If you sell through Amazon FBA, Amazon physically stores your goods in its warehouses — usually not in your home country, but in Germany, Poland, Czechia or Spain. This storage is what matters for VAT: the moment your goods sit in a warehouse in another member state, you must register for VAT there, regardless of turnover. The OSS scheme simplifies reporting of cross-border sales to consumers, but it never replaces the local registration triggered by the stock itself.
Why does a foreign warehouse trigger VAT?
VAT follows where the goods physically sit and from where they are shipped to the customer. Under programmes such as Pan-European FBA, Amazon moves your stock between its warehouses across the Union so that goods are as close to the buyer as possible. That means even a Slovak or Czech company can have its products lying in a hall near Leipzig or Wrocław.
Once goods leave such a warehouse for a customer, it is either a domestic supply or a distance sale from that country — and the obligation to account for VAT arises there. This is why most states (Germany and Poland included) require you to register for VAT before the first stock arrives, with no turnover threshold at all. Simply storing goods in the country is reason enough to register.
What counts as a transfer of your own goods?
When Amazon moves your stock, say from Germany to Poland, it is not mere internal logistics from a VAT point of view. It is a transfer of your own goods, treated as a supply of goods for consideration. You have an intra-Community supply in the country of dispatch and, at the same time, an acquisition of goods in the country where the stock arrives.
In practice you must report every such movement in both countries and hold a valid VAT number in each. Example: if Amazon moves 200 units of your product from a German warehouse to a Polish one, you report an exempt intra-Community supply in Germany and an acquisition in Poland — without registration in both states you cannot record the movement correctly.
When to register for OSS and what it covers?
The One Stop Shop (OSS) scheme is used to report VAT on distance sales to final consumers in other EU states. Once your cross-border sales to consumers exceed the common threshold of EUR 10,000 per year, you must pay VAT in the customer’s country — and instead of many national registrations you file a single quarterly OSS return through your domestic tax authority.
OSS is therefore a practical tool for simplifying the reporting of sales to customers across the Union. It does not, however, cover situations where you merely move goods between warehouses, or where you sell from a warehouse in the same country as the customer. For those, local rules apply.
OSS versus local registration: what is the difference?
This is the most common misunderstanding. OSS does not replace the local registration triggered by the warehouse. They are two parallel worlds: a local VAT number exists because you store and dispatch goods in that country, while OSS exists because of cross-border sales to consumers.
A sale from a warehouse to a customer in the same country — for example from a German warehouse to a German customer — is reported in the German VAT return, not through OSS. A sale from the German warehouse to a Czech consumer, by contrast, is reported in OSS. This is why sellers on Pan-European FBA typically combine several local registrations with a single OSS return.
How do Slovak and Czech rules compare?
The EU framework — the EUR 10,000 OSS threshold, the EUR 150 IOSS limit for imported low-value goods and the warehouse-triggered registration — is the same on both sides of the border. What differs are the national rates and the domestic registration thresholds. Amazon operates warehouses in both countries, including a facility near Prague, so a Slovak seller storing stock in Czechia must register for Czech VAT, and a Czech seller storing stock in Slovakia must register there.
In Slovakia, the standard VAT rate has been 23 % since 1 January 2025 (reduced rates of 19 % and 5 %), and you become a VAT payer after exceeding a turnover of EUR 50,000 per calendar year (from 1 January of the following year) or EUR 62,500 (immediately). In Czechia, the standard rate is 21 % (one reduced rate of 12 %), and the registration thresholds are CZK 2,000,000 and CZK 2,536,500. If you want a wider picture of your options, see our Slovak tax advisory overview.
What happens if you ignore the registration?
A missing local registration is the most expensive mistake in FBA. Foreign tax authorities can obtain data on your stock movements and sales directly from Amazon, so unregistered selling is usually discovered. The result is additional VAT assessment, late-payment interest and penalties — in every country where you should have been registered.
The sensible approach is the opposite: before you switch on Pan-European FBA or send your first pallet to a foreign warehouse, find out in which countries the stock will sit and arrange the registrations in advance. Setting things up at the start — ideally with solid professional accounting behind you — is always cheaper than paying back taxes for a period in which you were already selling.
Selling through Amazon FBA and unsure which countries you need a VAT registration in? We will walk through the route of your goods and your obligations before a letter from a foreign tax office arrives.
FAQ
Do I need OSS even if I keep stock in foreign warehouses?
Yes, if you make distance sales to consumers in other EU states and exceed the EUR 10,000 annual threshold. But OSS and local registration do not exclude each other — OSS covers cross-border sales to customers, while a warehouse in a given country requires its own local VAT registration. With Amazon FBA you usually need both.
From when must I register in the country where I hold stock?
Usually before the first stock arrives, regardless of turnover. Simply storing goods in a warehouse in that state is a reason for local VAT registration. With Pan-European FBA, find out in advance which countries Amazon will move your stock to and arrange the registrations before the goods get there.
Which VAT rate applies when I sell to another country?
For a distance sale to a consumer you apply the rate of the customer’s country and report the VAT through OSS. For a sale from a warehouse to a customer in the same country, that state’s rate applies and you report it in the local return. Slovakia’s standard rate is 23 %, Czechia’s is 21 %.