EFN - buyer wants a VAT receipt? (yet Amazon collected the VAT - not us)
EFN - buyer wants a VAT receipt, but it’s Amazon.de who’ve collected the VAT & handed it to the DE tax authorities.
Example…
we sell an item for €17,91 …and that’s what we receive (obviously elss fees)…there is no VAT in play.
However the customer actually paid €21,31 …the difference is €3.40…this being the VAT that Amazon have collected & will hand over to the German VAT authority.
Customer has since asked us for an invoice showing the VAT (€21,31)…but how can we issue such an invoice …we never saw/collected that VAT, we aren’t registered for VAT in Germany…Amazon collected the VAT!
Anyone had a similar message from a customer…if so, how did you handle it?
12 replies
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
Not sure if I am correct as I don’t sell outside uk but hopefully someone else can comment too @PeterB, @BonChoixUK maybe
If the buyer is requesting a vat receipt, it means they must be a business, making this a business transaction in which case amazon should not have collected and remitted the vat etc ?!
Possibly the buyer has not registered on amazon as a business - that could be the issue however, as an EFN order that means FBA and then you should direct the customer to amazon
Seller_qZO3ZCjoBXEeL
If it is a marketplace sale then the invoice should be issued by Amazon - if the VAT has been raised by Amazon.
Did you send the parcel using Amazon IOSS, or did you fulfil it DDP with your courier?
If the former then Amazon is responsible for the invoice. If the latter then VAT was charged at import to your courier account and is unrecoverable. You can only supply an invoice showing the price paid and VAT not applicable.
If you sent it Duty un-paid and it wasn’t IOSS then they will have been billed by the courier for the import VAT. They will already have the documentation to recover that VAT from them (or can request from them - you won’t be able to), and again, you can only supply them a vanilla invoice for the sales amount with no VAT on it.
Seller_2Su3bcJXQR0sO
Go into customer’s order. Download. Email the download to customer. All the DE vat should be on there.
Seller_n3kq7gcIclCDM
I’ve just encountered this exact issue.
I use EFN, Amazon shipped the order from their UK fulfillment centres, the customer in France paid invoice amount plus VAT but the invoice doesn’t mention VAT. The customer has contacted me requesting an invoice which includes VAT.
Normally these say IOSS order on them and Amazon will collect and pay the VAT but this one doesn’t. It’s a business to business order.
I queried the invoice with Seller support who tell me this is correct.
I don’t really understand what’s going on here - what do I tell the customer?
