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AMAZON EU VAT

IN THE “OSS” ERA

Text: Alan Rhode, Co-Founder Taxmen

What’s the taxable jurisdiction of a marketplace purchase shipped from Germany to a
French consumer? What purpose does an Amazon commingling invoice serve? How come
Spanish or French B2B transactions are often zero-rated for VAT purposes?

iven the many factors, variants, and cases to be the EU are subject to VAT in the country of product delivery,
accounted for, it’s quite challenging to determine the unless the merchant carries out less than Eur 10,000 worth of
Gcorrect VAT treatment of Amazon sales. Experienced cross-border consumer sales in all the EU during a solar year (in
Amazon merchants trading in the EU can answer the above the latter case, VAT will apply in the country of dispatch, unless
questions. Like it or not, most merchants wind up developing otherwise opted by the merchant). The famous (or, perhaps,
quite an extensive VAT knowledge. “infamous”) distance selling thresholds have now been repealed.

An essential starting point for EU VAT calculations is the European merchants can report and pay consumer VAT in all
“Amazon VAT Transaction Report”, downloadable from the of Europe by using the One-Stop-Shop (OSS), the electronic
Amazon Seller Central interface, which also includes important portal that businesses can use to comply with their VAT
information on the taxable country and the VAT rate of each obligations on e-commerce sales within the EU to consumers
transaction. since July 2021. Already adopted to report supplies of B2C
digital services since 2015, the OSS is an efficient tool that
There are various software tools on the market to help calculate allows merchants to avoid registering for VAT in all taxable
VAT on Amazon sales country by country: for instance, Salesvat. jurisdictions.
com and Taxdoo.com. Let’s see below, in very broad strokes, how
to account for VAT on most types of Amazon sales. Registration with the OSS is optional, but the only alternative
remains to register for VAT in all the EU countries of product
EU Cross border consumer sales – the OSS delivery, regardless of the turnover in each country. So, the
From the 1st of July 2021, all cross-border consumer sales within choice in favour of the OSS appears like a “no brainer”.

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