E-commerce VAT in Finland: OSS and the 10 000 euro EU limit

Karma Accounts · Published 13 October 2026

A Finnish webshop selling goods to consumers in other EU countries charges Finnish VAT only while those sales, together with certain digital services, stay at 10 000 euros or less without VAT across the whole EU, both this year and last. Above that, the VAT of the country the goods are delivered to applies. You can register for VAT in each of those countries, or use the One Stop Shop (OSS) to report and pay it all in Finland every quarter. Sales to VAT-registered businesses in other EU countries follow a different rule, covered below.

Two kinds of EU sale

A distance sale (etämyynti) is goods you, or someone on your behalf, ship from Finland to a private person in another EU country. An intra-Community supply (yhteisömyynti) is goods shipped from Finland to a VAT-registered business in another EU country.

Question	Consumer in another EU country	Business in another EU country
Whose VAT	Finland's up to the limit, then the country of delivery	none on your invoice (0 %)
What you need	track the 10 000 euro limit	the buyer's valid VAT number
Where you report it	Finnish VAT return or OSS return	VAT return and EU sales list

For a sale to a business, check the VAT number in the EU's VIES service before you invoice without VAT; the number, the transport from Finland and a filed recapitulative statement (yhteenvetoilmoitus) are all conditions of the exemption (AVL 72 a and 72 b §). Put both parties' VAT numbers on the invoice with a note such as "VAT 0 %, intra-Community supply". The recapitulative statement, also called the EU sales list, is due by the 20th of the following month in MyTax (OmaVero), and filing late can cost a negligence penalty of 100 to 200 euros.

The 10 000 euro limit

The limit is in section 69 m of the VAT Act (AVL), an exception to the destination rule in section 63 a. Finnish VAT applies to your distance sales only when all of these hold:

your business is established in only one EU country, Finland
the goods are shipped from Finland to another EU country
your distance sales of goods plus your radio, television, telecommunications and electronic services to consumers in other EU countries total, without VAT, 10 000 euros or less this calendar year, and did not exceed it last year either.

The limit is EU-wide, not per country. Sales of goods within Finland do not count towards it.

The moment the limit is exceeded during the year, the place of supply of your distance sales becomes the country the goods are delivered to, and it stays that way for the whole of the following calendar year.

Below the limit you can still choose destination-country VAT. The choice binds you for at least two calendar years, covers the digital services as well as the goods, and registering for the OSS counts as making it.

An amendment to the VAT Act (Act 597/2026) requires, from 1 January 2027, that the goods are shipped from the country where the seller is established; the 10 000 euro amount is unchanged.

How the OSS works

A Finnish webshop uses the OSS union scheme (unionin järjestelmä), which covers distance sales of goods within the EU and services sold to consumers in EU countries where you are not established. The import scheme (tuontijärjestelmä, IOSS) is for goods shipped from outside the EU in consignments with an intrinsic value of at most 150 euros, excluding excise goods. The non-union scheme is for services sold by businesses established outside the EU.

Registration. You register in MyTax under the EU's VAT schemes. Registration takes effect from the first day of the next calendar quarter. If you have already made a sale within the scheme that is taxable in another EU country, you can apply the scheme from that sale, provided you register by the 10th day of the following month.
All or nothing. Once registered, every sale that falls within the scheme goes through it.
Rates. You charge the VAT rate of the country of delivery, not 25.5 %.
Return and payment. The return is quarterly, in euros, and both the return and the payment must reach the Tax Administration by 30 April, 31 July, 31 October and 31 January (AVL 133 o and 133 p §). A quarter with no sales still needs a nil return.
Purchases. You cannot deduct VAT on the OSS return. VAT on your Finnish purchases is deducted on your ordinary Finnish VAT return; VAT paid in other EU countries cannot be offset in the OSS and is claimed through a separate procedure, such as a refund application.
Corrections. A mistake is corrected on a later OSS return, within three years of the original due date.
Records. Keep the details of OSS sales for ten years from the end of the year of the sale.
Invoices. Distance sales reported through the OSS do not need an invoice (AVL 209 b §). Other distance sales to consumers do, under the invoicing rules of the country where the sale takes place.

In your Finnish VAT return

Sales you report through the OSS also appear in your ordinary Finnish VAT return, in the field for zero-rated turnover (0-verokannan alainen liikevaihto). Distance sales still taxed in Finland, below the limit, go with your domestic sales at Finnish rates. Intra-Community supplies have their own field, sales of goods to other EU countries.

A worked example

A Finnish Oy sells clothing online. Its EU distance sales were 6 000 euros in 2025. All figures are without VAT. In 2026 sales to consumers in Germany and Sweden reach 9 000 euros by the end of July, all with Finnish VAT at 25.5 %. In August a German order takes the total over 10 000 euros. From that moment German and Swedish VAT apply, and they will apply throughout 2027 too.

The company registers for the union scheme in MyTax by 10 September, so it can use it from that first sale. Its German and Swedish sales from that point to the end of September go on its first OSS return, for July–September, due by 31 October 2026. In the October–December quarter its net sales are:

Country	Net sales	VAT at the standard rate
Germany, 19 %	4 000 euros	760 euros
Sweden, 25 %	3 000 euros	750 euros

It files the OSS return and pays 1 510 euros to the Finnish Tax Administration by 31 January 2027. The same 7 000 euros goes into the zero-rated turnover field of its Finnish VAT returns for those months. These are the EU's listed standard rates; some products carry a reduced rate, so check each product's rate in each country.

Sales outside the EU

Goods you transport to a customer outside the EU are exports: no Finnish VAT (AVL 70 §), with evidence of the export kept in your books and the sale reported as zero-rated turnover. For services see selling services abroad; for Google and Meta invoices, the reverse charge; and if you are not yet registered, the 20 000 euro VAT limit.

What we do

We keep the books for webshops and file the Finnish VAT return and the EU sales list. We can also handle the OSS registration and the quarterly OSS returns, agreed in writing as part of the scope. A limited company costs 199 euros a month up to 240 000 euros of turnover and 249 euros above; a sole trader from 69 euros a month; all plus VAT 25.5 %, with software and the year-end included and no limit on receipts. Still deciding on the company form? See company formation. We are based in Helsinki and work online across Finland. Book an introduction.

Sources

Please note: this is general information about Finnish rules, not advice for your own situation, and the rules change. Ask us before you act on it.

VAT returns off your desk?

We keep the books, file the VAT return by its due date and tell you the amount before it is due. A sole trader pays from 69 € a month and a limited company from 199 €, plus VAT.

Request a free introduction

Please don’t send bank credentials, personal identity codes or other sensitive data by email.

All articles