German Tax Certificate
Good morning everyone. I have a question that I need some help with.
I received the following email from Amazon:
"Dear seller,
You are required to provide us with a German Tax Certificate confirming your tax registration status in Germany based on your activity on Amazon.
Under German VAT legislation, online marketplaces must collect a German Tax Certificate from sellers where goods are dispatched from locations in Germany or to customers in Germany and the sale being taxable in Germany according to the amendments in the German VAT Code (Sec. 22f UStG).
Please upload a copy of your valid German Tax Certificate to Seller Central. We will review your tax certificate, once received, and will revert to you in case additional information is required. This process may take up to 5 working days.
Upload your German Tax Certificate
The German Tax certificate is a prerequisite for selling to customers or from locations in Germany. Accordingly, you will be suspended from selling on Amazon.de marketplace, using FBA services in Germany (including Pan-EU and CEE FBA programs) and from shipping orders to German based customers until the tax certificate is received and verified.
To learn more about the Tax Certificate requirements in Germany, click here.
Need help with VAT registration and filing in Germany? Visit VAT Services on Amazon.
Click here to contact us.
Regards,
Amazon Services Europe S.à r.l."
My business hasn’t turned over more than 100,000 euros in Germany and I don’t expect we will be doing that for some time yet.
My plan had been to opt out of Pan European FBA when the new tax laws come in to affect on 1st October. This means all my inventory will be fulfilled from UK.
If I do this will I not need to register for VAT in Germany? Also, how do I opt out of Pan European FBA?
Please let me know if you need any clarification.
Thanks guys!
78 replies
Seller_9vVP6PAuVA6hr
I have also received this email - I have not made a sale on Amazon Germany for 8 months and in the last year have turned over around £700 on there…
Seller_YEFxcfQls1c3L
If you’re already using Pan Europe, you’re currently storing stock in Germany which means you should be registered for VAT in Germany currently (as the 100,000 EUR threshold doesn’t apply once you store stock in the country), as well as all the other international FBA marketplaces.
I think you need to speak to a tax advisor about the best way to take your business forward - whether that’s registering for VAT and back-paying what you owe, or withdrawing all your stock from Germany (therefore opting out of Pan EU).
To turn it off, you go to Settings -> Fulfilment By Amazon -> Pan-European FBA (edit) and untick enable.
Seller_qZO3ZCjoBXEeL
Are you using EFN FBA (orders shipped from UK) or PAN-EU FBA?
If you are using PAN-EU FBA then you already have goods located in German and other EU FBA warehouses? If this is the case you are already liable for VAT registration in each country where stock is held, there is no threshold.
If you are using EFN and all your goods are stored in the UK only then there is no need to change anything unless you are approaching the distance selling threshold for any EU country (Germany is EUR100,000 as you say) You just fill out the declaration saying you don’t need to be tax registered.
Seller_EJIX7rqDNQJi2
Is your FBA inventory actually stored in Germany?
Seller_7XvEqr0trKHBy
aamzon natch offer a service to facilitate registration. And they ask you to sign up and agree to this without stating the cost. how odd is that>??
Seller_Aqe6YXaIh2iuR
We keep submitting the declaration form to say we do not need to register for VAT in Germany, but still keep receiving emails regarding the status of our German account. We have had at least 10 cases which have been closed and the problem still has not been resolved. We have another case open today.
Seller_NLeICknveO0bf
Amazon writes the same mail to me, even though I have also submitted the declaration.
I do not have PAN EU, but EFN, which says “The European Fulfillment Network (EFN) allows sellers with an Amazon Europe Marketplaces account who are also registered for Fulfillment by Amazon to store their inventory in their local fulfillment center, and fulfill orders coming from other European marketplaces from the same local inventory pool”. My local fulfillment center is in Spain.
It looks like Amazon makes it simple and safe for them self, saying when you are using FBA you need a certificate. Or have I misunderstood something?
Seller_3K7VAPq15d6L3
Seller_n33KwLeg9XOvi
yep same here, but DE listings still active at the moment
Seller_WQGWTrhkyddoF
Thank you all for your help in this.
In the end I’ve decided to opt in to Amazons VAT registering thingamabob.
