Accounting for e-commerce – how do you handle VAT, settlements and sales abroad?

The net payout from Stripe or Klarna is not your turnover – the customer sale and the fee have to be shown separately. Internationally everything turns on four questions: where are the goods, who is the seller, who is the importer, and where is the VAT due? VOEC covers goods under NOK 3,000 per item into Norway, IOSS covers consignments to the EU up to EUR 150 – and IOSS is a VAT scheme, not a customs exemption.

A net Stripe payout is not your turnover

Where the shop is itself the seller, the customer sale and the payment provider's fee have to be shown separately. Customer sale NOK 12,500, Stripe fee NOK 350, bank NOK 12,150. The turnover is NOK 12,500. The fee is a separate cost, and NOK 12,150 is just the net settlement. Use a settlement account per significant payment provider, so the balance sheet can actually be reconciled. Good e-commerce accounting can follow the chain order → payment → settlement → goods → VAT → bank.

Marketplaces can be more than payment intermediaries

Amazon, Etsy and other marketplaces can under foreign VAT rules in some situations be treated as a «deemed supplier». So the business first has to establish: who is legally the seller to the customer? The answer decides whether the whole customer sale is the shop's turnover or whether the platform has a different role.

Online sales are normally not cash sales

Where the customer orders and pays online and the goods are dispatched, that is normally not a cash sale under the cash register rules. Where the customer orders online but pays physically on collection, the position can be different – see Cash sales and cash registers

Returns, gift cards and currency

A return should be linked back to the original sale. The accounts have to correct the sale, the output VAT, the payment settlement and the inventory where the goods come back in saleable condition. Otherwise the bank is right but the turnover and the stock are wrong. A flexible gift card usable on goods with different VAT treatment is normally treated as a liability until redemption. Do not book every gift card the same way. Sales and purchases in foreign currency have to be translated into NOK. A later change in the rate up to settlement is a currency gain or loss – not extra sales. Outstanding monetary items in foreign currency have to be revalued at the year end.

Stock can sit in many places

The shop's goods can be in its own warehouse, at a third-party logistics provider, at Amazon FBA, in a warehouse in the EU or in transit. What matters is who owns the goods at the year end. For tax, inventory is valued under the cost rules, and goods still owned normally cannot be written down for tax merely because they are obsolete – see Inventory at the year-end close Stock abroad can at the same time trigger local VAT obligations. Plan the VAT before the goods move to the warehouse.

Importing into Norway

VAT-registered Norwegian businesses normally calculate import VAT themselves in the VAT return. The VAT basis is not necessarily identical to the supplier's invoice: the declared customs value, duty and relevant charges can all form part of it. So reconcile the customs declarations against the accounts every period – the whole calculation is in VAT on imported goods

VOEC – into Norway

VOEC is a simplified scheme for foreign online shops selling low-value goods directly to Norwegian consumers. The threshold is under NOK 3,000 per item, not per parcel. Food, excise goods, restricted goods and goods above the threshold follow the ordinary import rules. VOEC is normally not the scheme for a Norwegian shop with a Norwegian warehouse.

Exporting from Norway

Where a Norwegian shop actually exports the goods out of the Norwegian VAT area and the documentation conditions are met, the sale can fall within the export exemption. The documentation has to show that the goods actually left Norway. Old advice that a physical customs stamp is always required is out of date.

Selling to the EU – watch the EUR 10,000 myth

The EU has a threshold of EUR 10,000, but it applies to distance sales of goods within the EU – not generally to a company established only in Norway. A Norwegian company with a warehouse in an EU country can get a local VAT registration and, where relevant, use the Union OSS for cross-border B2C sales onward within the EU. The EU at the same time removed the old VAT exemption for consignments under EUR 22: every item imported into the EU is now VAT-liable.

IOSS is a VAT scheme, not a customs exemption

IOSS can be used for qualifying B2C consignments to the EU up to EUR 150, and lets the shop collect local EU VAT at checkout. But the scheme simplifies declaring and paying VAT. It is not a customs exemption, and the rules on duty for low-value consignments into the EU have been changing. Check the current customs and VAT rules before pricing shipping to EU customers. A Norwegian seller dispatching qualifying IOSS goods from Norway can use the scheme without an EU intermediary thanks to the Norway–EU cooperation agreement. Where the goods ship directly from, say, China to the EU customer, an intermediary may be needed.

Dropshipping is not one VAT model

Always map who is the seller, where the goods are at the point of sale, who organises the transport, who is the importer, which country the goods are imported into, and who collects the VAT. Norwegian law also distinguishes between supplies in Norway and supplies to Norway for foreign online shops. The 2024 Boozt case shows that Norwegian language, prices in NOK and many Norwegian customers do not alone establish domestic supplies here – an overall assessment is required.

Common mistakes

The net settlement is booked as sales. A return corrects the bank but not the VAT and the stock. Every gift card is treated alike. The customs declaration is never reconciled. VOEC is applied to Norwegian warehouse operations. The EUR 10,000 threshold is misapplied by a Norwegian company. IOSS is described as a customs-free scheme. An Amazon FBA warehouse is set up before local VAT has been considered. Dropshipping starts without the importer role being settled. E-commerce should be reconciled channel by channel. For each channel the business has to be able to link the order, the payment, the fee, the return, the goods and the bank – and internationally four questions should always come first: where are the goods, who is the seller, who is the importer, where is the VAT due? For an online shop we can set up channel reconciliation, settlement accounts and the right VAT treatment.

This is general guidance, not advice on your specific case. Deadlines, rates and amounts change – always check the current rules, or get in touch with us.

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