Amazon VAT Germany: What Every FBA Seller Must Know in 2026

Amazon ended its free VAT Services programme in October 2024, so sellers now need their own VAT compliance provider. Any seller using Amazon FBA warehouses in Germany must be VAT-registered, with no minimum sales threshold, and files a VAT return monthly or quarterly, as the tax office decides, including nil returns.

What Changed in October 2024?

Amazon's VAT Services programme handled VAT registration and monthly filing for sellers in up to 7 EU countries, for free. It was offered through third-party tax service providers embedded in Seller Central.

As of October 31, 2024, this programme no longer exists. Every seller who was enrolled now needs to:

• Find their own VAT compliance provider
• Transfer their existing VAT registrations
• Ensure uninterrupted monthly filings

Paying, signing up, and Amazon VAT invoices

How do you pay Amazon VAT in Germany?

You pay German VAT directly to your German Finanzamt, not to Amazon. After your monthly VAT return (UStVA) is filed, the net amount due, which is the VAT you charged on your German sales minus the deductible input VAT (Vorsteuer) on your German purchases, is transferred by SEPA bank transfer to your Finanzamt's account by the 10th of the following month, quoting your Steuernummer as the payment reference. There is one exception to the "you charge and remit it yourself" rule: under the marketplace deemed-supplier rule (§3 Abs. 3a UStG), Amazon itself collects and remits the VAT on certain B2C sales by sellers established outside the EU, so those amounts do not pass through your own return. For ordinary FBA sales from German stock by an EU-established seller, you remit the VAT yourself after each monthly filing; a UK seller is established outside the EU, so the rule above applies. Paying from a foreign bank account works by SEPA transfer or direct debit; the exact steps are in how to pay German VAT from abroad. With Vaytax, a licensed tax advisor files the return and tells you the exact amount and reference to pay.

How do you sign up for Amazon VAT in Germany?

Signing up for "Amazon VAT" in Germany means registering with the German Finanzamt for a Steuernummer and a USt-IdNr., then adding both to Seller Central. You do not sign up for VAT inside Amazon itself; Amazon only stores the number once the Finanzamt has issued it. The steps are: (1) gather your incorporation documents (these vary by country, for example a UK Certificate of Incorporation plus Articles, or a US LLC certificate plus EIN); (2) submit the German tax registration questionnaire to the responsible Finanzamt; (3) receive your Steuernummer, usually in 4 to 8 weeks; the USt-IdNr., which you request on the same questionnaire, is issued by a separate federal office, the Federal Central Tax Office (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern, BZSt), and sent by post, often together with your Steuernummer (if it comes separately, it usually takes a few weeks, sometimes longer); (4) upload the VAT certificate and number to Seller Central; (5) begin filing VAT returns, monthly or quarterly as the tax office decides. The timeline is driven by Finanzamt processing, not by Amazon. With Vaytax it is €1,299/year all-in, covering the registration plus the monthly UStVA and annual return, handled by a licensed tax advisor.

How does Amazon issue a VAT receipt or invoice?

Amazon issues VAT invoices automatically through its VAT Calculation Service (VCS) once you enable it in Seller Central. Each invoice shows your business details, your German USt-IdNr., the VAT rate applied (19% standard or 7% reduced), and the VAT amount per order. Buyers download their invoice from the order page, and you download copies from the VAT Calculation Report in the Tax Document Library. If VCS is not enabled, you or your tax advisor must issue compliant invoices yourself: a valid German VAT invoice must contain the elements required under §14 UStG (supplier and customer details, invoice number and date, VAT rate and amount, and the net and gross totals). One scope point: VCS only generates the invoices. It does not file your VAT return, so you still report the monthly totals to the Finanzamt yourself.

Do You Need German VAT Registration?

If you answer "yes" to any of these, you need a German VAT number:

• You use Amazon FBA in Germany, If Amazon stores your products in German warehouses (which is the default for Pan-EU), you must be VAT-registered
• You sell to German customers from another EU country and exceed the €10,000 combined EU distance selling threshold, unless you report those sales through the One-Stop-Shop (OSS) in your home country instead
• You're enrolled in Pan-EU or CEE programmes, Amazon distributes your inventory across multiple countries, each requiring registration

Most of the Amazon sellers we register hold stock in a German warehouse, most of them through FBA. And many had already started selling in Germany before they came to us, so the months before the tax number still need returns.

Country-specific guidance: UK sellers, China sellers, Poland, Italy, France, Netherlands, Switzerland.

What Amazon Requires From You

Amazon's compliance team will ask you for:

1. VAT registration certificate, The official Bescheinigung from the Finanzamt, uploaded to Seller Central
2. Valid VAT number, Your DE-prefixed USt-IdNr.
3. Ongoing compliance, Amazon may periodically verify that your VAT filings are current

Failure to provide valid VAT documentation can result in listing suppression or account suspension.

Your Options: Choosing a VAT Provider

Providers fall into three broad categories, and the difference that matters most is who actually signs and files your return. In Germany only a licensed Steuerberater may file VAT returns on your behalf, so the question for any provider is whether that person is in-house or subcontracted.

• Pan-EU software platforms, strong multi-country coverage and English interfaces, with the German filing typically carried out by a local partner firm you do not choose or meet.
• Self-serve compliance services, lower headline pricing, more of the data preparation left with you, and registration usually billed separately per country.
• Local German tax advisors, in-house filing and direct Finanzamt contact, but often no English-language product and pricing quoted per hour rather than per filing.

Vaytax is the third category with the first category's interface: a licensed German Steuerberater files in-house, and you get an English product to submit your figures through. €99/month if you already hold a German VAT number, or €1,299/year all-in with the German VAT registration included.

Already with a provider and thinking of moving? See how switching your German VAT provider works, or moving after Taxdoo.

What to Look for in a Provider

• Licensed tax advisor involvement, In Germany, only licensed tax advisors can file VAT returns on your behalf. Make sure your provider actually has one.
• Finanzamt filing by a licensed Steuerberater, the regulated professional channel German tax authorities expect. Filings on this path are less likely to trigger inquiries.
• Transparent pricing, Beware hidden per-transaction fees, mandatory annual contracts, or surprise renewal charges.
• Language support, Can you actually communicate with your provider in your language?
• Speed, How quickly can they submit your registration and start filing?

Monthly Filing: What's Involved?

Each month, you need to:

1. Report your German sales (net amounts at 19% or 7% VAT)
2. Report any intra-community deliveries (0% VAT to other EU businesses)
3. Report any input VAT (Vorsteuer) from German purchase invoices
4. File the return by the 10th of the following month

With our service, you fill out a simple multilingual form with your data. We handle the rest.

Amazon Transaction Reports

Amazon provides several reports that help with VAT compliance:

• VAT Transactions Report, Download from Seller Central > Reports > Fulfilment by Amazon, Tax section (how-to guide)
• Date Range Report, More detailed, available under Reports > Payments
• Amazon VAT Calculation Service (VCS), Generates VAT invoices automatically for your orders

Your VAT provider should be able to work with these reports to prepare your filings.

Vaytax works from this report directly: upload the VAT Transactions Report in the dashboard and it is read line by line, with every euro classified as German 19% or 7% sales, intra-EU B2B, exports, or marketplace sales Amazon accounts for itself (§ 3 Abs. 3a UStG), which are set aside. The total is reconciled against the file's own total, unreadable files are rejected with exact guidance, and a licensed German tax advisor files the return.

Curious what your VAT Transactions Report actually adds up to? Drop it into our free Amazon VAT calculator. It reads the report on your device (nothing is uploaded) and shows the German VAT it implies, line by line, reconciled to your file total. It is a draft you can have reviewed and filed, not your final VAT.

If Amazon is not your only channel

Your German VAT return is one return covering every German-taxable sale you make, not only the Amazon ones. A seller listing on Amazon, OTTO Market and Kaufland while also running their own store is producing four sets of numbers that have to arrive in a single UStVA (monthly VAT return), and the channels are not treated alike: on the marketplaces the platform is usually the deemed supplier for a seller established outside the EU and accounts for that VAT itself (§3 Abs. 3a UStG), while sales through your own store are never marketplace sales and stay yours to declare.

The practical fix is to consolidate the channel data before it reaches whoever files for you, whether that is a spreadsheet you maintain or a multichannel tool such as M2E Multichannel Connect. It changes nothing about what you owe: stock sitting in Germany is what triggers the registration, from the first unit, and the filing obligation is separate from any of it.

Frequently asked questions

What happens if I sell on Amazon.de without a German VAT number?

Three compounding risks: Amazon can suspend your listings under marketplace compliance; the Finanzamt can impose back-taxes, interest, and penalties retroactively; and under §25e UStG, marketplaces can be held jointly liable for unpaid VAT, which is why Amazon polices this aggressively. The cheapest path is to register before you start selling.

Do I need a Steuernummer or a USt-IdNr. for Amazon FBA?

Both, and they are different numbers. The Steuernummer is your domestic German tax number (Finanzamt-issued, used for filing your UStVA). The USt-IdNr. (DE + 9 digits) is the EU VAT identification number from the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern, used for cross-border EU transactions and shown to Amazon. See our Steuernummer vs USt-IdNr. guide.

In our clients' cases, the step that holds sellers up most is not the tax number but the VAT ID. Amazon asks for the USt-IdNr, not the Steuernummer, and keeps rejecting a new or reactivated VAT ID until the BZSt has processed it. Retrying doesn't speed this up; only waiting does.

Michael Stiller, Steuerberater (licensed German tax advisor)

Files your German VAT returns with the Finanzamt

Written by Michael Stiller, licensed German tax advisor (Steuerberater) and founder of FRADECO GmbH, the tax advisory firm that runs Vaytax and files German VAT returns with the Finanzamt (tax office) for foreign sellers.

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