German Tax obligation for FBM
Is Amz making me to register for OSS even though Im not legally obligated?
My accountant said until I go over €10000 threshold I dont need to register for OSS. Anyone else had to register anyway?
13 replies
Seller_64jziShTiTjOq
Correction to my previous reply. I had confused OSS with IOSS. There is a threshold of €10,000 on OSS. But the whole scheme only applies within the EU, so is irrelevant to the UK. The only problem is that you are based in the Republic of Ireland but have to sell on the Amazon.uk site, even when doing FBM to the EU, as there is no Amazon marketplace (yet) for the Republic. So you MAY have to send your goods using IOSS, not OSS
This looks like a very complex question to which you may not get an answer on this forum
Seller_BS5lg2keRs2QO
In addition to the above, Amazon’s guidance seems to strongly suggest that Germany has different rules:
- Why do I need to upload a German VAT registration number instead of a German tax certificate to continue selling to German customers post July 1st?
According to the new amendments in the German VAT Code (“UStG”), Amazon is required to collect from Selling Partners a valid German VAT registration number (“Umsatzsteuer-Identifikationsnummer”) instead of a German tax certificate. Note that your German VAT registration number needs to match your business name and address stored by the German Federal Tax Authority. Selling partners legally established inside the EU who do not provide a German VAT registration number post July 1st, are no longer going to be able to sell on Amazon.de or to customers in Germany.
The following non-exhaustive list of transactions are subject to German VAT and trigger a German VAT registration obligation in Germany:
• You store inventory and fulfil from Germany
• You ship goods to German customers from another EU country where your inventory is stored
If you do not store inventory in Germany you can meet your tax obligations in Germany by opting in to Union One-Stop-Shop (OSS). You will need to provide evidence that you report your EU B2C cross border sales to Germany through OSS and mark the VAT number registered in the country where you have established your business as your OSS VAT number. In case you fail to provide evidence that you enrolled into OSS post July 1st or do not upload a valid German VAT registration number before July 1st, you will be no longer able to sell on Amazon.de or to customers in Germany. More information on the changing VAT requirements in Germany can be found on this help page.
Edit - thinking about it i seem to remember maybe a year ago Amazon sent something for sellers to declare they had no German liability which does suggest Germany has different rules
Further edit - i can’t find the original email about exemption for Germany, but there have been a couple of emails recently that single out Germany:
