Irene Vidal is a photography teacher in Alicante. In 2024 she began selling recorded courses through her own website: the student pays, receives access and watches the lessons whenever they like, without Irene being involved. Almost all her buyers were Spanish, but in 2025 her Instagram account took off in France and Italy. That year she sold 7,800 € to private individuals in other EU countries. In 2026, by 30 June, she had already reached 9,600 €, and in July she launched a new course. Someone warned her that "once you go over 10,000 € you have to charge French VAT", and she does not know whether that means registering in France.
First: is it an electronic service?
The special rules we are going to discuss apply to services supplied electronically, to telecommunications services and to radio and television broadcasting services (art. 70.One.4 and 8 of the Spanish VAT Law). A recorded course delivered automatically, with minimal human involvement, is the typical example of an electronic service. A live class by video call, in which the teacher teaches in real time, is not: the tool is digital, but the service is teaching.
The distinction matters because it changes the place-of-supply rule. If your product mixes recorded videos with live tutorials, it is worth pricing them separately or, at least, being clear about which is the main supply. Everything that follows refers to the part that genuinely is an electronic service.
The 10,000 € threshold
Article 73 of the VAT Law sets a limit of 10,000 € for the total amount, excluding tax, of these supplies to private individuals in other member states (together with intra-Community distance sales of goods, if you have any), adding up all the countries of the Union, in the previous calendar year.
- Below the threshold, article 70.One.8 keeps the taxation in Spain: you charge Spanish VAT to your French or Italian client, as if they were in Valencia, and declare it in your 303, the quarterly VAT return.
- Above it, the service is located in the client's member state, and the VAT that applies is that country's, at its rate.
The second paragraph of article 73.One adds the rule that worries Irene: when the transactions of the current year exceed the limit, taxation at destination already applies. There is no need to wait for the following year.
The same article allows you to opt for taxation at destination even if you do not reach the threshold, and that option covers at least two calendar years.
You do not need to register in each country
So that a self-employed person in Alicante is not forced to register with twenty-six tax authorities, there is the One-Stop Shop (OSS). In Spain, Irene joins the special scheme for businesses established in the Community (the so-called Union scheme, articles 163 unvicies and following of the VAT Law). The notice of commencement is filed on Modelo 035 and the quarterly returns on Modelo 369.
Article 163 duovicies sets the calendar: one return for each calendar quarter, even if there have been no transactions, filed during the month following the period. It sets out, by country of consumption and by rate, the VAT due to each state, and the total is paid in Spain. The Agencia Tributaria, the Spanish tax agency, then distributes it.
If any amount has been set in a currency other than the euro, it is converted at the European Central Bank rate for the last day of the period, not at the rate for each sale.
Irene's figures, step by step
Suppose her new course costs 100 € plus VAT.
- Sales to private individuals in other member states in 2025: 7,800 €. She did not exceed the threshold, so 2026 began with Spanish VAT on those sales.
- From January to June 2026 she sells 96 courses to French and Italian clients: 9,600 € of base. She charged each of them 100 € + 21 % Spanish VAT = 121 €, and paid 9,600 × 21 % = 2,016 € over in her 303 returns for the first and second quarters.
- In July she sells 5 more courses to clients in other member states. With the fourth, the year's total reaches 10,000 €; with the fifth, it goes over: 10,100 €.
- From the moment the limit is exceeded, sales to private individuals in other countries stop being taxed in Spain and are taxed in each client's country, at that country's rate.
- Irene has to file Modelo 035 to join the One-Stop Shop and, in October, the 369 for the third quarter with each country's VAT.
- The sales in the first half of the year, correctly settled with Spanish VAT, are not changed.
- Since 2026 exceeds the threshold, in 2027 sales to other countries are taxed at destination from the first euro.
| Period | EU sales to date | VAT that applies | Where it is declared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full year 2025 | 7,800 € | Spanish | Modelo 303 |
| January-June 2026 | 9,600 € | Spanish | Modelo 303 |
| From when the threshold is exceeded in July 2026 | More than 10,000 € | That of each client's country | Modelo 369 |
| 2027 | Threshold exceeded the previous year | That of each client's country | Modelo 369 |
The rates in each country are not invented or assumed: they are looked up on the One-Stop Shop portal itself or in the European Commission's database of rates. We do not give opinions on each state's VAT rules; if there are doubts about which reduced rate applies to a course there, an adviser in that country confirms it.
If you sell at 121 € "VAT included" to everyone and the client's country has a higher rate than Spain, the difference comes out of your pocket, because the VAT is worked out backwards from the price charged. Check your payment platforms: many can calculate the tax according to the buyer's country. If you do not, each sale taxed at destination may leave you with less than you expected.
How you know where the client is
Taxation at destination means knowing where each buyer is. The usual evidence is the billing address, the country where the card was issued, the IP address or the telephone dialling code. The sales platform should keep them and they should be consistent; if two pieces of evidence point to different countries, you have to decide which prevails and document it.
What does not change
The One-Stop Shop deals with the VAT on sales to private individuals in other countries. IRPF (Spanish personal income tax) stays the same: all income, wherever the VAT is declared, goes into your business in Spain. Sales to private individuals in Spain remain in the 303 with Spanish VAT. And sales to businesses in other EU countries do not go through the OSS, but through the reverse charge and Modelo 349, with registration in the ROI.
The guide to the OSS One-Stop Shop explains registration in more detail. If you use payment platforms that charge a fee on each sale, how those fees are declared is in being paid through Stripe, Wise or PayPal. To check whether your sales have already exceeded the threshold and since when, you can send us the sales report by country through the form for self-employed people with international clients.
The VAT rules for people who sell to clients in different countries, with businesses and private individuals mixed together, are brought together on the Salama Tax page for self-employed people with international clients.