The one-sentence answer
The €10,000 threshold only covers goods and "TBE" services (telecommunications, broadcasting, and electronically supplied services) — and TBE has a precise legal test (essentially automated, minimal human intervention); a course or coaching product that passes that test counts toward your €10,000, one that fails it (because a real person delivers it live) doesn't get a threshold at all, and owes destination-country VAT from your very first sale.
This is a self-check aid, not tax advice. See the disclaimer at the bottom before you act on anything here.
The automation test, not the "is it digital" test
Every other page on this site treats "digital/telecoms/broadcasting (TBE) services" as one bucket, alongside goods, that the €10,000 threshold applies to. That's correct as far as it goes — but "digital" is not the actual legal test. The EU defines TBE services in Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, Article 7, as services that are "essentially automated, involving minimal human intervention, and impossible to ensure in the absence of information technology." Its examples list includes "automated distance teaching dependent on the internet... including virtual classrooms" and "workbooks completed by pupils online and marked automatically, without human intervention" as TBE services — but explicitly carves out "educational... services where the content of the course is delivered by a teacher over the internet or an electronic network" as not a TBE service, because a person, not a machine, is doing the delivering.
The practical read for a course creator or coach: a video course with automated delivery, downloadable materials, and auto-graded quizzes is TBE. The moment a live human is doing something essential to each individual sale — teaching a live session, marking work by hand, running a coaching call — the human-intervention test fails and the service falls outside TBE, no matter how "digital" the delivery channel feels to the customer.
| What you sell | TBE service? | Counts toward €10,000? |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-recorded video course + downloadable PDFs + auto-graded quiz | Yes | Yes — home-country VAT until you cross |
| SaaS subscription, e-book, stock photo/template download | Yes | Yes — home-country VAT until you cross |
| Live cohort course taught by an instructor in real time | No | No threshold — destination VAT from sale one |
| 1:1 coaching calls, live webinars, human-marked assignments | No | No threshold — destination VAT from sale one |
Only the top two rows are what this site's calculator, guide, and worked examples model. The bottom two are a different rule entirely — not a stricter version of the same threshold, but no threshold at all.
Live-delivered courses and webinars: a 2025 rule made this explicit
This isn't just a theoretical carve-out. Since 1 January 2025, under EU Directive (EU) 2022/542, the place of supply for admission to live virtual events — online conferences, live webinars, and courses or coaching sold as a live "event" — is explicitly fixed as where the consumer is established for B2C sales. Live virtual events were already excluded from TBE (they need real-time human involvement), and this rule confirms their place-of-supply treatment separately: destination-country VAT, no €10,000 buffer, from the very first sale into any given member state. B2B sales of the same services are unaffected — the general B2B reverse-charge rule still applies there.
This is a genuinely different situation from crossing the €10,000 threshold. Crossing €10,000 shifts you from home-country to destination-country VAT for goods and TBE services you were already tracking. A live-delivered course or coaching business never had a threshold to track in the first place — the calculator on this site doesn't apply to that revenue stream at all.
You can still file it through OSS — just without the threshold
The one piece of good news: since the Union OSS scheme's scope was broadened on 1 July 2021, it isn't limited to TBE services and goods. EU-established sellers can also declare other B2C services taxable outside their home country — including admission to events, and by extension live-delivered courses and coaching — through the same Union OSS return, avoiding a separate VAT registration in every member state a customer happens to be in. OSS is the filing mechanism here; it doesn't restore a €10,000 exemption for this category. Non-EU-established sellers use the equivalent Non-Union OSS scheme for the digital/TBE side of their sales — see whether the threshold applies if you're not EU-established for that separate question.
Mixed-format sellers: split the revenue, not just the price
Course creators and coaches very often sell a bundle — a self-paced module plus a handful of live group calls, or a course with an optional 1:1 coaching upsell. Tax advisers generally treat this as two separate supplies for VAT purposes even when it's billed as one price: the automated portion is TBE (counts toward €10,000), the live portion isn't (no threshold, destination VAT from sale one). Splitting your bookkeeping by format — not just by product name — is what lets you apply the right rule to each euro of revenue, and it's also what determines how much of your turnover you should actually be adding up against the €10,000 figure in this calculator.
What to do right now
- Selling a fully pre-recorded, self-paced course or digital product? It's TBE — track it in the threshold calculator alongside your other goods/TBE sales.
- Selling live coaching, webinars, or a live-taught course? That revenue doesn't get a €10,000 buffer — you likely owe destination-country VAT from your first B2C sale into each member state, filed via Union OSS if you're EU-established.
- Selling a mix of both under one product name? Separate the automated and live-delivered components in your books before you decide what counts toward €10,000 — bundling the price doesn't merge the VAT treatment.
- Not sure the threshold applies to you at all yet? Start with the six-question decision guide, which covers the basic B2C/B2B and goods/TBE split before you get to this page's finer automation test.
Sources
- The "essentially automated, minimal human intervention" legal test for electronically supplied services, and its explicit carve-out for teacher-delivered educational services — Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011, Article 7 and Annex II, via EUR-Lex.
- The distinction between automated distance teaching (TBE) and human-delivered education/coaching (not TBE) in practice — Crowe UK, "Digital training and events – Getting the VAT right"; Apex Accountants, "What Businesses Must Know About VAT Treatment for LMS Providers".
- The 1 January 2025 place-of-supply rule for live virtual events (Directive (EU) 2022/542) — Deloitte Belgium, "Change in place of supply rules for live virtual events"; Marosa VAT, "Place of Supply Rules for Live Online Events in 2025".
- Article 59c's threshold scope being limited to goods and TBE services only, with no equivalent for other B2C services — Lexparency, Art. 59c VAT directive.
- The Union OSS scheme's July 2021 broadening to cover general B2C services (including event admission) alongside TBE and goods — European Commission, Directorate-General Taxation and Customs Union, "The One Stop Shop"; Thomson Reuters Europe, "What are OSS and IOSS, and who are these schemes for?".
Disclaimer
This page and the calculator are a self-check aid, not tax advice. Whether a specific course, coaching package, or webinar qualifies as a TBE service is a fact-specific question that depends on exactly how it's delivered and marked — the general test above can't substitute for a review of your own product by an accountant. Verify your own situation against the EU's own regulation text or a VAT adviser before relying on anything here.