Amazon collects part of the VAT for you, which removes neither your registration nor your returns. Here is who declares what.
Since the e-commerce VAT reform, marketplaces collect and remit VAT on part of their sellers' B2C sales. Many sellers conclude they have nothing left to do. They are wrong, and the gap between the two positions gets paid in late-filing penalties.
When a local registration becomes mandatory
The useful rule: as soon as you hold stock in a country, you need a VAT number there. Stock creates a VAT presence regardless of who collects the tax on the final sale. The most common cases:
- You use FBA and Amazon places your stock in several European countries: one number per storage country.
- You enabled Pan-EU: stock moves, and the countries follow.
- You import into France and sell from France: French registration, plus import VAT to handle.
- You sell B2B, or to customers who require an invoice showing local VAT.
The One-Stop-Shop
For distance sales to consumers from one EU country to another, OSS lets you declare and pay the VAT of every destination country in a single quarterly return, filed in your country of registration. It is a reporting simplification, not an exemption from registering: OSS never replaces a local number made necessary by stock.
IOSS for imported consignments
IOSS covers low-value imported consignments shipped directly to the customer, with a monthly return. It suits sellers shipping from outside the Union with no European stock, and it too requires disciplined tracking of thresholds and declared customs values.
What the marketplace does for you
Where Amazon is liable for the VAT on a transaction, it shows in your reports as collected by the platform. Those amounts still have to be identified and reconciled in your books, and some of those sales still need reporting in your returns, at zero rate or as non-taxable transactions depending on the case. It is the single biggest source of error in the files we take over.
Fiscal representation
If your company is established outside the Union and outside the countries that have a mutual assistance agreement with France, appointing a fiscal representative is required for French registration. Established in the EU, you register directly. This is worth settling before filing anything, because it changes which documents you need.
The returns people forget
- The EC sales list for intra-community B2B supplies.
- The statistical survey on movements of goods, once thresholds are crossed.
- Import VAT adjustments, frequently missing from files put together remotely.
A calendar rather than a good memory
A Pan-EU seller with an OSS return easily accumulates twenty-odd deadlines a year. We gather them into a shared calendar, with a reminder before each filing and a confirmation after. Less spectacular than a dashboard, but it is what avoids penalties.