Buying in one EU country and shipping to German FBA: how the VAT works

Vaytax Editorial Team

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Vaytax is operated by FRADECO GmbH tax advisory firm, a Franco-German tax advisory firm specialising in cross-border German VAT compliance for international businesses. The firm holds both German tax advisor and French Expert-Comptable qualifications and files via the Finanzamt.

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Here is a question we get a lot: "I am buying my product from a supplier in Spain, but I am shipping it straight to an Amazon warehouse in Germany. Is that an import? Do I need to register in Spain?" The good news is that this is one of the cleaner scenarios in EU VAT, once you see the one fact it turns on: the goods never leave the EU. This guide walks through exactly how the VAT works, what you report and where, and how it differs from goods arriving from China or the UK.

The scenario

Picture the common setup. You run a non-EU company (a US LLC, say) or a foreign-incorporated business, and you source a product from a supplier in another EU country, for example a producer in Spain. Rather than route the goods through your home country, you have the Spanish supplier ship them directly to an Amazon FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) warehouse in Germany, ready to be sold to German and EU customers.

So the physical journey of the goods is simply Spain to Germany. Both countries are in the EU. That single fact decides almost everything about how the VAT is treated.

Is this an import or an intra-community movement?

It is an intra-community movement, not an import. Because the goods move from one EU member state (Spain) to another (Germany), they stay inside the EU customs union the whole way. There is no customs border to cross, no customs declaration on that leg, and no German import VAT (Einfuhrumsatzsteuer) charged at entry.

The word import has a specific meaning in VAT: it is goods entering the EU from outside it. That is why goods arriving from China are an import, and why, since Brexit, goods arriving from the United Kingdom are an import too. Spain to Germany is neither. It is movement of goods that are already in free circulation within the EU, which the VAT rules handle through a different mechanism, the intra-community supply and acquisition, covered next.

How the VAT actually works

With your German VAT ID (USt-IdNr., the VAT identification number used for EU trade), the mechanism is clean. You give that VAT ID to your Spanish supplier. Because they are dispatching the goods to another EU country to a VAT-registered business, the supplier can treat the sale as a zero-rated intra-community supply: they invoice you with no Spanish VAT charged.

The VAT does not disappear, it moves to your end. On the German side you report the matching intra-community acquisition (innergemeinschaftlicher Erwerb) on your German VAT return. In practice you declare the acquisition VAT and, where you are entitled to deduct it, reclaim the same amount as input VAT (Vorsteuer) on the very same return. For a business with a full right of deduction, the acquisition is therefore typically VAT-neutral, it nets to zero, it is a reporting step rather than a cash cost.

The consequences worth remembering:

• No German import VAT on the Spain-to-Germany leg, because it is not an import.
• No Spanish VAT charged on the supplier's invoice, because they zero-rate against your German VAT ID.
• In the standard case, no Spanish VAT registration needed by you for this flow. The VAT is accounted for in Germany.

For the zero-rating to hold, the usual conditions apply: you provide a valid German VAT ID, and the supplier keeps evidence that the goods actually left Spain for another member state. Those are the supplier's documentation duties, but it helps to know they exist, because a supplier who cannot evidence the dispatch may default to charging local VAT.

The three inbound routes, side by side

The cleanest way to keep this straight is to compare where the goods start. The VAT treatment of the inbound leg follows directly from that.

The pattern: EU origin equals acquisition, no import VAT; non-EU origin equals import, with import VAT at the border. Everything else (EORI, customs paperwork) follows from which side of that line your goods start on.

A worked example: a US LLC buying olive oil from Spain

Make it concrete. Suppose a US LLC sources olive oil from a producer in Spain and sells it to German consumers through Amazon FBA. The producer ships the pallets straight from Spain to a German fulfilment centre. Here is the flow, step by step:

1. You register for German VAT first. Stock is going to sit in Germany, so you need a German VAT registration (and the USt-IdNr. for EU trade) before the goods arrive. This is the part that triggers your registration obligation, the German stock, not the Spanish purchase.
2. The Spanish producer zero-rates the sale. You give them your German VAT ID. They invoice with no Spanish VAT, treating it as an intra-community supply, and keep proof that the goods left Spain for Germany.
3. You self-report the acquisition in Germany. On your German VAT return you declare the intra-community acquisition of the olive oil and, with a full right of deduction, reclaim the same amount as input VAT on the same return. Net VAT effect on that purchase: typically zero.
4. Amazon may account for VAT on your B2C sales. When you then sell the olive oil to German consumers through the marketplace, Amazon may be the deemed supplier for those sales and account for the output VAT itself, under the marketplace rules for non-EU sellers. That does not remove your German registration; it sits on top of it.
5. German registration is still required. Because the stock physically sits in Germany, you remain the party that must hold the German VAT registration and file the returns, regardless of who collects VAT on the final sale.

What you still need

Two things sit outside the intra-community VAT mechanism and still apply to you.

First, the German VAT registration. This is non-negotiable the moment your stock is in Germany, and it is independent of where you bought the goods. Storing inventory in a German warehouse, including Amazon FBA, creates a German VAT registration obligation from the first unit, with no turnover threshold. Our deeper guides cover this: storing stock in a German warehouse and German VAT for US companies.

Second, packaging registration is separate. Germany's packaging rules (LUCID / VerpackG) require you to register your packaging before you sell, and that is a distinct obligation from VAT, with a different register and a different authority. Do not assume your VAT registration covers it. See our guide on LUCID and VerpackG for foreign sellers.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a Spanish VAT registration if my supplier ships from Spain to German FBA?

In the standard case, no. When your supplier in Spain ships the goods directly to a German warehouse and you give the supplier your German VAT ID (USt-IdNr.), the supplier treats the sale as a zero-rated intra-community supply from Spain. The VAT on that movement is accounted for by you in Germany as an intra-community acquisition (innergemeinschaftlicher Erwerb), not in Spain. So a routine buy-from-Spain, ship-to-German-FBA flow does not by itself create a Spanish VAT registration obligation. What does create an obligation is the German end: your goods are stored in Germany, which requires a German VAT registration from the first unit.

Is buying from an EU supplier an import?

No. Goods that move from one EU country to another (for example Spain to Germany) move within the EU customs union, so this is an intra-community movement, not an import. There is no customs clearance and no German import VAT (Einfuhrumsatzsteuer) on that leg. The word import is reserved for goods entering the EU from outside it, for example goods coming from China or, since Brexit, from the United Kingdom. Those are true imports that go through customs and attract German import VAT at the border.

Who reports the intra-community acquisition?

You do, on your German VAT return. When you buy goods from an EU supplier who zero-rates the supply against your German VAT ID, you self-report the corresponding intra-community acquisition (innergemeinschaftlicher Erwerb) on your German USt-Voranmeldung (preliminary VAT return). You declare the acquisition VAT and, where you have the right to deduct, claim the same amount back as input VAT (Vorsteuer) on the same return, so for a fully deductible business the acquisition is typically VAT-neutral. The supplier does not charge you VAT on the invoice; the responsibility to account for the VAT shifts to you in Germany.