One Kaufland registration opens nine marketplaces. VAT does not follow that simplicity. Each sales channel needs its own VAT set-up, Kaufland checks your details automatically, and what you need depends above all on one question: is your business established in the EU or not?
This is not tax advice. It is a summary of what Kaufland, the European Commission and the Irish Revenue publish, as of 30 September 2026. Take your own situation to an accountant or tax adviser who knows cross-border e-commerce.
What Kaufland asks for
- The VAT ID of your headquarters. Mandatory for every seller, wherever you are based.
- For each marketplace, as an EU seller: either a local VAT ID for that country or an OSS registration.
- For each marketplace, as a non-EU seller: always a country-specific tax registration and the matching VAT ID, entered during onboarding.
- Kaufland.es: a valid Spanish VAT ID (NIF/IVA), verified in the EU’s VIES system.
You enter your OSS number at registration or later under Settings, Shop settings, Tax information.
How Kaufland checks it
Every VAT ID goes through two checks, repeated regularly: a simple validation in VIES, and a qualified validation with Germany’s Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt). The second one compares your legal notice, your tax registration and the master data in the Seller Portal, and they must match exactly. If a VAT ID cannot be validated and you do not correct it in time, Kaufland hides the sales channel concerned. After a successful validation, your offers reappear automatically.
A practical check before you register: write your company name and address in the Seller Portal exactly as they appear on your tax registration, including the legal form.
The German rule
Kaufland refers to Section 22f of the German VAT Act and asks every seller who sells goods to German consumers for a German VAT number. EU sellers who use OSS are the exception: they can enter the VAT number of the member state where they are registered for OSS instead of a German VAT number and tax number.
Sellers based in the EU: OSS or local registrations
The One-Stop Shop (OSS) lets you declare and pay the VAT due in other EU countries through one portal in the member state where you are established. For distance sales of goods within the EU, you use the Union scheme. The European Commission describes how it works:
- Quarterly return. You file an OSS return for every calendar quarter, by the end of the following month, together with the payment.
- Nil returns. If you made no qualifying sales in a quarter, you still file a return.
- All or nothing. If you opt for OSS, it applies to all qualifying sales in all member states. You cannot use it for some countries and not others.
- In addition to your domestic return. The OSS return does not replace the VAT return in your own country.
Without OSS, you register for VAT in each country where you sell, and Kaufland asks for that country’s VAT ID on the channel. Kaufland’s onboarding notes that with OSS you do not need separate tax registrations per country.
The €10,000 threshold
For distance sales of goods to consumers in other EU countries, there is one EU-wide threshold of €10,000. Irish Revenue, in its guidance on intra-Community distance sales, sets out how it works:
- it counts all your distance sales of goods and cross-border telecoms, broadcasting and electronic services to consumers in all other member states together, excluding VAT;
- you stay under it only if those sales do not exceed €10,000 in the current calendar year and did not in the previous calendar year;
- it only applies if your business is established in just one member state.
Under the threshold, those sales can be taxed in your own country. Above it, VAT is due in the buyer’s country, through OSS or a local registration.
Kaufland does not make that distinction. According to the Seller University, Kaufland treats sellers below the threshold exactly like those above it. You still need OSS or a local VAT ID for each channel, even with your first sale.
An example. A seller established in Ireland sells, net of VAT, €6,000 through Kaufland.de and €5,000 through Kaufland.at in one calendar year, and makes no other cross-border sales to consumers. Together that is €11,000, over the threshold. From the sale that takes the total past €10,000, German VAT is due on German sales and Austrian VAT on Austrian ones, and that stays so for the whole of the following year. Sales before that point stay taxable in Ireland. The free distance selling threshold check gives a first indication for your own figures.
Sellers based outside the EU
For sellers from the UK, the US, China or anywhere else outside the EU, three things change.
1. Kaufland as “deemed supplier”
Under the EU e-commerce VAT rules of 2021, Kaufland counts as the seller for VAT purposes in two cases:
- goods ship from a location in the EU to EU customers and the seller is not established in the EU;
- goods ship from outside the EU directly to EU customers and the consignment is worth no more than €150.
Kaufland then calculates and pays the VAT, invoices the buyer in the national language, and pays you out without VAT. You receive a monthly tax credit note per country of storage. You remain the buyer’s counterparty for product liability and warranty.
That does not remove the registration requirement: Kaufland still asks non-EU sellers for a country-specific tax registration and VAT ID for each sales channel. Non-EU sellers are also asked whether they have a permanent establishment in the EU, and to enter every warehouse, including those of fulfilment or drop-shipping providers.
2. Offers under €150 from outside the EU
Kaufland has deactivated offers with a net value under €150 that ship from a warehouse outside the EU since 15 June 2026, and has not supported IOSS for third-country shipments since 1 July 2026. Since that date, every shipment from outside the EU has been subject to customs duty from the first cent. For cheaper items, that means stock in an EU warehouse. Goods you ship from outside the EU must be imported under DDP (delivered duty paid), with all items of an order in one parcel from one warehouse.
3. Which OSS scheme
The European Commission explains that the non-Union scheme covers services only. A business not established in the EU can use the Union scheme for distance sales of goods within the EU; its member state of identification is then the one where the goods are dispatched from. Whether that applies to your Kaufland sales, given the deemed-supplier rules, is a question for your adviser.
Who issues the invoice
Outside the deemed-supplier cases, you invoice the buyer. Kaufland recommends uploading an invoice for every order, through the Seller Portal, your software or the API, and asks for a few things:
- the VAT rate of the country where the buyer is based;
- no web addresses or links to your own shop, apart from the business details the law requires;
- on Kaufland.pl invoices, your BDO number;
- recycling fees shown separately where a country requires it: in Czechia and Slovakia for electrical and electronic equipment, in France as “eco participation” for electrical equipment and home furnishings;
- a note that the buyer must not pay into your account, because payment goes to cflox GmbH.
Invoices do not have to be in the buyer’s language, but Kaufland warns that local authorities may ask for them in the national language during an audit.
VAT on Kaufland’s commission
Kaufland calculates its commission on the gross sales price, including shipping and VAT; the commission rates themselves are quoted plus VAT. If your business is established in Germany, Kaufland adds German VAT to the commission; if it is established in another EU country, the reverse charge applies. How to book that is a question for your accountant. The rates per category are on Kaufland fees 2026.
EPR is a separate registration
VAT is not the only registration per country. Packaging, electrical equipment and batteries fall under extended producer responsibility (EPR), which Kaufland also asks for per channel: LUCID and other numbers for Kaufland.de, a BDO number for Kaufland.pl, and for France, Italy and Spain an optional Kaufland EPR service at €1.90 a month per product category. More per country on our Kaufland Global Marketplace page.
How Sellgrip helps
Accounting in Sellgrip (Pro and Business) builds a monthly booking journal and a VAT summary of your Kaufland sales, grouped by country, VAT rate and who owes the VAT, including the sales where Kaufland is the VAT debtor. You get two CSV files your accountant can open straight away. On Business, the overview also tells you when your distance sales to other EU countries approach or pass €10,000 a year. Invoices (Pro and Business) creates the invoice for a Kaufland order and sends it to Kaufland for you.
