Preparing an OSS report from Shopify: deadlines, BZSt portal and process (2026)

In short: the OSS procedure (One-Stop Shop) is a special scheme with which you report certain cross-border B2C sales in the EU quarterly in one return to the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt), instead of registering in every destination country. You submit the return in the BZStOnline portal (BOP); you can use an existing ELSTER certificate to log in. The EU-wide EUR 10,000 threshold applies only under the statutory conditions; its application can also be waived. NorthProfit can structure order and refund data for an OSS report. The allocation must be reviewed, and NorthProfit does not file a return with the BZSt.

When do I need an OSS report at all?

• You sell to private customers (B2C) in other EU countries.
• Check with your tax advisor whether the statutory conditions of the EU-wide EUR 10,000 threshold are met and whether you have waived its application.
• The OSS procedure can bundle the return of certain sales with the BZSt. It does not automatically cover every tax case or every local registration.

Deadlines and payment

• You must file a return even without sales in the quarter (nil return).
• The payment must have reached the Federal Treasury by the end of the following month; direct debit is not possible.
• In the payment reference you give the assigned payment reference number and the tax period. The BZSt sends the payment reference number to the mailbox of the BZStOnline portal after the first return.
• You keep records of the OSS sales for ten years.

OSS report via ELSTER or the BZSt portal?

You submit the OSS return in the BZStOnline portal (BOP), not via the VAT advance return in Mein ELSTER. To log in to the BOP you need a certificate; according to the BZSt you can use an existing ELSTER certificate for that. In the BOP you find the tax return form, optionally with an import function, as well as forms for changes to registration data and deregistration.

Step by step to an OSS report

1. Check the data source: existing Shopify installations keep working. Publication in the Shopify App Store is pending; new Shopify merchants cannot currently install through the App Store. The integrations page shows available shops and their prerequisites.
2. Check completeness: reconcile orders, refunds, delivery countries, B2B/B2C classification and exceptions for the period.
3. Check the tax logic: validate destination country, tax rate and OSS relevance with your tax advisor.
4. Create the OSS report per quarter: provide sales and tax amounts per EU country taken into account as a working basis. If receipts or clear tax decisions are missing, the report shows this as an open item.
5. Submit separately: submit the reviewed return on time in the BZStOnline portal and transfer the payment with the payment reference number; NorthProfit does not take over this step.

Common mistakes in the OSS report

• Misreading the EUR 10,000 threshold as a per-country limit: it applies EU-wide in total, not per country.
• Mixing B2B and B2C sales (intra-community supplies to businesses do not belong in the OSS report).
• Not stating corrections of earlier quarters, for example through refunds, in the correction section of a later return, broken down by quarter and member state.
• Forgetting the nil return when no OSS sales occurred in the quarter.
• Throwing domestic, EU OSS and third country into one pot instead of separating them cleanly.

A structured separation of domestic, EU OSS and third country as well as taking refunds into account reduces manual preparation. It replaces neither the professional review nor the filing.