Winkel Factuur Insights
Selling via Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) is a great way to reach all of Europe. You send your stock to Amazon and they handle the rest. But fiscally, it is a minefield. As soon as your stock is abroad, you immediately have to deal with local VAT rules. In this guide, we explain what you need to look out for.
When Amazon stores your FBA stock in another EU country, you must register for VAT there and file local returns, unless you use the OSS scheme for B2C sales.
Amazon FBA sellers shipping across EU borders face complex VAT obligations with different rates and registration requirements per country. This guide explains FBA VAT rules per country, and Winkel Factuur automates compliant invoice generation for every FBA shipment.
This is the most important rule every Amazon seller must know: **As soon as you store stock in another EU country, you must have a local VAT number there.**
With FBA, this happens faster than you think. If you enable 'Pan-European FBA' or 'Central European Program' (CEE), Amazon moves your products to warehouses in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, and the Czech Republic.
Consequence: You are immediately liable for VAT in all those countries. You must register there and file local VAT returns. The OSS scheme (One-Stop-Shop) does **not** cover this! OSS is only for sales from one country to consumers in other countries, not for stock movements.
• **FBM (Fulfillment by Merchant):** You ship yourself from your home country. You usually don't need foreign VAT numbers (unless you sell a lot, then you use OSS).
• **FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon):** Amazon stores your items abroad. You **do** need local VAT numbers in every country of storage.
Amazon checks this strictly. Do you not have a German VAT number but is there stock in Germany? Then your account will be blocked immediately.
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Start free trial →Amazon requires sellers to upload invoices for business customers (Amazon Business). If you don't do this, you risk a 'Defect Rate' and your account can be suspended.
You have two options:
1. **Amazon VCS (VAT Calculation Service):** Amazon creates the invoices. Disadvantage: They are often incorrect in complex situations and you have no control over the layout.
2. **External Software (like Winkel Factuur):** You create invoices yourself that meet all rules and upload them automatically to Amazon. This gives you control and certainty.
Winkel Factuur specializes in Amazon FBA sellers. Our software:
• Retrieves all orders from Amazon Seller Central.
• Recognizes from which warehouse the product was shipped (important for VAT!).
• Calculates the correct VAT (local or OSS).
• Creates an invoice and uploads it automatically to Amazon within 24 hours.
• Takes Pan-EU and CEE stock movements into account.
Yes. As soon as you store stock in another EU country through FBA, you must have a local VAT number there. The OSS scheme does not cover stock movements. If you enable Pan-European FBA, Amazon may move your products to warehouses in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, and the Czech Republic, requiring VAT registration in each.
With FBM (Fulfillment by Merchant), you ship from your home country and usually do not need foreign VAT numbers unless you use OSS. With FBA, Amazon stores your items abroad, which means you need local VAT numbers in every country where stock is held.
Amazon checks this strictly. If you do not have a valid VAT number in a country where your stock is stored, your seller account can be blocked immediately. This can result in lost sales and significant business disruption.
Amazon VCS creates invoices automatically but they are often incorrect in complex situations and you have no control over the layout. External software like Winkel Factuur gives you control and certainty, with correct VAT calculations and automatic upload to Amazon.
Winkel Factuur retrieves all orders from Amazon Seller Central, recognizes from which warehouse the product was shipped (important for determining which VAT to apply), calculates the correct local or OSS VAT rate, and creates and uploads invoices automatically within 24 hours.
Let Winkel Factuur do the heavy lifting. We ensure your invoices are correct and at Amazon on time. Prevent account blocks.
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