Short answer
Yes — since 1 January 2025, and only if you are established in the EU.
Before the reform introduced by Directive (EU) 2020/285, domestic small-enterprise exemptions were closed to businesses established elsewhere. A French business selling into Belgium had to register and charge Belgian VAT from the first euro, while a Belgian competitor of identical size was exempt. The amended Articles 284 and following removed that asymmetry.
Eligibility now depends on two thresholds at once:
- Union annual turnover must not exceed EUR 100,000 across the whole EU; and
- the value of your supplies in the host Member State must not exceed that state's own threshold, which cannot be set above EUR 85,000.
Both must be satisfied. Failing either closes the scheme in that state.
You also need a prior notification to your Member State of establishment, an identification number with the "EX" suffix, and quarterly reporting of turnover by country.
This is a different mechanism from the €10,000 threshold in Article 59c, and a different mechanism from the One Stop Shop. The three are frequently confused.
The two thresholds
"Member States that have put in place the exemption under paragraph 1 shall also grant that exemption to the supplies of goods and services in their own territory made by taxable persons established in another Member State, provided that the following conditions are fulfilled: (a) the Union annual turnover of that taxable person does not exceed EUR 100 000; (b) the value of the supplies in the Member State where the taxable person is not established does not exceed the threshold applicable in that Member State for granting the exemption to taxable persons established in that Member State." —
Article 284(1) caps national thresholds: no higher than EUR 85,000, with sectoral variation permitted on objective criteria but never above that ceiling. National thresholds also may not discriminate between established and non-established taxable persons.
Note the asymmetry of the design. The EUR 100,000 Union figure is a single hard number fixed in the Directive. The national figure is whatever each host state has chosen, up to EUR 85,000 — so the scheme must be assessed country by country. A business under EUR 100,000 in total may qualify in one Member State and not in another.
Article 288 defines what counts towards turnover: taxable supplies, certain exempt supplies with deduction, exempt intra-Community supplies, and real-estate, financial and insurance transactions unless ancillary. Article 288(2) excludes disposals of capital assets.
Registering: prior notification and the EX number
Article 284(3) sets the entry route. To use the exemption where you are not established, you must give prior notification to the Member State of establishment, and be identified for the exemption by an individual number in that state only. The number carries the suffix "EX".
That is the structural elegance of the scheme: you deal with your own tax authority, in your own language, and the host states are informed through the administrative network rather than by you.
Article 284a lists what the prior notification must contain: name, activity, legal form and address; the Member States where you intend to use the exemption; and the total value of supplies in your own state and in each other Member State for the previous and current calendar year.
Article 284(5) provides that the exemption applies from the date you are informed of the individual identification number, and sets a backstop: no later than 35 working days after receipt of the notification, except where additional checks are needed to prevent evasion or avoidance.
Article 284(4) requires you to update the notification before adding a Member State or ceasing to use the exemption in one. Cessation takes effect from the first day of the next calendar quarter, or where notified in the last month of a quarter, from the first day of the second month of the next quarter.
Quarterly reporting
The scheme is not a one-off election. Article 284b requires ongoing reporting:
"A taxable person availing itself of the exemption provided for in Article 284(1) in a Member State in which that person is not established ... shall report for each calendar quarter to the Member State of establishment the following information ... (a) the total value of supplies carried out during the calendar quarter in the Member State of establishment or '0' if no supplies have been made; (b) the total value of supplies carried out during the calendar quarter in each of the Member States other than the Member State of establishment or '0' if no supplies have been made." —
Reports are due within one month of the quarter end. Zero must be reported explicitly, not omitted.
Article 284b(3) adds a fast reporting duty when the EUR 100,000 Union threshold is exceeded: inform the Member State of establishment within 15 working days, and report the value of supplies made from the start of the current quarter up to the date the threshold was crossed.
Article 284c requires values in euro (or national currency where permitted), using the exchange rate on the first day of the calendar year.
What happens when you exceed a threshold
The two thresholds behave differently, and this is where the scheme's detail bites.
Union threshold exceeded. Article 288a(2) is unforgiving: where the EUR 100,000 Union turnover is exceeded during a calendar year, the exemption granted in Member States where you are not established "shall cease to apply as of that time". No tolerance band. Article 284e then requires your Member State of establishment to deactivate or adapt the EX number without delay.
National threshold exceeded. Article 288a(1) provides a tolerance. Exceeding by not more than 10% lets you continue to benefit for the remainder of that calendar year; exceeding by more than 10% ends the exemption as of that time. Member States may instead set a 25% ceiling, or allow continuation with no ceiling for the year — but that latitude can never exempt a taxable person whose turnover in the granting Member State exceeds EUR 100,000. Member States may alternatively provide that the exemption ends as soon as the threshold is crossed.
Article 288a(1) also blocks re-entry: having exceeded the national threshold in the preceding calendar year, you cannot use the exemption there for one calendar year, and the Member State may extend that to two.
So the tolerance rules are national options layered on an EU floor. Check them in each host state rather than assuming the 10% band applies.
The price of exemption
Article 289 states the trade-off plainly: exempt taxable persons have no right to deduct input VAT under Articles 167 to 171 and 173 to 177, and may not show VAT on their invoices.
For a business with significant EU input costs, exemption can be worse than registration. Article 290 preserves the option to choose normal VAT arrangements instead, with Member States setting the detailed conditions.
On the relief side, Article 284d removes host-state obligations: a taxable person using the exemption where it is not established is not required to register for VAT under Articles 213 and 214, nor to submit a VAT return under Article 250, for the supplies covered. Article 284d(3) allows Member States to reimpose those obligations where you fail to comply with the Article 284b reporting.
Articles 292a to 292d let Member States simplify further for exempt small enterprises established in their own territory, including releasing them from identification and from filing returns.
How it differs from Article 59c and from OSS
These three are routinely conflated. They are not alternatives to each other; they answer different questions.
Article 284(3) opens with "Notwithstanding Article 292b", and the scheme operates independently of Article 59c. A business may in principle be within the Article 59c threshold, within the SME thresholds, or neither. Work out which mechanism you are relying on for which supplies, and do not assume one carries the others.
Neither Article 59c nor the SME scheme is available to a business established outside the EU. Article 284(2) grants the cross-border exemption to persons "established in another Member State", and Article 284(3) requires notification to a Member State of establishment. A third-country business has none.
Operational checklist
- Confirm EU establishment first; the scheme is closed to non-EU businesses.
- Compute Union annual turnover on the Article 288 basis, excluding capital-asset disposals.
- Check each host state's own threshold separately.
- Notify your Member State of establishment before relying on the exemption; expect up to 35 working days.
- Use the EX-suffixed number.
- File quarterly country-by-country reports within one month, reporting zeros explicitly.
- Monitor the Union threshold continuously and report breach within 15 working days.
- Check each host state's tolerance rule and re-entry bar.
- Model the loss of input VAT recovery before opting in.
Conclusion
The cross-border SME exemption is a genuine simplification for very small EU businesses selling across borders, and it removed a real distortion. It is also more conditional than it first appears: two thresholds, one of them national and variable, quarterly reporting, tight breach deadlines and a complete loss of input VAT recovery.
Treat it as a per-country assessment supported by continuous turnover monitoring, not a one-off election. And keep it mentally separate from the €10,000 place-of-supply threshold and from OSS — they solve different problems, and confusing them is the most common way businesses end up relying on a relief they do not have.
Sources
This article provides general legal information, not advice for a specific matter. Laws, facts and procedural deadlines may change the result. Follow the linked primary sources and obtain local advice before acting.