Karin has run a home-and-garden PrestaShop store out of Belgium for six years, registered for OSS to handle VAT across her EU buyers without twenty separate VAT registrations. This spring, she started also selling through Amazon to reach new markets, and her accountant flagged something she hadn't considered: for certain transactions facilitated through a marketplace, the platform — not Karin — may be treated as the deemed supplier for VAT purposes. That's not a hypothetical future rule; it already exists for some scenarios today, and it's about to get more structured under the EU's VAT in the Digital Age package.
VAT reform in the EU rarely arrives as a single dramatic change — it's incremental, and ViDA is the next increment. Understanding it now, even though most of it doesn't bite for a few years yet, means your invoicing and accounting setup won't be caught flat-footed when it does.
OSS and IOSS already solved one problem — but not the next one
The One Stop Shop (OSS) and Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) schemes let merchants report and pay VAT on cross-border B2C sales through a single return, instead of registering in every member state where they sell. That was a genuinely useful simplification, and most PrestaShop merchants selling across the EU already use one or both. What OSS and IOSS don't address is the next layer: real-time transaction reporting, marketplace liability, and the patchwork of national e-invoicing mandates emerging independently of EU-wide rules. That's the gap ViDA is built to close.
What ViDA actually changes, pillar by pillar
The adopted VAT in the Digital Age package is generally described in three pillars:
- Digital reporting requirements and e-invoicing — moving cross-border B2B transactions toward standardised, near-real-time digital reporting rather than periodic summary filings.
- Platform economy / deemed supplier rules — extending and clarifying when a platform (marketplace, short-term rental platform, ride-hailing app) is treated as the supplier for VAT purposes on transactions it facilitates, rather than the underlying seller.
- Single VAT registration — expanding OSS-style simplification so more transaction types, not just B2C distance sales, can be reported through one registration instead of many.
None of these are theoretical proposals anymore — the package is adopted, with implementation phased out over multiple years, roughly from 2027 through the mid-2030s depending on the specific measure. That phasing is deliberate: e-invoicing infrastructure in particular takes national tax authorities years to build and test.
Platforms as deemed suppliers: why marketplace sellers should pay attention first
If you sell only through your own PrestaShop store, deemed supplier rules affect you less directly — you're already the seller of record. If you sell through Karin's route, adding a marketplace channel, this matters immediately, because it changes who's responsible for charging and remitting VAT on marketplace-facilitated sales. Under deemed supplier treatment, the platform charges VAT to the end customer and remits it, and the underlying seller's VAT invoice is typically issued to the platform rather than the end customer. That changes your bookkeeping: sales through the marketplace need to be reconciled differently from sales through your own checkout, and your accounting software needs to distinguish the two cleanly. Merchants running both channels through the same PrestaShop back office should confirm with their accountant now which of their marketplace transactions already fall under deemed supplier rules today, separate from what ViDA adds later.
E-invoicing and digital reporting: the quiet infrastructure shift
This is the pillar most likely to affect back-office systems even for merchants who never touch a marketplace. Several EU member states are already rolling out national e-invoicing mandates independently of ViDA's EU-wide timeline — France, Poland, and others have moved on domestic B2B e-invoicing requirements on their own schedules. ViDA's digital reporting requirements aim to standardise this at the EU level for cross-border transactions specifically, but the direction for merchants is the same either way: invoicing software needs to support structured, machine-readable formats, rather than PDF-only invoices, well before any EU-wide deadline forces it. If your PrestaShop store's invoicing currently relies on a basic PDF generator module with no structured data export, that's worth flagging to whoever manages your accounting integration.
Single VAT registration: fewer registrations, more centralised reporting
The single VAT registration pillar extends the OSS logic to cover more transaction types over time — the long-term direction is fewer separate national VAT registrations for legitimate cross-border trade, reported instead through an expanded centralised system. For a merchant currently juggling a couple of national VAT registrations alongside OSS for other transaction types, this is a genuine simplification once it lands — but "once it lands" is doing a lot of work in that sentence, since this pillar phases in later than digital reporting.
A realistic timeline — and why "not yet" doesn't mean "ignore it"
| ViDA pillar | Approximate phase-in | Immediate action needed now? |
|---|---|---|
| Digital reporting / e-invoicing (cross-border) | From ~2027, extending later | Confirm software supports structured invoice formats |
| Platform deemed supplier rules | Phased, some elements earlier | Reconcile marketplace vs. direct sales VAT treatment now |
| Single VAT registration expansion | Later in the phase-in, toward early-to-mid 2030s | Monitor; no registration changes needed yet |
| National e-invoicing mandates (independent of ViDA) | Vary by country, some already active | Check if your operating countries have existing mandates |
The honest takeaway: nothing in ViDA requires you to change anything about your VAT filing this month. But two things are worth doing regardless of timeline, because they're good practice independent of the regulation — reconciling marketplace and direct-channel VAT treatment separately, and confirming your invoicing software roadmap includes structured e-invoicing support rather than staying PDF-only indefinitely.
Preparation checklist
- [ ] Confirm current OSS/IOSS registration is accurate for all EU sales channels
- [ ] Ask your accountant which marketplace transactions already fall under deemed supplier rules today
- [ ] Separate marketplace and direct-store VAT reconciliation in your bookkeeping
- [ ] Check whether any country you sell into already has an independent e-invoicing mandate
- [ ] Ask your invoicing/accounting software vendor about structured e-invoicing support on their roadmap
- [ ] Revisit this annually rather than once — ViDA's phase-in spans multiple years
What to do with your invoicing stack now
If you're evaluating a new accounting integration for your PrestaShop store this year, treat "supports structured e-invoicing formats" as a genuine selection criterion, not a nice-to-have — swapping systems later, after a national mandate forces the issue, is far more disruptive than choosing forward-compatible software now. This connects to broader checkout and payment planning too; if you're reviewing your payment stack at the same time, our piece on future payment trends in Europe covers the adjacent shifts happening on the payments side, and the complete EU compliance checklist is worth bookmarking alongside this one.
The single most useful thing to do this month, regardless of your current setup: ask your accountant, in writing, exactly which of your current sales channels are affected by existing deemed-supplier rules today — not the future ViDA version, the version that may already apply. Most merchants find that clarifying today's rules resolves half their uncertainty about tomorrow's.
Frequently asked questions
What is ViDA and is it actually confirmed law?
ViDA — VAT in the Digital Age — is an adopted EU package reforming VAT reporting, marketplace liability, and registration rules. It's not a proposal anymore; it's adopted, with implementation phased from roughly 2027 through the mid-2030s depending on the specific measure.
Do I need to change my VAT registration because of ViDA right now?
No. The single VAT registration expansion phases in later in ViDA's timeline. Current OSS and IOSS registrations remain the relevant mechanism for now — no immediate registration changes are required.
How does selling on a marketplace change my VAT obligations?
For certain transactions, the marketplace may be treated as the deemed supplier, meaning it charges and remits VAT to the customer instead of you. This already applies in some scenarios today and is being extended and clarified under ViDA.
Will I need to issue e-invoices soon?
It depends on where you operate — some EU countries already have independent national e-invoicing mandates on their own schedules. ViDA's EU-wide digital reporting requirements for cross-border transactions phase in later, starting around 2027 and extending further.
Does ViDA replace OSS and IOSS?
No, it builds on them. OSS and IOSS continue to function for cross-border B2C distance sales; ViDA's single VAT registration pillar extends similar simplification to more transaction types over a longer phase-in period.
What's the most useful thing to do about ViDA today?
Confirm with your accountant which of your current sales channels — especially marketplace channels — already fall under existing deemed-supplier VAT rules, and check whether your invoicing software roadmap supports structured e-invoicing formats.
Related reading
- Future Payment Trends in Europe
- Complete EU Compliance Checklist for Online Stores
- Digital Markets Act: Does It Affect Your Store?
- Future of Checkout Optimization
- Omnibus Directive Compliance Guide
