3 worked examples: how the €10,000 threshold plays out

Before the examples: the one rule

An EU business established in a single member state can charge its home country's VAT rate on cross-border B2C sales of goods and TBE services, as long as the combined total of those sales stays at or below €10,000 in both the previous calendar year and the current year to date. The transaction that pushes the current year's running total over €10,000 — and every transaction after it — switches to the destination country's VAT rate instead.

Not sure the rule applies to your business at all? Start with the six-question decision guide first. If it does apply, these examples show exactly how the running total decides your VAT rate.

For readability, each example's transaction amounts are treated as the net sale price, with VAT calculated on top at the applicable rate — a simplification for illustration, not a filing calculation. See the disclaimer.

Example 1 — a seller who stays under the threshold all year

Aoife runs a small craft shop from Ireland (home standard VAT rate: 23%). She sold nothing cross-border last year, so her previous-year total is €0. This year she makes three cross-border B2C sales:

Her running total never exceeds €10,000 — it tops out at €6,500. Every sale stays at her home-country (Irish) rate, 23%. No OSS registration needed, no destination-country VAT to track.

Example 2 — a seller who crosses the threshold mid-year

Bram, also established in Ireland (23%), had no cross-border sales last year either. This year's sales run bigger:

Transaction #3 is the one that matters: €7,000 + €3,500 = €10,500, which is over €10,000. That specific sale — and transaction #4 after it — must be taxed at the destination country's rate, not Bram's home rate. Note it's transaction #3 itself that flips, not the next one: the sale that pushes the total past €10,000 is already destination-country. This is the exact behaviour the calculator computes for you automatically.

Example 3 — a seller who was already over the threshold last year

Carla, established in Ireland (23%), sold €12,000 cross-border last year — already over €10,000. That matters this year, even though this year's sales start small:

Because last year's total already exceeded €10,000, there's no home-country grace period this year — every cross-border sale is taxed at the destination country's rate from the very first transaction, even though this year's running total is nowhere near €10,000 on its own. The threshold is checked against both years, not just the current one.

Try your own numbers

These three patterns — comfortably under, crosses partway through, already over from last year — cover most real situations. Enter your own previous-year total and this year's transactions and the calculator will do the running total and the per-transaction VAT treatment for you, the same way as above:

Open the €10,000 threshold calculator →

Disclaimer

These are illustrative examples, not tax advice or a filing system. Amounts are treated as net sale prices with VAT calculated on top at the applicable standard rate, for clarity — real invoicing may present amounts differently. The examples assume a single-member-state establishment, ordinary goods (not excise goods, which get no threshold at all — destination-country VAT applies from the first sale), and euro-denominated sales (non-euro sellers should use their country's fixed national-currency figure, not a live conversion). Northern Ireland runs a separate UK/HMRC-administered threshold, not modelled here. VAT rates shown (Ireland 23%, France 20%, Germany 19%) are current standard rates as of the calculator's last rate check — verify against the EU Commission's OSS guidance or an accountant before filing or invoicing.