number, contact and ID information (for business owners and your business representative), and bank account details.

After you submit your application

A Stripe tax expert reviews your information and submits your Non-Union OSS registration application to Irish Revenue within 30 days. Ireland serves as the Member State of identification for applications submitted through Stripe. A VAT ID is usually issued within 2 weeks after Stripe submits the application, and your business is assigned a registration start date.

A Non-Union OSS registration generally takes effect on the 1st day of the calendar quarter following submission to Irish Revenue. For example, if Stripe submits the application to Irish Revenue on February 15, the registration generally takes effect on April 1.

EU rules also allow a Non-Union OSS registration to take effect on the date of your first sale to an EU consumer. The Stripe registration service doesn’t support this option, so registrations that Stripe submits for you take effect on the 1st day of the following quarter.

To use a first-sale effective date, register through our filing partner Taxually, or directly with the tax authority in your chosen Member State of identification, such as through Irish Revenue’s VAT OSS portal. The application must state your first-sale date, and the Member State must receive it by the 10th day of the month after that sale. For example, if your first sale is March 1, Irish Revenue must receive the application by April 10 for the registration to take effect March 1.

Additional information requirements

If we require any additional information from you before submitting your application, we might extend this timeframe.

Your new tax registration is automatically added to your Stripe Dashboard after Stripe registers for you. If you’re set up to collect using Stripe Tax, Stripe begins automatically calculating tax in this jurisdiction according to your collection start date.

Pricing

Registrations are only available as part of a Tax Complete subscription. Check your plan in the Dashboard under Stripe plans. Learn more about Tax Complete pricing.

When to register for tax collection

If your business is based outside the EU, you must register and begin collecting VAT from your first sale of eligible digital goods or services to an EU customer. You can use Non-Union OSS to register and remit VAT on these sales. You might need a different registration if any of the following apply:

I sell services to businesses in the EU.

I am established in the EU.

I import low-value goods into the EU.

I make local sales from an EU country, or store inventory in the EU.

How to pick your registration date

If you’re eligible for Non-Union OSS, select your status in the EU below to learn more about your options for compliance.

You have sales starting today and want to register as soon as possible

You'll have sales sometime in the next upcoming quarter

You already have sales to customers in the EU

Registration considerations

Email address for OSS registration

As part of your application, you must provide an email address for your business. We recommend using an email that someone frequently checks and that isn’t tied to any single individual. For example, it’s better to use rather than in case of any staffing changes at your business. We’ll use this contact information if we need to contact you about your registration, and your EU enrollment will use it on a long-term basis.

The Dashboard shows an issue status for a registration in progress

If you see an “issue” status next to your registration in process, check the email address you provided as your contact information. One of our tax experts will have reached out to you explaining what additional information is needed to process your request.

No support for businesses established in the EU

We can only apply for registration on behalf of sellers with no fixed establishment in the EU.

Registrations in your Stripe Dashboard

Adding a registration to the Stripe Dashboard doesn’t automatically register you in that jurisdiction. If Stripe registers on your behalf, one of our tax experts adds this new tax registration to your Stripe Dashboard with the correct effective date, so you don’t need to take any further action to begin automatically calculating tax.

Filing assistance post-registration

See Tax Filing to learn more about our automated filing options.

Editing or canceling your registration application

If your registration application is incomplete (you haven’t submitted it yet), you can edit or cancel it in the Dashboard by clicking the overflow menu () next to your incomplete registration on the Needs attention tab or on the relevant jurisdiction page in the Dashboard.

If you already submitted your registration, you can request to edit or cancel your application by contacting support.