Guest Post: What Amazon FBA Sellers Need To Consider

2) I completed the VAT Registration in each country I want to sell my products in

Dealing with taxes is the unpleasing, onerous part of doing business, but it has to be done. Every state’s government wants a piece of your revenue cake, and so do the European ones. It can be exhausting and time-consuming to gain an overview of new laws in different languages, especially when you want to enter a multi-state market like the EU. But it is absolutely crucial and inevitable to take care of your tax management. Not drawing enough attention to detail or, even worse, neglecting tax responsibility, can result in business failure due to staggeringly high penalty payments.

One way to handle all this red tape, is to participate in professional webinars and workshops on the regular or, more convenient, to hire a professional financial services provider. The main benefit of hiring a professional firm is that they know exactly what documents are required and are likely to have an established network for a fast and easy processing of your requests.

Pocket Knowledge VAT:

• If your products are stored in an EU country, sold and shipped to customers based in that country, you are required to register for VAT in that country only
• If you want to sell your products to customers from other countries than the country where your products are stored, you may be required to realize additional VAT registrations in the countries you want to sell and ship your product(s) to
• As taxes are not harmonized in the EU, the amount of VAT that must be paid differs from country to country; it ranges from 17% in Luxembourg to 27% in Hungary
• The VAT is an indirect tax: even though you (as seller and therefore taxable person) need to pay the tax to the financial authorities, the VAT is taken into account in your pricing, meaning it is included in the final price. Thus, it is paid by the customer.

3) My product labelling and packaging complies with EU & national regulations

Once you made sure that your products meet all the requirements set by the European authorities, it’s time to think about the packaging & labelling.

Packaging:

The packaging used for your products has to meet all requirements that were established for protecting the environment and the consumer.

Please note that there can be additional, country-specific regulations imposed by single EU member states. We recommend consulting an expert as they can check quickly and professionally if your packaging meets all national and supranational standards and if all possibly arising license fees have been paid. We recommend assigning all tasks related to those highly complex issues to a consultant firm specialized in Amazon FBA EU, as they are experienced and have topic-specific knowledge.

Labelling:

Every product that belongs to any of the categories listed below and is sold within the EU, must have a label containing the most important product information and the address of an authorised representative/importer from the EU. These guidelines ensure that customers receive all relevant facts about the product before making their purchase decision.

Product categories:

• Fishery Products
• Foodstuffs
• Footwear
• Energy-related Products
• Meat Products
• Textiles
• Tyres
• Wine And Certain Wine Product