Hi everyone! A newbie here.
I live in Sweden but I want to sell on the German market, which means I’d need to store my FBA inventory in Germany. I currently have an individual seller account just to gain experience before switching to professional.
Do I need to register for German VAT before I can store inventory there?
If yes, do I need to do it before shipping there and how do I go about getting VAT?
Thank you!
Don’t do OA, it is risky and there are high chances of account deactivation.
You will need EPR in any case to sell in German market.
If Amazon will physically store your FBA inventory in Germany, you generally need German VAT registration, even though you and your business are based in Sweden. Amazon itself distinguishes this from simply selling to German customers from inventory stored elsewhere: OSS can cover qualifying cross-border B2C sales, but it does not replace the German VAT registration requirement when your stock is actually stored in Germany.
I would therefore register before sending inventory into German FBA. As a Swedish-established business without a German establishment, you register as a non-resident business with the German tax authorities. Germany assigns Swedish businesses to Finanzamt Hamburg-Nord for VAT purposes.
You can do the registration yourself, although for a beginner I would seriously consider using an accountant or VAT service because once registered you will also have ongoing German VAT filing obligations. Your Individual versus Professional Amazon selling plan does not change the underlying VAT requirement.
One important point: if you only want to sell to German customers, you do not necessarily have to store stock in Germany. You could keep the inventory in another EU country where you are appropriately registered and fulfil German orders cross-border, potentially using OSS. But if you specifically want German FBA storage, get the German VAT registration sorted before sending the stock.