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Solo dev in the Netherlands selling a €7/month tool to EU customers, do I have to deal with VAT myself?

Solved · 1704 views · asked by lotte_j · edited

First paying product, I'm a sole trader (eenmanszaak) in NL. Customers are mostly consumers in Germany, Belgium and France. I read about OSS, reverse charge, Stripe Tax, Lemon Squeezy... my head hurts.

What's the simplest legal setup at small volume? I'd rather give up a few % than do quarterly paperwork for 12 countries.

What I’ve tried

Read the Belastingdienst pages about OSS, turned on Stripe Tax in test mode and got confused whether that means Stripe pays the VAT.

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Are your customers consumers or businesses? Changes the answer a lot. tobiasw · edited
95% consumers lotte_j · edited
Great thread, same questions here from Germany. wes_codes · edited

3 answers

Marked as helpful by the asker
tobiasw · edited

Not tax advice, but the practical picture:

Stripe Tax calculates and collects the right VAT at checkout. It does not file or pay it. You're still the seller, so you'd register for OSS and file a quarterly OSS return with the amounts per country. It's one return, not 12 registrations, but it's on you.

A Merchant of Record (Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, Polar, or Stripe's own Managed Payments) legally resells your product. They're the seller to the customer, they handle VAT everywhere, and you invoice them. Typical fees are around 5% + 50c per transaction vs ~1.5-3% + tax work with plain Stripe.

The €10,000 rule: if your total cross-border B2C sales to other EU countries stay under €10k per year, you may charge Dutch VAT on everything and skip OSS. Above that, destination VAT applies.

KOR: if your total turnover is under €20k you can opt into the Dutch small business scheme and not charge VAT at all. Check how that interacts with foreign sales with an accountant.

For "I'd rather pay a few % than do paperwork", a MoR is exactly built for you. At €7/month the fixed 50c hurts a bit, so consider pushing yearly plans.

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This is the first explanation that makes sense. Going with a MoR and yearly plan discount. lotte_j · edited
Good summary. Only nit: MoR fees vary with payment method and payouts, read the actual fee page before comparing. ximena_c · edited
nils_tw · edited

One more consideration: with a MoR the customer's card statement shows the MoR name (or a combination), which leads to a few more "what is this charge" disputes. Put your product name in the receipt email clearly.

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good tip, will put the product name in the email subject lotte_j · edited
anjali_p · edited

If you ever sell to businesses too: collect their VAT ID so you can apply reverse charge. A MoR does that for you, with plain Stripe Tax you need to enable tax ID collection in Checkout.

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