Carolina sells pre-recorded online courses (the student buys and watches whenever they like, with no live class). At first it was only Portuguese students, but word spread and now she has sign-ups from Spain, France and Germany - all private individuals, people buying for themselves. She kept issuing everything with Portuguese IVA, as she always had.
Then a colleague throws her a line that makes her blood run cold: “above a certain amount, you have to charge the VAT of each country your clients are in.” Carolina pictures the nightmare - registering with the tax authorities of Spain, France, Germany? Thankfully, no. There’s a shortcut built for exactly this: the OSS.
What the OSS (One-Stop Shop) is
The OSS (One-Stop Shop, or balcão único) is a regime that lets you declare and pay, in one single place, the VAT on every sale you make to final consumers in the other EU countries.
Instead of registering for VAT in each country where you have clients, you make one single registration in Portugal, on the Portal das Finanças. Then you file one quarterly return detailing your sales country by country, and make one single payment to the AT (the Portuguese tax authority) - which takes care of distributing the money to the various states.
The legal basis sits in the EU VAT Directive (the “Union scheme”). The idea is simple: take off your plate the cost of dealing with 26 different tax administrations.
Who it’s for: sales to private individuals in the EU
The OSS is for B2C sales - to final consumers (private individuals) in other EU countries. That’s the difference that separates this regime from its sibling:
The most common OSS operations for a freelancer are electronically supplied services (so-called TBE services - telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services): pre-recorded online courses, software, streaming, website hosting, templates, ebooks. Only what’s automated counts as an electronic service; a live class over video is not an electronic service - it follows other place-of-supply rules and the OSS may not apply. Intra-EU distance sales of goods also count (you sell a physical product and ship it to a private individual in another EU country).
If your EU clients are businesses, this isn’t where you need to be - it’s the recapitulative statement, which handles B2B operations.
The €10,000 threshold - the number that sets everything in motion
Here’s the central piece. There’s a single EU-wide threshold of €10,000 a year, and it’s what decides whose VAT it is.
- Below €10,000: you keep charging Portuguese IVA on these sales, as if they were domestic. Nothing changes for you.
- Above €10,000: from the sale that takes you over the limit, the VAT becomes the client’s country’s. You have to charge the rate in force in that country - and this is where the OSS comes in.
Two details that catch a lot of people out:
- The threshold adds up all your distance sales of goods + TBE services to all the other EU countries together - it’s not €10,000 per country. It’s a low ceiling and easy to reach.
- Sales to clients in Portugal don’t count towards this limit.
Warning: the €10,000 is a very low and cumulative annual limit (all countries added together), not per country. The moment you cross it, the change is immediate - the very sale that crosses the line already carries the client’s country’s rate, not the Portuguese one. And note: this assumes you already charge IVA (normal regime). If you’re exempt under art. 53.º, how these sales count has its own rules - confirm before you assume you’re covered.
Example: Carolina crosses the limit
Carolina passed €10,000 of sales to the EU in June. In the third quarter (July to September) she sells courses to private individuals in two countries:
She applies each country’s rate on the invoice (20% to the French clients, 19% to the German ones). Then, by 31 October, she goes into the Portal das Finanças, fills in the quarter’s OSS return with one line for France and another for Germany, and makes a single payment of €490 to the AT. With that, she’s met the VAT of both countries in one go - without registering in either.
How it works in practice
The whole process is electronic, on the Portal das Finanças:
- Registration: Portal das Finanças → “Serviços” → VAT → Balcão Único (OSS) → “Adesão ao Regime da União”. You confirm your details and give an IBAN. As a rule, you register by the end of one quarter to start in the next (or from the date of your first sale, if you notify by the 10th of the following month).
- Quarterly return: one per quarter, with sales broken down by country and by rate.
- Single payment: the Portal generates a reference for the total, and you pay in euros to the AT, which distributes it to each country.
The OSS return deadlines are the end of the month following the quarter - note they’re different from the recapitulative statement’s:
- You charge Portuguese IVA on EU sales
- You declare it all on your normal VAT return
- You don't need the OSS
- You charge each client's country's VAT rate
- Quarterly OSS return: Q1 by 30 Apr, Q2 by 31 Jul, Q3 by 31 Oct, Q4 by 31 Jan
- One payment to the AT, even with no sales (a nil return is mandatory)
And those who stay below the limit: Miguel’s case
Miguel sells design templates to private individuals and, all told, makes a few hundred euros a year in sales abroad. He’s well below €10,000. For him, nothing changes: he charges Portuguese IVA on EU sales and declares them on his normal VAT return, as if they were Portuguese clients.
Even so, Miguel can opt to be taxed in the client’s country even below the limit (it sometimes pays, if he sells mostly to countries with lower VAT than ours). But that option ties him in for two years and forces him to use the OSS. For most people well under the ceiling, the complication isn’t worth it.
✅ In summary
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The OSS (One-Stop Shop) is for sales to private individuals in the EU. It lets you declare and pay the VAT of all countries with a single registration, one quarterly return and one payment in Portugal - without registering country by country. If you sell to businesses, your case is the recapitulative statement.
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The trigger is the €10,000-a-year threshold (all distance sales of goods + digital services to the EU, added together). Below it, you charge Portuguese IVA; above it, you charge the client’s country’s rate and use the OSS - with a quarterly return that’s mandatory even at zero.
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With FIZ you keep your Portuguese IVA in order and see clearly what you invoice to EU clients, so you know when you’re getting close to €10,000 and the OSS comes into play. See the plans and don’t let the limit catch you by surprise.
