Amazon Shipping Policy Changes! New Information Needed

Since the UK officially entered the Brexit process at the beginning of the year, it has been confirmed that it will officially break away from the EU next year. Now that the end of the year is getting closer, Amazon is also rushing to introduce new policies to cope with this change.

The "Amazon VAT payment on behalf of sellers" that was a hot topic some time ago is such a far-reaching change. We introduced this official announcement to everyone in the discussion group on Monday, and everyone in the group should still remember it (add WeChat ID: zyqmda to join the group). Recently, because of this payment policy, Amazon has introduced a new change, which will require sellers to upload the shipping address!

Amazon explained in the announcement that because the platform needs to collect shipping addresses to fulfill the tax bureau's VAT payment requirements, it will add a "sender address" field to the seller's shipping confirmation process. When the seller clicks to confirm shipment for a self-shipping order, the seller needs to fill in the shipping address truthfully in this item.

Whether confirming shipment from the seller's backend order, or by submitting a shipping template or using a third-party API interface to confirm shipment, this information must be provided. This change is expected to be launched at the end of November, and sellers have about a month to transition. Starting from January 1 next year, this policy will be enforced, and orders without a shipping address will not be confirmed for shipment.

According to the backend, the shipping address is not something you can fill in arbitrarily, but there will be a list, and sellers can only select the shipping address from the drop-down menu. It is not clear which countries are on the list, but Amazon also mentioned that there will be tax discounts for certain countries. There is probably some room for maneuver, and sellers on the UK site with a large volume can think about it carefully.

The ultimate purpose of filling in the place of shipment is to facilitate Amazon to pay VAT on your behalf. Let me review the threshold for VAT payment on your behalf.

1. Delivering products to ordinary buyers in the UK

When delivering to addresses outside the UK

1. The current tax-free policy for sales of goods below £15 will be cancelled. All such products will need to be paid VAT by Amazon according to the latest regulations.

2. Products with a declared value of no more than £135 will be paid by Amazon as above

3. If the declared value exceeds £135, the seller still needs to declare and pay the tax by himself, including all possible import duties.

If the product is delivered from an address within the UK, such as FBA transportation, Amazon will pay VAT on your behalf regardless of the amount.

2. Delivering products to corporate buyers in the UK

When delivering to addresses outside the UK

1. The tax-free policy for orders below £15 is cancelled, and Amazon will pay VAT for these orders.

2. If the product is priced above £15 and below £135, Amazon will not pay the VAT on these orders according to regulations. Instead, the corporate buyers will calculate and pay the tax on their own.

If products are delivered to corporate sellers from a domestic address, Amazon will pay VAT on their behalf regardless of the amount.

To sum up, this update of Amazon UK is for self-delivered orders. You need to fill in the place of delivery to determine the VAT rate according to the actual situation. There are still many parts to be determined about tariffs between the EU and the UK. I guess this preferential tax rate is probably set for EU countries . In other words, the tax rate for self-delivered goods from the EU to the UK is definitely lower than that for direct delivery from China.

This news can be said to be a small benefit to some sellers who mainly operate in EU sites (Germany, France, etc.) but also occasionally place orders in the UK. In this case, if the goods are delivered from the EU FBA warehouse to the UK, the tax will be less than if they are shipped directly from the domestic site.

The most worrying issue for European sites at the end of the year is Brexit. It is estimated that the two issues of changing tax numbers and product certification UKCA will dissuade a wave of multi-site sellers .