About the Union scheme

The Union scheme is for businesses established in and outside the EU. However, the rules are different for the businesses established outside the EU. You can also register for the scheme, if you own a platform business and facilitate sales of goods to private consumers in the EU. Read more about this scheme further down on this page.

Businesses in the EU

If your business is established in the EU, you can register for the Union scheme if you provide distance selling of goods to private consumers in the EU or sale of services to private consumers where the VAT is payable in an EU country (the country of consumption)and the business is not established there. If you have a Danish business, you can declare the VAT to the Danish tax authorities via E-tax for businesses (TastSelv Erhverv). Then we will make sure that the relevant countries receive the correct amounts. 

 Business outside the EU

If your business is established outside the EU, you can register for the scheme if you provide distance selling of goods to private consumers in the EU. However, your business must be registered with a place of dispatch in the EU from where your business provides its distance selling of goods to private consumers in other EU countries. Your business can then be registered for the Union scheme in the particular EU country from where the goods are dispatched.  

You can then still declare the VAT to the Danish tax authorities even if your business is established outside the EU as long as the goods are being sent from Denmark to private consumers in other EU countries.  

What is distance selling?

Distance selling is considered to be the sale of goods that are sold from a business and crossing a national border on the way to a private consumer where the seller is involved in the transport of the goods. This mostly applies to online sales.

From 1 July 2021, the Union scheme under the VAT One Stop Shop scheme will be extended to include distance selling of goods and the sale of all services  to private consumers subject to VAT payment in the country of consumption and where the business is not established in the country of consumption. Before, the rules only applied to electronically supplied services, telecommunication services and radio and tv broadcasting services. Businesses selling services where the country of consumption is Denmark, cannot include these sales in the Union scheme, as the business is established in the country of consumption.

Distance selling is considered to be the sale of goods that are sold from a business and crossing a national border within the EU on the way to a private consumer where the seller is involved in the transport of the goods. This mostly applies to online sales.

Read more about the new VAT rules on sales to private consumers from 1 July 2021.

Goods included in the scheme

The Union scheme includes distance selling of all goods regardless of value that are subject to VAT sold to private consumers in other EU countries.

However, the following goods are not included in the scheme:

• Second-hand goods such as means of transport, art work, collector’s items and antiques - if you apply the optional second-hand VAT scheme for these goods. 
• New means of transport, such as boats, airplanes and engine-driven vehicles
• Goods to be installed

Services included in the scheme

Examples of services (please note that the list is not exhaustive):

• Electronically supplied services
  Website supply, web-hosting, distance maintenance of software and hardware, supply and updating of software, supply of distance teaching and databases
  Supply of images, texts and information and music, films and games, such as gambling and other games for money
  Supply of political, cultural, artistic, sports or scientific or educational programmes or events
  Supply of distance teaching etc.
  Dating sites
• Telecommunication services
  Landline and mobile phone services, including internet telephony, internet access and paging services, voice mail and call management services
• Radio and television broadcasting services
  Radio and television programmes (broadcasting).
• Supply of services connected with real property
  Rental, construction, maintenance, renovation, repair and cleaning of real estate, services from experts and estate agents
• Services within arts, sports, science, teaching, entertainment and similar, including trade shows and exhibitions
  Such as art exhibitions, sport events, ballet, theatre, concerts, scientific lectures, educational conferences, seminars and courses.
• Evaluation of and work on movable property
  Experts supplying evaluation services of movable property for insurance and financing purposes
  Renovation work, servicing or fitting of goods in or on vehicles, ships or other movable property.
• Transport
  Transport of goods, between two EU countries, for example
  Transport activities, such as loading, unloading, handling, packaging, etc. directly related to the transport
  Passenger transport, such as transport of private individuals by car, bus or airplane in the EU
• Rental of means of transport (excluding short-term rentals)
  Such as cars, motorbikes, bikes, caravans, airplanes and boats

A platform business facilitates distance selling of goods imported from countries outside the EU to private consumers in the EU by means of an online interface functioning as a market place, a platform, a portal or something similar. 

The platform is considered to be the business selling the goods which is why you have to register the platform in the VAT One Stop Shop scheme and not the businesses selling their goods via the platform. 

The goods sold to private consumers may come directly from a non-EU country, and the platform may then be registered and pay VAT via the import scheme. This applies no matter where the businesses selling goods via the platform are established, as long as the goods come from a country outside the EU. The import scheme is only an option as long as the value of the goods does not exceed EUR 150.

If the goods come from a warehouse in the EU and are delivered to private consumers in the EU, either as distance selling or domestic sale, and the businesses selling the goods via the platform are not established in the EU, the platform can be registered and settle VAT via the Union scheme, and in this case the limit of EUR 150 does not apply.

The platform cannot use the Union scheme to sell own goods domestically. The scheme can only be used for domestic sales, if the platform is considered the business selling the goods. The platform’s sale of own goods domestically, such as goods from a warehouse in Denmark, which are sold to a private consumer in Denmark, should be declared and paid via the normal Danish VAT rules and not in the Union scheme.

Registering your platform business 

You can register your platform business for the Union scheme or the import scheme under the VAT One Stop Shop Scheme.

Read more about how you register your platform business in the VAT One Stop Shop scheme.

What is distance selling?

Distance selling is considered to be the sale of goods that are sold from a business and crossing a national border on the way to a private consumer where the seller is involved in the transport of the goods. This mostly applies to online sales.

Do you want to register your business for the Union scheme in the VAT One Stop Shop scheme? Then you can use the link below to register.

Read more about how you register and what you need to have at hand to do so.

The VAT One Stop Shop scheme consists of three schemes: The Union scheme, the non-Union scheme and the import scheme. Your business can be registered for one or more of the schemes, depending on, for example, where your business is established and what you sell. 

If you are selling goods to private consumers in other EU countries, and the goods are sent to consumers directly from a country outside the EU, you can register for and declare the VAT via the import scheme. This way the consumers will not be charged additional VAT when they receive the goods. However, the value of the goods may not exceed EUR 150. If your goods are subject to certain excise duties (such as alcohol and manufactured tobacco) you cannot include these goods in the import scheme.

Read more about the import scheme 

Read more about the non-Union scheme

Read about and get answers to the most frequently asked questions about the VAT One Stop Shop scheme

Read and find answers to the most commonly posed questions about the VAT One Stop Shop scheme.