The cross-border small business scheme (EU KOR)

The conditions

• Your business is established in an EU country. A business with its head office outside the EU cannot use the scheme, not even with a permanent establishment in the EU
• Your turnover in the whole EU is at most € 100,000 per calendar year, in the current and the previous year. Turnover in your own country and in countries where you do not use the scheme counts too
• Your turnover in each country where you want the exemption stays under that country's own threshold. Each country sets its own, at most € 85,000. Some use a threshold per sector or look back an extra year
• In the Netherlands that threshold is € 20,000 per calendar year, in the current and the previous year

How you apply: always in your own country

You notify the tax authority of the country where you are established. You list the countries where you want the exemption and your turnover per country for this year and last year. That authority gives you an individual number with the suffix EX, in principle within 35 working days. The exemption applies from the date that number is issued to you. The EX number is used only for this scheme.

• Established in the Netherlands: you notify the Dutch tax authorities through Mijn Belastingdienst Zakelijk. The Dutch scheme for your turnover in the Netherlands is a separate notification
• Established in another EU country and you want the Dutch exemption: you apply through the tax authority of your own country, not with the Dutch tax authorities. The Dutch tax authorities can refuse. Only a refusal because your Dutch turnover is above € 20,000 is open to objection

What it means

• No VAT on your sales in that country, and no VAT on your invoices
• No VAT registration and no VAT returns in that country for these sales
• No deduction of VAT in that country, also not on costs for these sales
• Still due: VAT on imports, on taxable intra-EU acquisitions and on services you buy that are reverse-charged to you. For these you may have to file an incidental return
• The exemption does not cover new means of transport sent to another EU country, or real estate you used in your business
• Joining the Dutch scheme can mean that VAT you deducted earlier on capital goods, such as a van or a building, is partly repaid under the revision rules. In the Netherlands this is not done for amounts under € 500 per year

Every quarter: the turnover report

Each quarter you report your turnover in every EU country to the tax authority of your own country: also for countries where you do not use the scheme, and also when there was no turnover. The deadline is one month after the end of the quarter. Without these reports your participation can be stopped.

Your turnover in the whole EU goes above € 100,000? Then the exemption ends from the sale that takes you over it, and you notify your own tax authority within 15 working days.

Combining it with other schemes

• The scheme cannot be combined with the Import One Stop Shop (IOSS). End that first
• Established in the Netherlands: the Dutch scheme for your Dutch turnover cannot be combined with the OSS. The cross-border scheme in other countries can: for the countries where you do not use the exemption, you keep reporting through the OSS

Stopping, and when you can rejoin

• You stop the cross-border scheme for a country through your own tax authority. The end takes effect on the first day of the next quarter, or on the first day of the second month of the next quarter if your notice arrives in the last month of a quarter
• Stopped the Dutch exemption yourself? Then you cannot use it again in the rest of that year and the following year. The same applies after you exceed the Dutch or the EU threshold
• Other countries exclude you for at least the calendar year after you exceeded their threshold, and some for two years

Example

A ceramicist established in Belgium sells at markets in the Netherlands. In 2026 her Dutch customers pay her € 12,100. Her turnover in the whole EU, Belgium included, is € 70,000 in 2025 and in 2026, and her Dutch turnover stays under € 20,000 in both years.

• Without the scheme: she registers for Dutch VAT and owes 21/121 of € 12,100, which is € 2,100, minus € 105 Dutch VAT on fuel bought here: € 1,995 to pay, through four quarterly returns
• With the cross-border scheme for the Netherlands: no Dutch VAT on her sales and no Dutch returns. The € 105 on fuel is not deductible
• She applies through the Belgian tax authority and reports her EU turnover there every quarter
• Difference for 2026: € 1,995 in her favour, before fees

This is a worked example, not a client case. Whether the scheme pays off depends on your costs: with high Dutch costs, deducting the VAT can be worth more.

What we do

We check the conditions for every country where you want the exemption: the EU-wide limit, the national thresholds, which turnover counts and what stays taxable. For a business established in the Netherlands we prepare the notification and every quarterly report for Mijn Belastingdienst Zakelijk, and file them for you where your authorisation allows it. For a business from another EU country that wants the Dutch exemption, we prepare the notification for your own country's tax portal, and file it for you where that portal allows a representative. Notification: € 95 one-off, excl. VAT, for all countries in one notification. Quarterly turnover report: € 25 per quarter, excl. VAT.