The situation
A non-EU seller’s marketplace sales from German stock to consumers in Germany and Poland
A homeware brand based in Manchester sells to consumers in the EU through one large marketplace. Its stock sits in a fulfilment warehouse near Leipzig, and orders go to customers in Germany and Poland. The marketplace has asked for the brand’s German VAT number, and the finance team is no longer sure who owes the VAT on each sale.
The rule fits in a sentence. The hours go into the edges: whether the platform facilitates the sale in the legal sense, what happens to the brand’s own supply to the platform, who imports the goods and recovers the import VAT, and what each party reports. The note has to be clear enough for the marketplace’s seller support to accept.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- Two cases make the platform the supplier
- A platform that facilitates the sale is treated as having bought and resold the goods in two cases: distance sales of goods imported in consignments with an intrinsic value up to EUR 150, and supplies of goods within the EU by a seller not established in the EU to consumers. A UK brand selling from German stock is the second case.
- What facilitating means
- The implementing rules treat a platform as facilitating when it sets the terms of supply, takes part in authorising the charge to the customer, or takes part in ordering or delivery. A platform that only processes payments, lists or advertises goods, or redirects customers elsewhere without further involvement does not facilitate.
- The seller’s supply is exempt, not gone
- The brand’s supply to the platform is exempt, and the brand keeps its right to deduct input VAT. The transport is attributed to the platform’s supply, so the platform accounts for the VAT on sales to consumers in Germany and in Poland.
- Imports and records still need settling
- The brand still has to settle who imports the goods into the EU and where it registers to recover import VAT. Platforms must keep records of the sales they facilitate, and German law can make marketplace operators liable for a seller’s unpaid VAT, which is why they ask for registration details.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
UK-established seller with no EU establishment. Stock in a German fulfilment centre, sold to consumers in Germany and Poland only through one marketplace. Is the marketplace the deemed supplier for these sales, how is our supply to the marketplace treated, and do we still need a German VAT registration?
You start with
A non-EU seller’s marketplace sales from German stock to consumers in Germany and Poland
- 01
Describe the seller and the sales
Give the seller’s establishment, where the stock sits, where customers are and how the marketplace takes part in the sale. azta searches the VAT Directive, its implementing rules and the German and Polish VAT acts.
Cited research· Free - 02
Read the definition of facilitating
Open the cited provisions in the reader, in the original language, and check the marketplace’s role against each part of the definition.
Atlas statute reader - 03
Draft the note
Ask for a note in three parts: the sale to the consumer, the brand’s supply to the platform, and what the brand still files. Edit it in Canvas.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro - 04
Send it to the marketplace
Export the note to Word for the marketplace’s seller support and the brand’s German advisor. The cited research stays with the file.
Word export· Pro You send
A deemed-supplier note setting out who supplies what, and who reports it
What you get
A deemed-supplier note setting out who supplies what, and who reports it
Deemed-supplier note · draft
Marketplace sales from the Leipzig warehouse: who supplies what
Our position. We are not established in the EU and sell goods held in Germany to consumers through the marketplace. For these sales the marketplace is treated as the supplier to the consumer. It accounts for German VAT on sales to German customers and for Polish VAT on sales to Polish customers.
Our supply to the marketplace. Our sale to the marketplace is treated as an exempt supply between businesses. We do not charge VAT to the marketplace, and we keep the right to deduct the VAT we incur, including import VAT on goods brought into Germany.
What we still do. Keep our German VAT registration so that we can import the goods and recover the import VAT, file the returns that registration requires, and give the marketplace the details it asks for. Sales through our own website are outside this note and are reviewed separately.
Outcomes on your numbers
What azta is worth on this task
Pro pays for itself after
18 minutes a month
At €90 an hour, that is all the time Pro (€27 a month) has to take off your desk to cover its price.
Example figures. Replace them with your own.
- Hours back a year
- 16
- Capacity at your rate
- €1,458
- More deemed-supplier reviews a quarter
- 0.7
- Return on Pro
- 4.5×
- Research
- Drafting
- Your review
A scenario you set, not a promise. The hours that come back go to another client, or deeper into this one.
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Book a demoSources azta searches here
- EUR-Lex · Curia
- Gesetze im Internet
- Dziennik Ustaw
What stays with you
- Confirming how the marketplace actually takes part in pricing, payment and delivery.
- Deciding who acts as importer and agreeing it with the logistics provider.
- Filing the returns that the German registration requires.
Frequently asked questions
- Does this apply to a seller established in the EU?
- Not for goods sold from stock inside the EU. An EU seller selling its own stock stays the supplier, and the rules on distance sales and the OSS apply instead.
- What if the goods ship directly from outside the EU?
- Then the other case may apply. For consignments up to EUR 150 sold through a platform, the platform is the deemed supplier. Above that value the general import rules apply.
- Does azta tell the marketplace our position?
- No. It researches the rules and drafts the note. You decide the position and send it.
