EU VAT: What It Means for Digital Products and Online Courses

When you sell a digital product—like an online course, ebook, or design template—to someone in the European Union, a region with unified tax rules for digital goods. Also known as the EU single market, it requires businesses to collect VAT, a consumption tax applied to goods and services. This isn’t just for big companies. If you’re a course creator, artist, or small EdTech platform selling to EU customers, EU VAT applies to you—even if you’re based outside Europe.

Think of it this way: if someone in Germany buys your Canva template or your online art class, you’re legally required to charge them the VAT rate of their country. That’s not optional. The rules changed in 2015, and since then, platforms like Teachable, Gumroad, and even your own website must handle VAT correctly—or risk fines. It’s not about where you live; it’s about where your customer lives. This is why compliance tools and automated systems matter. Services like VAT MOSS, a simplified system for reporting digital service taxes across EU countries were created to help small sellers manage this without hiring a tax lawyer. But even with MOSS, you still need to track sales by country, know the right rates, and file quarterly reports.

It’s easy to ignore—until you get a notice. Many creators think, "I’m just one person," or "No one’s checking." But EU tax authorities are getting better at catching cross-border sellers. They use data from payment processors, digital platforms, and even customer IP addresses. If you’re selling to even one EU customer, you’re in scope. And if you’re selling to multiple countries, you’re dealing with 27 different VAT rates—from 17% in Luxembourg to 27% in Hungary. That’s why tools like automated tax calculators and global compliance platforms are no longer optional. They’re part of running a professional digital business.

You’ll see this show up in our posts too. Articles about eLearning compliance, the legal requirements for online education providers and global privacy laws, like GDPR, which often overlap with VAT rules aren’t just about data—they’re about the full legal landscape you operate in. You can’t separate tax from privacy from platform rules. They’re all connected. This collection of posts gives you the real, practical side of what it takes to sell digital products legally and confidently across borders.