How to Track EU VAT Exposure and Start Registration in Kintsugi
Manage physical and economic nexus for the EU in the Kintsugi Monitoring tab: register per country for physical nexus and follow guided economic nexus steps.Updated last month
If you sell into the European Union, Kintsugi tracks where your sales are creating a VAT obligation and shows you where you need to register. This guide explains how to read your EU exposure in the Monitoring tab, what each status means, and how to start a registration when you are ready.
Before You Start
EU nexus monitoring runs on every Kintsugi account. There is nothing to switch on first.
Submitting a registration request requires a paid plan.
EU jurisdictions display amounts in Euro (EUR).
The Monitoring tab was previously called the Nexus tab. Some older links may still use that name.
Where to See Your EU Exposure
Exposure Map, for a quick overview
Go to your Dashboard, then set the region selector on the Exposure Map to Europe Countries are shaded by status so you can spot obligations at a glance.
TIP: Hovering over a country reveals a tooltip showing:
Country name
Exposure date (Met Date)
Collected tax
Tax liability
Monitoring tab, for the detail
Click Monitoring in the left sidebar, then use the region dropdown at the top to select Europe. To narrow it further, click the filter icon and choose a specific country.
For every way to check your EU status, including reviewing the transactions behind it, see Ways to Check Your EU Nexus Status in Kintsugi.
Reading the Monitoring Tab
The Monitoring tab groups jurisdictions into sections across the top. Each section tells you whether anything is needed from you.
Section | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
Exposed | You have met nexus and are not registered yet | Start a registration, or open Review first if that is the button shown |
Not Exposed | Kintsugi sees activity, but you have not met the threshold | Nothing yet. You can still register voluntarily if you have a reason to |
Collected Tax Nexus | Tax was collected somewhere you are not registered | Open Review and resolve the collected tax before registering |
Registered | Your registration is active | Nothing. Your filings follow from here |
Disregarded | You chose to exclude this jurisdiction from monitoring | Nothing, unless you want to bring it back into monitoring |
Columns worth knowing
Type shows what created the obligation, such as Economic or Collected Tax. A +1 or +2 chip means more than one trigger applies to that country.
Met Date is the date nexus was met. Kintsugi uses this as your default registration date, so check it before you submit.
Tax Liability is an estimate of what you may owe. Where a figure is still being calculated, it is not final yet, and the information icon explains the current state.
Status shows where the country sits: Approaching, Exposed, Registering, or Registered.
What Creates an EU VAT Obligation
Two things put an EU country on your list.
Economic nexus, from your sales. If your business is established in the EU, cross-border sales to consumers in other EU countries create an obligation once they pass EUR 10,000 in total. If your business is established outside the EU, there is generally no threshold, so the obligation can begin with your first sale.
Physical presence. An office, warehouse, stock, or staff in an EU country creates an obligation there regardless of your sales volume.
For thresholds by country, the SME scheme, and how IOSS fits in, see When Do You Need to Register for VAT in Europe.
Adding Physical Presence
Kintsugi cannot detect an office or a warehouse from your transaction data, so you add these yourself.
Go to the Presence tab.
Click New.
Complete the required fields.
Select the Country and Jurisdiction
Choose a Category
Set the Start Date and End Date
Click Save.
Kintsugi factors that location into your exposure as soon as it is saved. If you need to edit or remove a presence record later, contact support and we will take care of it.
Registering Across Several EU Countries with OSS
If you have met nexus in more than one EU country, you usually do not register in each one separately. The EU One Stop Shop (OSS) lets you register once and report your cross-border EU VAT on a single return.
In the Monitoring tab, this appears as:
One country with an active Register button. This is the country prioritized for your OSS registration. It is often Ireland, which many businesses use because filings are handled in English and the process is straightforward.
The other EU countries with the Register button disabled, plus a note pointing you to the prioritized country, for example Please register under Ireland jurisdiction.
Complete the form. Once your OSS registration is active, the individual EU countries it covers group together under a single OSS entity, and your first filing period is set to the quarter in which you registered.
If a different registration country suits your business better, or you already hold an EU VAT registration you want to bring into Kintsugi, see Simplify EU VAT: Kintsugi and the One Stop Shop (OSS) and Importing EU Registrations.
If You See Upgrade or Talk to Sales Instead of Register
This means the jurisdiction is not included in your current plan yet. It is not an error, and there is nothing wrong with your account.
Upgrade moves you to a plan that covers the jurisdiction.
Talk to Sales connects you with someone who can enable it for your account.
Your EU exposure keeps updating either way, so you keep full visibility while you decide. For more detail, see Why Can't I Submit a Registration Request?
After You Submit
The status is trackable in the Registrations tab.
Your request goes to the Kintsugi Tax Operations team. Nothing further is needed from you right away.
Timelines vary by country. The status updates as your registration progresses.
Keep an eye on the inbox you entered as the registration email. Operations may need one detail from you, and a quick reply keeps things moving.
The country moves to Registering, then to Registered once it is complete.
FAQs
Q: I sell to EU customers, but nothing shows as Exposed. Why?
A: Either your sales have not passed the threshold that applies to you, or your transactions are not reaching Kintsugi. Open the Transactions page and filter by country to confirm your EU sales are syncing.
Q: Why is Ireland suggested when most of my sales are elsewhere?
A: Your OSS registration country is where you file, not where you sell the most. Ireland is commonly used because filings are in English and the process is straightforward. Get in touch if another country suits your business better.
Q: My EU countries disappeared from the Monitoring tab after I registered. Is that a problem?
A: No. Once an OSS registration is active, the countries it covers are grouped under a single OSS entity rather than listed individually.
Q: Why are my EU amounts shown in Euro?
A: EU jurisdictions display in EUR. Set the region filter to All to see each jurisdiction in its own local currency. See How to View Jurisdiction Specific Currency Support.
Q: Does an EU registration also cover the United Kingdom?
A: No. The UK left the EU, so OSS does not cover Great Britain. You need a separate UK VAT registration. See Overview of VAT in Great Britain supported in Kintsugi.
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