Amazon charges/VAT for selling to EU from the UK
I believe I’m right that unlike eBay and Discogs who charge the buyer the VAT, Amazon are charging the seller?
I have sold a CD for £26.99 to a German buyer today and my charges with fees/VAT/Tax have come to £12.94, so nearly half of the value of the item!
Can anyone enlighten me as to why Amazon have decided to do it differently to other marketplaces by charging the seller and not the buyer?
As of today, due to these ridiculous charges, I have stopped selling outside of the UK on Amazon.
68 replies
Seller_64jziShTiTjOq
Has it really taken you 6 months to notice this? Legally, the buyer is liable for VAT etc but Amazon have decided they don’t want their customers to face unexpected charges when the goods arrive, so you have to send them DDP (Delivery Duty Paid). There have been umpteen threads about this since 1 January and many sellers stopped selling to the EU on or after that date
On 1 July, other Brexit changes came into force and you now have other procedures to follow when sending to the EU
Seller_G8eWP7YqaJU36
I’ve had a similar situation as the OP and I’m also UK based not VAT registered in the UK, because I am under the VAT threshold.
I made a sale to a customer in Germany since the new rules came in on 1st July. What Amazon have done in my case is to deduct UK VAT from my selling price and then add the German VAT of 19% so the customer pays the German VAT.
My understanding is that for a UK VAT registered seller, this would be correct, as the selling price includes UK VAT, but for a non VAT registered seller, I don’t think it can be correct to deduct UK VAT, since the selling price never included any VAT. Happy to be corrected if I’ve got this wrong.
I’ve raised a ticket with seller support to query this, but have just got a stock answer about VAT being liable for EU sales, when the question I was asking them was why was UK VAT deducted from my sale price when it didn’t include any UK VAT.
Seller_sFEUMUfeW5484
It needs to be clarified BUT I think that VAT is due on ALL sales from UK to EU, regardless of the situation of the seller.
The query is this, should Amazon be deducting VAT form the listed price OR adding it then deducting it. And the second question is, is this a logistics question, in that can Amazon do it whichever way round they want. The VAT is due and it is being paid.
One way requires non vat registered sellers to raise their prices, the other doesn’t.
Seller_B9p4s6plEXSDE
I have also stopped selling outside the UK, i only sold to Ireland outside of the UK anyway due to VAT regulations BUT!! just last week i sold a bracelet ( i make handmade costume jewelry) that i sell for £6.50 (Plated version) and charge £3.95 for postage and packaging to Ireland, after Amazon fees etc, i received just under £6.50, i have to pay £3.05 for postage alone out of that never mind cost of my branded packaging and postage packaging, so i only made about £3, needless to say Ireland has now been switched off.
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
For those that are NOT vat registered - you shouldn’t have to do it BUT, have you made sure that on your inventory offer page for each asin you have the vat code set to the no vat code ?
Seller_ecd6EiAUT9uUJ
We’ve stopped selling anywhere else beside the UK, looks like Amazon are taking almost 50% of the item after their fees and tax etc then add on postage. No point wasting your time and money doing this, poor move for Amazon but hey this is what we voted for 
Seller_oYl0UE5Ve5HSf
The issue I have noticed is Amazon is removing the destination countries VAT from the value. Instead of the UK VAT first.
We are UK VAT registered and I have turned Amazon VCS back on - hoping it would fix the issue but doesn’t seem to have worked.
So it does mean for orders placed from Amazon-UK going to Ireland or similar with a higher VAT rate you will lose a little bit extra.
They should calculate the price excluding UK VAT then add on Irish VAT. But doesn’t seem to be happening.
Seller_sFEUMUfeW5484
I think (could be wrong) that sales into the EU from UK attracting VAT are not related to the status of the seller.
The answer on the below thread, helps.
However as Amazon have a policy that says a buyer must pay the LIST price, Amazon are insisting that sellers, vat registered or not, list at a price that includes that countries/products correct taxes.
So whilst Amazon “should” be adding the vat on for on vat registered sellers, and replacing the vat for vat registered sellers, they are not.
The reason? Because the legislation around IOSS does not dictate HOW the vat should/shouldn’t be added and that it should be paid.
Seller_Iqlh2NzR2cVKG
Hi
This is my first post, so apologies if i have uploaded anything wrong? I have being looking at posts on this topic for many weeks. I have uploaded two screenshots of a sale made on our Amazon DE marketplace. We ship items ourselves. This sale we used the IOSS number, but wanted to give a glimpse of maybe how it works to other sellers and the total income after the sale.
We wanted to trial this and see how the system works.
We, like many other sellers switched off our other marketplaces for months but did try switching on at times to test the water.
What i have found so far is that the new IOSS system seems to be slower than when we paid the customs/VAT ourselves. Also, we have had customers still being invoiced custom duties, even with the IOSS codes. You are also relying on the courier companies to use the correct codes.
