Amazon Selling - EU VAT Registrations

UK Company wanting to sell in EU

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Hi all

I am getting confused with requirements for what we need to do for our online selling business. My accountants dont know unfortunately, they are very small UK based without EU VAT knowledge.

We are a UK company (physically located, VAT registered etc) currently selling products on Amazon.

We want to sell to the consumers in France, Germany, Italy and maybe other EU countries. Our intention is to use Amazon fulfilment services for all the operation. Goods will be made and dispatched in bulk, from the UK, to Amazon warehouses in the EU. 

We dont have a EU company or any location in the EU. We will just being using Amazon Warehouses for storage and Amazon Logistics services for delivery.  

Taking France as the start point, am I correct in thinking my UK company has to register for French VAT and obtain a French EORI number?

Is this possible to do this without a physical location/operation in France/the EU? 

I've seen companies like Avalara offering EU VAT compliance but I wasnt sure its that easy?

Any comments/help would be very much appreciated.

Thank you

 

 

 

 

 

Replies (4)

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By David Ex
18th May 2022 23:22

eyup wrote:

My accountants dont know unfortunately, they are very small UK based without EU VAT knowledge.

You just need to find an accountant with the necessary specialism - of which there will be plenty. You can search here for an ICAEW member:

https://find.icaew.com/

There are other accounting bodies also.

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VAT
By Jason Croke
19th May 2022 08:54

You don't need a physical location (establishment) to register for VAT in an EU member state.

Place of supply of goods is where they are located at time of sale, if they are in a French warehouse at time of sale then French VAT applies. Also how do the goods get into France? Where do the goods come from? Are you selling the goods as a third party market place trader or are you selling to Amazon and Amazon sells under their own banner?

Avalara are but one of many firms that specialise in EU registrations, but most of these firms rely on automation, so you need to send your data to them in their preferred format, etc.

Amazon has its own VAT resource within its seller central forum. You are either going to need to invest your time in doing the research or accepting there is a cost (of specialist advice (ie, Avalara), if you want to sell into the EU. Need to weigh up the sales/profit from the EU market against the cost of advice to enable you to access the EU markets.
https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/external/202098490

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By YourCloudAccountant
19th May 2022 14:55

This is our specialism. It can get quite complex but I will give you a broad brush.

1. So you can sell two ways. One is to use the pan european programme which recently reopened, this dispatches item from the UK and sells to customers in the EU directly. This would be subject to Amazon's IOSS scheme and not require any further registrations
2. FBA from within the EU. This is where you allow Amazon to relocate your items throughout Europe. So if you allowed them to do this in Germany (the biggest market) you will have to register for VAT in Czech Republic, Poland and Germany. As these are where the warehouses are located for the German Market.

The first option has lower set up and ongoing costs. The second option is the all in option where you benefit from the Prime delivery times.

For those who do not know if their product will cut through in Europe we would recommend testing the water with the first one. Then select one new market to FBA in after you get results.

If you want to know more you can go here https://yourecommerceaccountant.co.uk/expert-ecommerce-accountants-knowl...

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