Amazon stock in EU warehouses: the sale VAT is Amazon's

Since 1 July 2026, most goods posted from Britain to consumers in the EU in parcels worth up to €150 have carried a customs duty of €3 per item, under an EU regulation the European Commission explains in its guidance on the e-commerce rules. For a UK Amazon seller weighing whether to send stock to a warehouse in Germany or Poland instead, the VAT changes shape. Amazon accounts for the VAT on each sale to an EU consumer from that stock, while the registrations, the import and the paperwork stay with the seller. Keeping those two halves apart is one of the bigger jobs in Amazon seller accounting.

Why Amazon accounts for the sale

EU VAT law has a rule for marketplaces. Under Article 14a(2) of the VAT Directive, where a platform facilitates a sale of goods within the EU by a seller not established in the EU to a consumer, the platform is treated as having bought the goods and sold them on itself. A UK business with no base of its own in the EU is that kind of seller, and the EU's implementing regulation says that holding a VAT number there does not by itself change that.

The Commission's explanatory notes spell out what that leaves the seller. Its sale to the platform is exempt from VAT, but it keeps the right to reclaim VAT on its costs. It still has to issue an invoice for that sale, which the platform can produce for it under self-billing. And in the Commission's worked examples, the seller has to register for VAT in the country where the goods are held.

What stays with you

• The import. Stock shipped in bulk to a warehouse is not a parcel sold to a consumer, so the €3 per-item duty does not apply to it. It is imported under the normal rules instead, with import VAT and any duty the customs tariff sets for the goods due on entry. Because your sales to Amazon carry the right to reclaim, that import VAT can normally be recovered on your return in that country.

• Moves between countries. If stock travels from one EU country to another, for example when a programme spreads it across several warehouses, Article 17 of the Directive treats the move as a supply. Each country where the stock is stored brings its own registration and its own returns.

• The UK end. Moving your own stock out of the UK with no sale attached is not a supply, as HMRC's export notice explains for transfers of a business's own goods, so there is no UK VAT on the shipment and its value stays out of box 6. You still need proof that the goods left the UK.

Pallets against parcels

Illustration, not a real client. A kitchenware company in Acton sells on Amazon's German site, posting single items from London at around €25 each. Every one of those parcels now carries €3 of duty, about 12 per cent of the price.

It decides to send 3,000 units to a warehouse in Germany instead. Before the first pallet leaves, it registers for German VAT, appoints a customs agent to handle the import, and keeps the shipping records as its UK proof of export. On arrival, German import VAT is paid, and later reclaimed on its German return.

When a customer in Munich buys a pan, Amazon accounts for the German VAT on that sale. The company's German return shows its exempt sale to Amazon, backed by the self-billed invoice, and the import VAT it is reclaiming.

Sold as single parcels from London, those 3,000 units, about €75,000 of sales, would have carried €9,000 of per-item duty. Against that saving sit the German registration and returns, the customs agent's fees and whatever duty the tariff charges on the bulk shipment, and that comparison is the one to run before the stock moves.

Before the first pallet

• Register for VAT in each country where stock will be held, before it arrives.

• Decide who will act as importer, and how the import VAT will be reclaimed.

• Set up the invoicing to Amazon, usually by self-billing, so each local return has its paperwork.

• Keep UK proof of export for every shipment.

• Put each country's return dates in the diary alongside your UK ones.

Our page on cross-border VAT for online sellers sets out where the EU's One Stop Shop schemes and the marketplace rules each apply. The Commission's guidance has the €3 duty running until 30 June 2028, which leaves time to cost the warehouse route properly before next year's peak.

About the author

Harvey Dhillon is Founder and CEO of Zmartly, a UK accountancy firm for Amazon FBA and ecommerce sellers. He grew up in West London and began his career in investment banking finance at Barclays, before going full-time on Zmartly in 2020. He is a Chartered Management Accountant (ACMA, CGMA).

Featured photo by Alberto Rodríguez on Unsplash.