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Amazon and marketplaces: tax

Amazon Pan-EU FBA VAT for Spanish sellers: what you must declare

Reviewed on 11 min readConsult GlobalLex team

If you send your own goods to Amazon warehouses in other EU countries, you are not simply selling. You are making a transfer of goods, which is exempt in Spain and reported in Form 349 (modelo 349). In the destination country you need your own VAT number and your own returns. The One-Stop Shop (OSS) does not replace that registration, and the 10,000 euro threshold does not protect you when you sell from stock held outside Spain.

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The problem

Pan-EU lets Amazon spread your inventory across warehouses in several Member States so that orders arrive faster. Commercially that is an advantage. For tax purposes, every time your goods cross a border within the EU, an operation arises that must be declared, even though the goods do not change owner.

Under article 9.3.º of the Spanish VAT Act (LIVA), sending your own goods to another Member State is treated as an intra-Community supply. In Spain it is exempt (article 25.Tres LIVA), but it is reported in Form 349 (modelo 349) and in Form 303 (modelo 303), the quarterly VAT return. In the country of arrival, the same movement is an intra-Community acquisition by you. That is why you need a VAT number (NIF-IVA) there, in Germany, Poland or Czechia for example, and must file whatever returns that country's rules require.

Many sellers find this out late, when the warehouse is already full and sales have already happened. They then have to regularise past transfers, apply for tax registrations in several countries and rebuild the marketplace transactions report line by line.

Who is affected

  • Companies and self-employed sellers based in mainland Spain or the Balearic Islands who sell on Amazon and switch on Pan-EU or send stock to warehouses in other Member States.
  • Sellers who have exceeded, or expect to exceed, the 10,000 euro EU distance-selling threshold and assume that OSS settles everything.
  • Canary Islands companies that want to sell in Europe. The Canary Islands are not EU VAT territory, so their shipments to the EU are exports with a customs declaration (DUA), not intra-Community operations.
  • Foreign entrepreneurs who trade through a Spanish company and store product in several countries.

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Step by step

  1. Map the countries where you will hold stock and the operations they create

    Before activating the programme, list the countries where Amazon could store your product. Each one requires its own tax registration and its own VAT returns. The rules of each country cannot be summed up in a Spanish guide, so check them with local advice or with an adviser who coordinates those registrations.

    Separate three situations. Moving your stock from Spain to another country is a transfer of goods. A sale from a German warehouse to a German customer is a German domestic supply and is declared in Germany, not in Form 303 or Form 369 (modelo 369). A sale from a warehouse in another country to a customer in Spain has to be reviewed case by case, because it may be a distance sale into Spain or a supply made from that other country.

  2. Get your Spanish VAT number through the ROI if you do not have one yet

    The Register of Intra-Community Operators (Registro de Operadores Intracomunitarios, ROI) is a tax census kept by the Spanish tax authority (AEAT). It gives you your Spanish VAT number, which is your tax ID with the prefix ES. You apply with Form 036 (modelo 036): box 582 for the registration request and box 584 for the expected date of the first operation. Under the general regulation on tax management and inspection (RGAT), if the AEAT does not decide within 3 months the application can be treated as refused, so do not leave it to the last moment.

    The ROI has nothing to do with property or with any kind of return on investment: it is the register that entitles you to trade within the EU. Also check that your details appear correctly in VIES, the EU VAT number validation system, because that is how your customers verify your VAT number.

  3. Register for VAT in each destination country and file your returns there

    OSS does not cover stock transfers. Article 163 unvicies of the LIVA limits the Union scheme to distance sales, certain supplies under article 8 bis and services to private consumers. Holding stock in another Member State therefore requires registration and VAT returns in that State, in addition to Form 369 if you also make distance sales from Spain.

    If you sell from stock located outside Spain, you cannot rely on the 10,000 euro threshold either. Under article 73 of the LIVA, it does not apply when sales are dispatched, wholly or partly, from a Member State other than the one where you are established. To see how the threshold works for the rest of your sales, read our guide EU distance selling threshold of 10,000 euro: Spain OSS guide.

  4. Report each transfer in Form 303 and Form 349 with your VAT number from the other country

    A transfer of your own stock from Spain to another Member State goes in box 59 of Form 303 and in Form 349 with key E, stating the VAT number you hold in the country of arrival, as the Form 349 instructions explain. If you do not have that VAT number, the transfer is not properly declared.

    Sales to businesses in other Member States with a valid VAT number in VIES also go in box 59 and in Form 349 with key E. Without a valid VAT number, or without Form 349, the supply is taxable and not exempt in Spain. Sales to private customers above the threshold, or under OSS, are taxed at destination and reported in Form 369 and in box 123 of Form 303.

  5. Reconcile Amazon's VAT transactions report with your returns

    The marketplace transactions report is a file produced by Amazon itself, not an official document, so read its columns in the actual file from each account. Classify every line by country of departure and arrival, by type (sale, return or stock transfer), by the buyer's VAT number and by who accounts for the tax.

    There are three basic reconciliations. The sum of intra-Community supplies and transfers must match box 59 of Form 303 and the total of key E entries in Form 349 for the period. Distance sales under OSS must match box 123 of Form 303 and the taxable amounts in Form 369 by Member State of consumption. Amazon's monthly fee invoices must match boxes 10/11 of Form 303 and key I in Form 349; the detail is in our guide Amazon seller fees without VAT: reverse charge in Spain's VAT return.

  6. If your company is in the Canary Islands, treat shipments to the EU as exports

    For VAT purposes the Canary Islands are a third territory (article 3.Dos.1.º b) LIVA). Goods leaving the Canary Islands for the mainland or for another Member State are exported, and goods entering the mainland are imported with a customs declaration (DUA) and import VAT. They are never intra-Community supplies, they do not go in Form 349 and they do not use boxes 59 or 10/11.

    Your periodic Canary Islands general indirect tax (IGIC) returns, Forms 420 and 425 (modelos 420 y 425), are filed with the Canary Islands Tax Agency (ATC), not with the AEAT. How stock placed in warehouses in other countries is taxed at destination needs a specific analysis for the country concerned.

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Deadlines

Quarterly Form 303 (transfers and intra-Community supplies in box 59)
From 1 to 20 April, July and October. The fourth quarter runs from 1 to 30 January. If the last day is a non-working day, the deadline moves to the next working day. · source
Monthly Form 349
The first 20 days of the following month. In the 2026 calendar, July and August are filed together on 21 September; the last period of the year runs until 30 January. · source
Quarterly Form 349
Available if neither in the quarter nor in the previous 4 quarters do intra-Community supplies and services exceed 50,000 euro. · source
Quarterly OSS Form 369 (if you also make distance sales from Spain)
During the month following the quarter; in 2026: 31 January, 30 April, 31 July and 31 October. It does not move if the last day is a non-working day. · source

Common mistakes

Believing that OSS covers stock held in other countries.

OSS only covers distance sales, certain supplies under article 8 bis and services to private consumers. Stock transfers and local sales from the warehouse require a VAT number and returns in the country where the goods are.

Applying the 10,000 euro threshold when the stock is outside Spain.

The threshold does not apply when sales are dispatched, wholly or partly, from a Member State other than the one where you are established. With Pan-EU stock, there is no threshold to rely on for those sales.

Leaving a stock transfer out of Form 349, or declaring it without your own VAT number from the other country.

Declare each transfer in box 59 of Form 303 and in Form 349 with key E, using your VAT number in the Member State of arrival. Review the marketplace transactions report and separate transfers from sales.

Treating Amazon's fee invoice without VAT as a mistake.

If your company is on the mainland, the invoice carries no Spanish VAT because the reverse charge applies: it goes in boxes 10/11 and 36/37 of Form 303 and in Form 349 with key I. If your company is in the Canary Islands, you self-assess IGIC under the reverse charge in Form 420 and there is no Form 349.

Treating shipments from the Canary Islands as intra-Community supplies.

The Canary Islands are not EU VAT territory. These are exports or imports with a customs declaration (DUA) and are not declared in Form 349.

Assuming other countries' rules are the same as Spain's.

Registrations, deadlines and forms in Germany, Poland, Czechia and elsewhere follow their own legislation. Check them before you allow storage in each country.

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Frequently asked questions

Do I need a VAT number in every country where Amazon stores my stock?

In principle yes, because the arrival of your goods in the other Member State is an intra-Community acquisition by you, and the relevant returns must be filed there. How you apply and what each country requires depends on its own rules, which should be checked case by case.

What is the difference between a stock transfer and a consignment sale?

A consignment sale (article 9 bis LIVA, key R in Form 349) requires a customer known in advance. That is not the case with FBA, where Amazon stores your product to sell it to buyers who do not yet exist.

If I sell from a warehouse in Germany to a German customer, do I declare it in my Spanish Form 303?

No. It is a German domestic supply and goes in the German VAT return, not in Form 303 or Form 369. For your Form 303 only transfers from Spain and operations that remain taxable in Spain count.

Can I avoid all this by moving to a set-up with no stock in other countries?

If you keep your stock in Spain and ship from here, the stock transfer disappears. You move to the distance-selling rules, with the 10,000 euro threshold, the option to be taxed at destination and OSS. It is worth weighing the logistics cost against the administrative burden.

What happens if I sell to a business in another country without a valid VAT number?

One of the conditions for the exemption is missing. Without a valid VAT number in VIES, or without including the operation in Form 349, the supply is taxable and not exempt in Spain. That is why it is worth checking the VAT number in VIES and keeping the response.

Does Amazon count as the seller, so that I do not have to declare my sales?

Not for a company established on the Spanish mainland. A marketplace is treated as the deemed supplier in specific cases under article 8 bis LIVA, and one of them is a seller not established in the Community. A mainland Spanish limited company is established in the EU, so it declares its own sales.

Official sources

Consult GlobalLex team

Tax, accounting and legal advisers for Amazon and marketplace sellers, foreign founders and Canary Islands companies in Spain. Registered social collaborator of the Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT) and Social Security (TGSS).

Drafted with AI assistance and checked, fact by fact, against the official sources cited. Reviewed on 7 October 2026.

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