The two schemes get confused because the names differ by one letter and both involve a single VAT return. The jobs are different. IOSS, the Import One-Stop Shop, is for sellers based outside the EU shipping low-value consumer parcels into the EU. It lets you collect import VAT at checkout instead of making the customer pay it at the border. OSS, the One-Stop Shop, is for sellers based inside the EU making cross-border B2C sales between member states. It lets you charge the destination country's VAT and file one quarterly return with your own tax authority.
The test is where you are established, not where the customer lives. A US store shipping to France uses IOSS. A German store shipping to France uses OSS. A US store with a warehouse in the Netherlands shipping to France uses neither for that parcel, because the goods are already inside the EU, and the sale is a domestic one with local VAT rules. Get the establishment question wrong and the registration that follows is wrong too.
IOSS covers consignments with an intrinsic value of 150 euros or less, counted per consignment, not per order. Above that, the parcel leaves the IOSS route and needs DDP or standard clearance, with duty and VAT handled at the border. The 150 euro figure is the value of the goods themselves, not shipping and insurance.
OSS works on a different number. Under 10,000 euros a year of cross-border B2C sales, an EU seller can keep charging its home-country VAT rate. Above that line, the seller charges the customer's local VAT rate, and OSS is the mechanism for reporting it in one return instead of registering in every country. Both schemes are B2C only. When the buyer is an EU business with a valid VAT number, the sale is reverse-charged at 0 percent VAT, and neither scheme applies. IOSS at checkout is where most US brands first meet this, and the usual mistake is treating the 150 euro line as a duty exemption. It is not.
Neither IOSS nor OSS covers customs duty. That is the expensive misunderstanding in 2026. Since July 1, 2026, low-value EU parcels also carry a 3 euro customs duty per declaration line, and from November 1, 2026, that became 3 euros plus a 2 euro Union Handling Fee, 5 euros per line under Regulation (EU) 2026/382. IOSS-registered or not, the charge applies. Under 150 euros is not duty-free. It is a simplified clearance regime with a fee attached.
The second gap is the intermediary. A non-EU business usually cannot register for IOSS directly. EU rules require appointing an authorized intermediary established in the EU, unless the seller's country has a mutual assistance agreement with the EU. That intermediary shares liability for the VAT reporting, which is why the good ones charge real money and the cheap ones ask few questions. The end of the US de minimis rule changed the same calculus on the American side, and the lesson is the same on both: the low-value shortcut is gone, and the paperwork that replaces it has a price. Pick the scheme by asking where you are established and what the parcel is worth, then price the intermediary and the per-line fee into the product before you quote a European customer a delivered price.
IOSS is for non-EU sellers shipping low-value parcels of 150 euros or less into the EU, and it collects import VAT at checkout. OSS is for EU-based sellers making cross-border B2C sales between member states, and it lets them report destination-country VAT in one quarterly return.
No. Above 150 euros per consignment, the parcel leaves the IOSS route and needs DDP or standard clearance, with import VAT and duties handled at the border. The 150 euro limit counts the intrinsic value of the goods, not shipping or insurance.
No. IOSS handles VAT only. Since November 1, 2026, low-value EU parcels also carry a 3 euro duty plus a 2 euro Union Handling Fee per declaration line, IOSS-registered or not.
Usually, yes. A business based outside the EU generally cannot register for IOSS directly and must appoint an authorized intermediary established in the EU, unless its country has a mutual assistance agreement with the EU.