New French tax obligations 2020

The French Anti-Fraud Act requires Amazon to provide the French Tax Authority with data regarding a seller’s 2019 Amazon business by January 31, 2020, including the seller’s French and European VAT numbers. The French Tax Authority may use a seller’s data to assess the seller’s compliance with French tax requirements. If they find a seller non-compliant, they may direct us to suspend the seller's Amazon.fr account and prevent the seller from selling to customers in France.

Find out more about the New French tax obligations.

What actions generate a French VAT registration requirement?

While there are many actions that generate a French VAT registration requirement, three of the most common for sellers on Amazon are:

• You are established outside France but store inventory and fulfil orders from France; or
• You ship goods to French customers from another European country (not France), where your inventory is stored and your total sales per year to French customers exceeds €35,000; or
• You are established in France and ship goods to French customers from France and your total sales per year across all sales channels exceeds €82,800.

If you need to be VAT registered in France, we recommend that you begin applying for your French VAT number today since the process can take several months to complete with the French Tax Authority.

What actions generate a European VAT registration requirement?

While there are many actions that generate a European VAT registration requirement, if you ship goods from another European country, you may be required to obtain a European VAT number from that European country. In general, VAT registration requirements are the same across Europe although different countries have different annual sales thresholds.

If you need to be VAT registered in Europe, we recommend that you begin applying for your European VAT number today since the process can take several months to complete with the relevant European Tax Authority.

What services does Amazon provide for VAT registration?

VAT Services on Amazon – Simplifying Compliance: VAT Services on Amazon is a compliance solution that allows you to manage your European and UK VAT requirements.

VAT registration and filing obligations via a third-party tax service provider through Seller Central is available in seven countries (UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland and the Czech Republic).

Spend less time on VAT and more time focusing on growing your business in Europe.

When you join VAT Services on Amazon, Amazon will cover the cost of filing and fiscal representation in all the new countries you subscribed in for the first six months.