When it comes to selling on the Internet, whether you do it from your own website or through a Marketplace, you must take into account taxes and your tax obligations. In this post, we will focus on the obligations of sellers that use any of Amazon’s programmes.

If you sell through Amazon, your tax obligations may differ depending on the programme you use. The most important features by type of AMAZON sales programme are shown below.

AMAZON PAN-EUROPEAN FBA - AMAZON PAN-EUROPEAN LOGISTICS PROGRAMME

Under this option, Amazon is responsible for storage, shipping, customer service and returns. Products are automatically shipped to the Amazon logistics centre nearest to the customer and are usually delivered on the next working day.

Amazon currently has logistics centres in the following seven countries:

  • Spain.
  • France.
  • Italy.
  • Germany.
  • Poland.
  • United Kingdom.
  • Czech Republic.

This Amazon programme provides numerous advantages to sellers:

  • Products are more visible and are marketed under the “Amazon Prime” option ranking them as trusted products.
  • The seller’s products are available to millions of buyers in Europe.

However, when using this AMAZON programme, sellers must register for VAT in the countries where their goods are stored. This obligation is in addition to the obligation to charge the VAT of the country of destination where appropriate and to file the relevant VAT returns.

If you sell on Amazon under this programme, contact a VATONTIME agent and get a 20% discount on our prices.

EUROPEAN FULFILLMENT NETWORK (“EFN”)

Amazon’s simplest programme consists of storing the goods in a logistics centre and all the orders are shipped from this centre.

For VAT purposes, sellers must only be registered in the country from which their products are shipped, unless sales to another EU country exceed the thresholds set for distance selling.

MULTI-COUNTRY INVENTORY (“MCI”)

With his option, sellers choose at any time the countries where they want to ship and store their products. Sellers must register for VAT in the countries where their products are stored.

Note: As of 1 July 2021, this taxation will undergo major changes so if you are not yet aware of how these changes will affect you, please do not hesitate to contact us.