Cheap Warehouse in Europe recommendation
Hi everyone,
We are a UK business and have been selling in the UK marketplace. We are considering to expand to Europe (Germany and France). Our goods are made in China so we will have to ship our goods directly from China to EU ports (to avoid double customs post Brexit). We have been recommended to set up a company in Europe and specifically in either Netherlands or Czech Republic. We are in talk with a freight forwarder who has warehouse capacity in Czech Republic and they said they could send our goods from China to their warehouse in Czech and then drop-ship / or UPS into AMZ FC in Germany or France. May I ask:
- Is this the most economical route to do this (in terms of transportation and costs), and
- Is Czech the cheapest place in EU for warehousing? Can anyone recommend a reliable / cheap warehousing solution in Europe please? Much appreciated!!!
- if we set up a company in Czech we would have to register VAT with the local country and also with Germany and France tax authority as well because we will be selling our goods there? Can anyone recommend a service to set up a business in Europe and tax registration with local authorities in multiple jurisdictions in Europe?
Thanks everyone! Any input is greatly appreciated!
Eluer.
Any inputs would be
Seller_qZO3ZCjoBXEeL
I cannot answer the first questions, however since you said you are looking to do FBA in the EU then you must be VAT registered in every country where you store goods.
A service that allows you to setup a business in Europe and do tax registration?
Well, not sure how much benefit you are really getting by setting up a new company in Europe, but Amazon VAT Services will allow you to arrange your VAT filings for each of the locations you wish to trade from.
To be honest, you are discussing setting up a quite a complicated multinational organisation with a lot of varied tax implications, jurisdictional rules and at a time when both intra-EU and UK-EU rules have never been more complicated and changing.
To get a properly planned answer you would need to engage a full accountancy firm with multinational experience otherwise everything else is little better than guesswork and trial-and-error, neither of which has much place in such matters.
Seller_qZO3ZCjoBXEeL
Sure, you need to find a customs broker and an agent to act as the import guarantor for it - it can be done. Don’t ask for specifics as I don’t know, but yet, there are ways to do that. Whether it is easier or better than having a local company I don’t know.
Seller_xDtaDZ1Iek9Fq
my understanding is this and I am no expert… my knowledge is by writing software to deal with cross-border VAT etc.
Amazon has got warehouse in CZ servicing mainly for the Germanic countries; so you will need CZ VAT already to have item shipped there, you will have the EORI for CZ; especially you are the importer as well. If you are doing PAN-EU or using warehouse in DE and FR, then you will need to register in those countries for VAT. Not sure whether you can limit the storage in CZ Amazon warehouse only and do MFN, it might be a bit more expensive BUT save headache for dealing with many VAT registration and return.
As other said, you will need professional advise to make your decision. This is a very complex issue.
