Running VAT for your webshop in the Netherlands turns out to involve more decisions than most founders expect before they start: not just which rate to charge, but when registration becomes mandatory, how shipping is taxed, and what changes the moment you sell to a customer outside the country. None of it is complicated on its own, but getting one piece wrong, like applying one flat rate to a mixed order, is an easy mistake to make without someone checking.
Which VAT rate applies to your webshop?
The rate depends on what you sell, not on the fact that you sell it online. Most webshops fall into one of these situations:
| What are you selling? | VAT rate |
|---|---|
| Clothing, electronics, furniture, cosmetics (standard goods) | 21% |
| Books, magazines, certain food products | 9% |
| Sale to a business customer (B2B) elsewhere in the EU | 0%, VAT reverse-charged to the buyer |
| Digital products (e-books, software, online courses) to EU consumers | The VAT rate of the customer's own country |
If an order mixes products from different categories, each line gets taxed at its own rate. Averaging the whole order into one blended rate isn't allowed.
When do you have to start filing VAT for your webshop?
The moment you start a webshop and generate revenue, you're VAT-liable by default. The one exception is the small business scheme (KOR): if your annual revenue stays under €20,000, you can opt into VAT exemption. You then charge no VAT to customers, but you also can't reclaim VAT on your own purchases, which for a webshop carrying stock and running ad spend is often less favorable than simply staying VAT-liable.
If you don't opt into the KOR, or you grow past it, you file a VAT return every quarter by default. In practice that means tracking VAT from your very first sale, even while you're still testing the concept or only shipping a handful of orders a week.
VAT on shipping and packaging
Shipping fees charged to the customer follow the same VAT rate as the product itself. Ship a book (9%) with a €4.95 shipping charge, and that shipping charge is taxed at 9% too, not the standard 21%. For a mixed order, say a sweater and a book in the same parcel, you split the shipping cost proportionally between the two rates, or apply a reasonable, consistent split if an exact division isn't practical.
Packaging that you charge separately, like a paid gift-wrap option, is its own supply and gets its own rate, usually 21%.
Selling to customers elsewhere in the EU too?
Once you start selling to consumers in other EU countries, an extra layer kicks in: the combined €10,000 threshold for all your cross-border EU sales. Stay under it, and you simply charge Dutch VAT. Go over it, and you're generally required to charge the VAT rate of each customer's own country, which you can handle through the OSS scheme (One Stop Shop) in a single return filed with the Dutch tax authority, rather than registering separately in every country. Our guide on the OSS scheme and the Belastingdienst covers how that works in more detail.
A worked example: a month of VAT for a mixed-assortment webshop
Say your webshop sells €4,000 worth of clothing (21%) and €800 worth of books (9%) in a month, both shown to customers excluding VAT:
- VAT on clothing: €4,000 × 21% = €840
- VAT on books: €800 × 9% = €72
- Total VAT collected from customers: €912
That same month you buy €1,500 in new stock (21% VAT, so €315 in input VAT) and spend €200 on ads (21% VAT, €42 in input VAT).
- Total input VAT: €357
- VAT to remit: €912 − €357 = €555
That's the amount you pay with your next VAT return. Keeping a clear breakdown by sales channel and rate group turns this into simple addition at quarter-end instead of a reconstruction project.
Frequently asked questions
Do I charge VAT if I'm registered under the KOR? No. Under the KOR you don't charge VAT to customers and you don't show it on your invoices. The trade-off is that you also can't reclaim VAT on your own purchases.
What if I accidentally used the wrong rate? Correct it as soon as possible with a supplementary VAT return. The longer you wait, the harder it gets to trace the difference back to the specific orders involved.
Do I need to invoice foreign customers differently? For EU consumers, the invoice itself barely changes, but the VAT rate does once you cross the €10,000 threshold. Selling to a registered business abroad, you note their VAT number and apply the reverse-charge mechanism instead.
Does revenue count once an order ships, or once it's paid? For VAT purposes, what matters is the delivery or invoice date, not when the payment actually lands in your account.
New to running a webshop from the Netherlands?
At Sophy &Co. we work with founders setting up an online store here for the first time, often while they're still getting familiar with how Dutch VAT and company registration fit together. Book a call and we'll walk you through what's actually involved in getting set up, no Dutch required on your side.
We're a woman-led, diverse team of bookkeepers, both women and men, and proudly LGBTQIA-friendly. Between us we speak English, Dutch, Italian, Chinese, Spanish, Papiamento, German, and some French and Polish, so you can explain your webshop in whichever language works best for you. We can also connect you with the banks, lawyers and notaries you'll likely need along the way.
How we handle this for you
With webshops we take on, the product-level rates are usually fine, but shipping costs or a separately charged packaging option have often drifted onto the wrong rate somewhere along the way, typically left over from an old checkout setting. We connect directly to your webshop and payment provider, check every quarter that the rates still hold up, and make sure your VAT return matches what was actually sold. Share your sales and purchase data with us, that's the only part on you, we take care of the rest.
Take a look at our e-commerce bookkeeping services or our pricing. Not sure how your setup fits? Get in touch for a no-obligation conversation.
Want the rules straight from the source? See the Belastingdienst on VAT rates, or the KVK on EU e-commerce VAT rules.