1. Selling/Invoicing within and outside EU with Holvi

Before you start: Currently Holvi can only accept SEPA transfers. Only transactions in EUR (€) are possible. So if your client pays with a non EUR credit card in your Holvi online store, the amount is automatically debited in EUR and the card issuer may charge a conversion fee to your customer. If you have to make other payments into or out of your Holvi account in other currencies we recommend using Wise. 

Holvi and international sales

International customers can purchase items from your Holvi online store with international credit cards.

If your plans include selling internationally, there are a few things to be aware of:

1. Selling/Invoicing to other countries might incur different VAT rates. Before selling/invoicing internationally you should contact your local Tax Administration office and confirm the right VAT rate for your products. For merchants based in:

• Finland, we advise to contact  The Finnish Tax Administration for more information
• Estonian e-residency, we advise to contact the Tax and Customs Board for more information
• Austria, we advise to contact  The Austrian Tax Administration for more information
• Germany, we advise to contact The German Tax Administration for more information

2. We accept card payments worldwide, excluding high-risk and non-cooperative jurisdictions as listed in our Acceptable Use Policy (see number 30). This list is based on Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) recommendations.

3. Occasionally you might have some clients who have trouble in making international purchases. Some card issuers/banks have limited the geographies that customers can make purchases from for security reasons. This could be an issue with Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode (depending on the card type). In this case it is best to instruct the customer to contact the bank that issued the card and check for limitations. If the purchase can’t be made, you can invoice the customer so that the payment can be made with a SEPA Credit Transfer.

New VAT rules for international sales – sell abroad or only in Finland

Changes to how you handle VAT on EU sales outside Finland are in effect from July 2021. With this news, a new One Stop Shop (OSS) system is being introduced, allowing you to manage all your EU VAT in one place.

Now you can easily limit your Holvi online store sales to Finland only, and avoid the new VAT obligations altogether.

To keep your sales figures up, we’ve made global sales the default. But you can easily switch to sell only in the EU or only Finland – just tick the appropriate box in your Holvi online store’s settings (Online Store > Settings).

If you disable EU or global sales, we'll let any international customers know when they visit your store.

One Stop Shop (OSS) in a nutshell - foreign VAT all in one place

• The change applies to the sale of goods and services to consumers in the EU
• If you sell abroad, you can register your business in OSS via OmaVero
• When you handle your company's VAT obligations centrally through OSS, you don’t have to report and pay VAT to each buyer's country separately
• The use of the OSS system is optional. If you don’t register for the special VAT scheme, you must register for VAT separately in each country where you’ve sold products or services
• Read more from Tax Administration (Vero) site

2. Holvi and International Invoicing

With Holvi you can invoice international customers as well. Before doing so, consider the following:

1. Selling/invoicing to other countries might imply different VAT rates. Before selling/invoicing internationally you should contact your local Tax Administration office and confirm the right VAT rate for your products. For merchants based in:

• Finland, we advise to contact  The Finnish Tax Administration for more information
• Estonian e-residency, we advise to contact the Tax and Customs Board for more information
• Austria, we advise to contact  The Austrian Tax Administration for more information
• Germany, we advise to contact The German Tax Administration for more information

2. We advise our customers to use a reference number for payments, so that the payment gets matched automatically to the correct invoice. So including a friendly reminder to use the reference number is recommended. If a payment arrives to Holvi without a reference number, it will arrive to the correct account but has to manually matched to the corresponding invoice.

3. If the invoiced amount includes VAT 0%, please mention the proof for it in the invoice description field for clarification.

See the below example for a VAT 0% description:

January consultancy services in Vienna (1.01.2014-31.01.2014)  *VAT 0%.

*VAT 0% Place of service Vienna in compliance with ACT 1501/1993 Finnish VAT legislation (European Council Directive 2006/112 art. 56) and VAT reverse charge mechanism to apply by client (according to art. 196 European Council directive 2006/112).

Always before selling/invoicing internationally you should contact your local Tax Administration office and confirm the right VAT rate for your products. For merchants based in Finland, we advise contacting The Finnish Tax Administration for more info.

3. I'm an international customer and can't make a credit card purchase in the Holvi online store. What do I do?

Some card issuers/banks have limited the geographies that customers can make purchases from for security reasons. This could be an issue with Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode (depending on your card type).

On our end (Holvi) we accept Visa and MasterCard globally, but it might be that your bank considers the domicile of the Holvi merchant account (Finland) as suspicious. Have you checked that you don't have limitations set on your card?

4. I want to sell electronic services to customers in another EU country.

Holvi is a payment service provider, that also provides an online store for Holvi entrepreneur to sell their services and products. As a seller in the online store, the Holvi entrepreneur is responsible for all taxes that are created when selling products or services. Holvi only provides payment services based on the agreement between Holvi and the entrepreneur, and does not act as a seller.

If you need any further assistance please contact us via this form.