Sorry for what is inevitably a lengthy post but anyone thinking of sending stock into Germany will be pleased to know I have taken one for the team.

Years ago I was like many sellers invited to take part in VAT registrations all over Europe(around 5 years ago well before Amazon VAT services was invented) through Avalara). It didn’t go well but eventually with the introduction of VAT services they got their act together and it started to work out and I was quite happily trading fba in Germany and other Euro countries whilst filing monthly returns without much issue.

Along came Brexit and everything just stopped and I could no longer get my supplies into any EU country. It is annoying because I am now being charged over £2000 a year for zero filings or I could de-register with a similar cost. Amazon washed their hands of it and have lumbered me with charges ever since.

Just before Christmas I was contacted by Amazon asking if I would like to join an invitation only scheme to get my stock to Germany and use one of their partnered fiscal representatives. It will come at a small cost but I would make this up with discounted shipping rates through UPS etc.

For this to work I had to set up an account with UPS and link this to the Amazon account and use the partner carrier program and do some customs docs with the fiscal rep…

I sent my goods in and all went well. I don’t want to divulge figures but will give a general illustration of my issue here.

Lets say I sent a stock cost to me of £500 containing 500 units wth a resale value of £3 each +VAT.

This means I have a stock sale value of £1500*. with fba fees that will amount to around £750*. That will leave me with a profit of £250* when sold minus the shipping costs of around £12* and fiscal cost of around £15*. All good so far yes?

Here’s the thing, I received 3 additional charges to the new UPS account that was organised by Amazon. A duty invoice for around £350* and then another bill for disbursement of £14*.

I got in touch with the fiscal rep and Amazon who said this was an error and I should not pay it. Amazon VAT services referred it and they stated that any bills from UPS is between me and UPS.

I asked the question at what point do I pay the VAT. Am I paying the VAT through UPS which was at no point advised or relayed to me in the agreement or do I pay it on my transactions reports. Also the UPS bill is not just for VAT but it also has a general duty charge which they cannot explain what it’s for.

UPS have not responded to any of the 6 emails I have sent to them, they do not have any department that discusses this on the phone and all queries for this type of thing has to be done by email.

The Amazon rep dealing with this said they will get back to me when they have an answer and hasn’t replied to anything since.

Good luck with anyone trying to make any sense of this but any suggestions would be appreciated. I don’t expect Amazon will act on this forum post but happy to know that they do monitor the forums and will become aware of the issues raised as I am being stone walled once again. VAT services just fob it off, pretend that Amazon has nothing to do with it and if all else fails perhaps I could contact my special mythical European tax advisor.

I am aware that there are a few who are in a similar position to me that have been unable to send stock and know this is of interest to anyone trading in Europe and I was hoping to post good news on here about the initiative. Unfortunately I feel like I have been given a spade to dig me out of this deep hole that Amazon dug for me but it was me who decided to jump in. Amazon will will help you dig a little deeper but don’t expect anyone to reach out and give you a helping hand, they will just hand you another spade.

*Note the figures are an illustration and proportionate to broadly show the issue to protect company sensitive information.