Selling on Amazon UK: Tax & VAT Checklist for 2026

Short answer: if your business is based in the UK, you’re responsible for the tax on your Amazon sales, not Amazon. Your Amazon sales, FBA included, count towards the £90,000 VAT threshold together with every other channel. Amazon charges 20% UK VAT on its seller fees, which you can only reclaim once you’re VAT-registered. And Amazon reports your sales to HMRC each year once you make 30 or more sales or take more than about £1,700.

This is a tax and VAT checklist for anyone selling on Amazon UK, whether you’re just working out how to sell on Amazon UK or already run an FBA business. It covers VAT on your sales, VAT on Amazon fees, VAT invoices for business buyers, HMRC reporting, income tax, importing stock and selling into the EU and US. Figures are current as of 28 October 2026.

Selling on Amazon UK: your tax checklist

Question	Short answer	Read more
Do my Amazon sales count towards the £90,000 VAT threshold?	Yes, FBA and merchant-fulfilled, added to all your other channels	VAT threshold
Does Amazon collect VAT for me?	No, not if you’re UK-established. Only for overseas sellers	Who collects the VAT
Is there VAT on Amazon seller fees?	Yes, 20% since 1 August 2024	VAT on Amazon fees
Do I have to give buyers VAT invoices?	Yes, once VAT-registered. Receipts only if you’re not	VAT invoices
Does Amazon tell HMRC what I sell?	Yes, above 30 sales or about £1,700 a year	HMRC reporting
Do I pay income tax on Amazon profits?	Yes, if you’re trading and earn over £1,000	Income tax
Do I need anything to import stock?	A GB EORI number, and import VAT to pay or postpone	Importing stock

How to sell on Amazon UK: the tax set-up

Opening an Amazon Seller Central UK account is mostly a business admin job. The tax-relevant parts are:

1. Choose a plan. The Individual plan costs £0.75 per item sold, and the Professional plan costs £25 a month, both excluding VAT. Since Amazon adds 20% VAT to its fees, a Professional plan really costs £30 a month if you can’t reclaim VAT.
2. Decide how you trade: as a sole trader or through a limited company. It changes who pays tax and how. See sole trader or limited company.
3. Give Amazon your tax details. Under the platform reporting rules, Amazon must collect your name, address, date of birth and National Insurance number (or company details) and check them.
4. Add your VAT number, if you have one, in Seller Central. Amazon uses it for your fee invoices and for VAT-exclusive pricing to business buyers.
5. Set up your records. Keep every settlement report and fee invoice. You’ll need them for your tax return and, later, your VAT returns.

Do Amazon FBA sales count towards the VAT threshold?

Yes. A UK business must register for VAT once its taxable turnover in any rolling 12 months goes over £90,000 (gov.uk). Amazon FBA sales count exactly like any other sale. So do:

• merchant-fulfilled Amazon orders
• sales on Amazon’s EU marketplaces that you ship from the UK (they’re zero-rated exports, but still count)
• every other channel: Etsy, eBay, Shopify, TikTok Shop, wholesale and craft fairs

The test uses sales, not profit, and it uses the total the buyer pays for the goods, before Amazon takes its fees. A seller whose Amazon payouts are £60,000 might have sales of £85,000 once referral and FBA fees are added back. The VAT threshold guide explains the rolling test, the 30-day forward test and the penalties for registering late.

Worked example: an FBA candle seller crosses £90,000

Priya makes soy candles in Manchester. She sells through Amazon FBA, plus a few on Etsy and at Christmas markets. She isn’t VAT-registered. At the end of each month she adds up the last 12 months:

12 months to	Amazon sales (before fees)	Etsy and markets	Rolling total
31 July 2026	£79,400	£6,900	£86,300
31 August 2026	£81,900	£7,000	£88,900
30 September 2026	£84,600	£7,200	£91,800

At the end of September her rolling total is £91,800, over £90,000. Her Amazon payouts for the same 12 months were only about £60,000, but that doesn’t matter: the threshold uses sales.

• Deadline to tell HMRC: 30 October 2026
• Registered from: 1 November 2026
• From 1 November: every Amazon sale includes 20% VAT

Who collects the VAT on Amazon sales?

Since 1 January 2021, online marketplaces have been liable for UK VAT on two kinds of sale to UK consumers:

• goods already in the UK, such as in an FBA warehouse, when the seller is based outside the UK
• imported goods worth £135 or less, sent from outside the UK

If your business is UK-established, neither applies. Amazon passes you the full price the customer paid, and once you’re registered you work out the VAT and pay it to HMRC on your own VAT return. That surprises some sellers, because overseas competitors on the same listing have their VAT handled by Amazon.

Watch this: in June 2026 HMRC and the Treasury consulted on extending marketplace VAT liability to UK businesses whose goods are in the UK when they sell. The main idea was a £90,000 per-platform threshold, with private individuals left out. The consultation closed on 18 August 2026. Nothing had been confirmed when we last checked, and the Autumn Budget is today, 28 October 2026. We’ll update this guide if the Budget announces it.

VAT on Amazon seller fees

Since 1 August 2024, sellers established in the UK have been invoiced by Amazon EU S.à r.l., UK Branch, instead of the Luxembourg company that billed fees before. Because the supplier now has a UK branch, it charges 20% UK VAT on most selling and FBA fees. Amazon announced the change to sellers in 2024, and said it applies whether or not you’re VAT-registered.

	Before August 2024	Since 1 August 2024
Who invoices UK sellers	Amazon Services Europe S.à r.l. (Luxembourg)	Amazon EU S.à r.l., UK Branch
VAT-registered seller	Reverse charge, so no VAT on the invoice	20% VAT charged, reclaimed on the VAT return
Seller not VAT-registered	Some sellers paid no VAT on fees	20% VAT charged, can’t be reclaimed
Advertising fees	Already billed from the UK with VAT	No change

What this means for you:

• VAT-registered: reclaim the VAT on your fee invoices as input tax. It’s a cash-flow cost, because Amazon takes the VAT out of your payouts and you get it back on your next return. If your bookkeeping still reverse-charges Amazon fees, fix it, or you’ll get the VAT wrong.
• On the Flat Rate Scheme: you generally can’t reclaim it. See the Flat Rate Scheme guide.
• Not registered: the VAT is simply part of the fee. Allow for it when you price.

Where to find your Amazon VAT invoices

In Seller Central, go to Reports → Tax Document Library and download the VAT invoices for your fees. Each shows the Amazon entity that charged you, its VAT number, the rate and the VAT. Keep them for six years.

Amazon fees UK at a glance

Fee	UK rate (excluding VAT)	Notes
Professional plan	£25 a month	Plus 20% VAT
Individual plan	£0.75 per item sold	Plus 20% VAT
Referral fee	Mostly 8% to 15% of the total price the buyer pays	Varies by category. For example, Home is 8% up to £20 and 15% above. Jewellery is 20% up to £225
FBA fulfilment fee	A flat fee per unit, by size and weight	From Amazon’s FBA rate card
FBA storage	Per cubic foot per month, higher October to December	Plus 20% VAT

Rates are from Amazon’s UK pricing page. Amazon also added a 1.5% fuel and logistics surcharge to FBA fees from 17 April 2026.

Worked example: the same sale before and after VAT registration

Back to Priya. One candle sells for £18 on Amazon. We’ve applied the referral fee to the full £18 price. Check the fee preview in Seller Central, which shows your exact fees.

• Referral fee (Home, 8% at £20 or under): £1.44, plus £0.29 VAT
• FBA fulfilment fee from her rate card, say £2.90, plus £0.58 VAT
• Fees before VAT: £4.34. VAT on fees: £0.87

Before registration (October 2026): Priya can’t reclaim the VAT on fees, so she pays £5.21 in fees. She keeps £12.79 a candle, before the cost of making it.

After registration (from 1 November 2026), same £18 price:

• VAT included in the price: £18 × 1/6 = £3.00, which she pays to HMRC
• Fees: £5.21, but she reclaims the £0.87 VAT, so the real cost is £4.34
• She keeps £18 − £3.00 − £4.34 = £10.66 a candle

That’s £2.13 less per candle. On about 400 Amazon sales a month, that’s about £850 a month. She can absorb it, raise prices, or do a bit of each. She’ll also reclaim the £5 VAT on her £25 Professional plan, and VAT on wax, jars and packaging bought with VAT invoices, which narrows the gap.

VAT invoices, receipts and the VAT Calculation Service

Business buyers on Amazon, especially Amazon Business customers, will ask for a VAT invoice so they can reclaim the VAT. What you can give them depends on your VAT status.

If you’re VAT-registered, Amazon says you must give Amazon Business customers a valid VAT invoice for each order. The easiest way is Amazon’s VAT Calculation Service (VCS):

• It’s free and only open to VAT-registered sellers
• It works out the VAT on each order based on where it’s shipped from and to, and whether the buyer has a verified VAT number
• It creates VAT invoices and credit notes on your behalf, numbered in their own sequence, and buyers download them from their orders
• It shows VAT-exclusive prices to business buyers, and your listings get a “Downloadable VAT invoice” badge
• You’re still legally responsible for the invoices, and you must stop issuing your own for orders it covers
• It doesn’t file anything. You still send HMRC your VAT return

If you don’t use VCS, buyers click “Request invoice” in their orders, and Amazon expects you to reply within two working days. Amazon tracks how often sellers fail to provide invoices.

If you’re not VAT-registered, you can’t charge VAT, so you can’t issue a VAT invoice. If a buyer asks for an “Amazon VAT receipt”, give them a receipt with no VAT on it. Amazon lets sellers who aren’t registered declare that status, so it generates receipts automatically and shows “Downloadable receipt” on the listing instead of “Downloadable VAT invoice”. Never show VAT on a receipt if you’re not registered.

For what a full VAT invoice must include, see invoicing rules for UK sellers.

Amazon reports your sales to HMRC

Since 1 January 2024, digital platforms, Amazon included, must report sellers to HMRC. Each January, Amazon sends HMRC your details and what you earned on the platform in the previous calendar year, broken down by quarter, and gives you a copy. Sales from 2025 were reported by 31 January 2026.

You won’t be reported if you make fewer than 30 sales and receive less than €2,000 (about £1,700) in the calendar year. Almost any active FBA seller passes that.

Two things to know:

• A report doesn’t mean you owe tax. It just tells HMRC you sell. HMRC can compare it with your tax return, so make sure your return matches your real sales.
• The report runs on calendar years. Your tax return runs from 6 April to 5 April. Use your own records for the tax return, not the platform’s figure.

Income tax and Self Assessment for Amazon sellers

If you buy or make goods to sell at a profit, you’re trading, and your profit is taxable. As a sole trader:

• The £1,000 trading allowance: if your total trading income (sales, not profit) across all your side businesses is £1,000 or less in a tax year, you don’t need to report it. See the trading allowance guide.
• Above £1,000, register for Self Assessment by 5 October after the end of the tax year, and file and pay by 31 January.
• You’re taxed on profit: sales minus allowable expenses, which include Amazon fees (and their VAT, if you’re not VAT-registered), stock, postage, packaging and software. See allowable expenses for online sellers.
• Income Tax rates for 2026 to 2027 in England: 0% up to the £12,570 Personal Allowance, then 20%, 40% and 45%. You may also pay Class 4 National Insurance on your profits.
• Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies from 6 April 2026 if your qualifying income was over £50,000 in 2024 to 2025, from April 2027 if it’s over £30,000, and from April 2028 if it’s over £20,000 (gov.uk). See MTD for Income Tax.

If you trade through a limited company, the company pays Corporation Tax on its profits instead, and you pay tax on what you take out.

Importing stock for Amazon FBA

Many Amazon sellers buy stock from overseas, often China, and ship it into an FBA warehouse. Before your first shipment:

• Get a GB EORI number. You need one to import goods into Great Britain. It’s free, and you usually get it straight away. See the EORI number guide.
• Budget for import VAT and customs duty. Import VAT is 20% on most goods, on the value plus shipping and duty. VAT-registered businesses can use postponed VAT accounting so they don’t pay it upfront. See import VAT and postponed VAT accounting.
• Find your commodity code, which sets the duty rate, with our commodity code finder, and estimate the cost with the import duty calculator.
• You’re the importer, not Amazon. Amazon’s warehouses won’t accept shipments with duty or VAT still owing, so your freight forwarder needs to clear customs in your name first.

Selling on Amazon EU and Amazon US from the UK

Amazon’s EU marketplaces. If you ship orders from the UK to EU consumers, each parcel is an export from the UK and an import into the EU. For parcels worth up to €150, Amazon is treated as the seller for EU VAT and collects it at checkout through IOSS. If you store stock in EU warehouses through Pan-European FBA, you need a VAT registration in every country where Amazon stores your goods. Start with selling to EU consumers from the UK and the UK to Europe Pan-EU FBA guide.

Amazon US. Amazon collects US sales tax on your US marketplace sales in every state with a sales tax, but stock in US warehouses can still create state obligations. You need a US importer of record for your FBA shipments, and most UK-made goods pay the normal US duty rate plus a 10% tariff. See selling to US customers, Amazon FBA and nexus and the UK to USA FBA guide.

How GoodVat helps Amazon sellers

GoodVat connects to Amazon, as well as Shopify, WooCommerce, Etsy and your accounting software, so your VAT position is based on all your sales, not just one channel:

• Tracks your rolling 12-month turnover across Amazon and your other channels, and warns you before you reach £90,000
• Registers you for UK VAT, and in other countries if you expand into Pan-European FBA
• Calculates the right VAT per product and sends compliant invoices
• Files your Making Tax Digital VAT returns, with fee VAT and zero-rated exports treated correctly

We don’t file Self Assessment or income tax returns. Your accountant does that, and we can give them clean VAT figures.

Selling on Amazon and getting close to £90,000?

Tell us which marketplaces and channels you sell on and roughly what you turn over. We’ll tell you when you’re likely to cross the VAT threshold, what registering means for your Amazon margins, and whether a VAT scheme could help. Then we handle the registration and returns.

Ask a tax expertor email hello@goodvat.com

A real person replies within one business day

FAQ

Do Amazon FBA sales count towards the VAT threshold?

Yes. If your business is based in the UK, every sale you make on Amazon.co.uk counts towards the £90,000 VAT registration threshold, whether you fulfil it yourself or through FBA. Add your Amazon sales to your sales on every other channel, such as Etsy, eBay, your own website and market stalls, because it’s one total for your business.

Does Amazon collect VAT for UK sellers?

Not for UK-based sellers. Amazon only collects and pays UK VAT on sales by overseas sellers: goods already in the UK sold by a non-UK business, and imported parcels worth £135 or less. If your business is based in the UK, you charge and pay the VAT on your Amazon sales yourself once you’re registered. The government consulted in 2026 on making marketplaces collect VAT for larger UK sellers too, but no change has been confirmed.

Does Amazon charge VAT on seller fees?

Yes. Since 1 August 2024, UK-based sellers have been invoiced by the UK branch of Amazon EU S.à r.l., which charges 20% UK VAT on most selling and FBA fees. VAT-registered sellers can reclaim it on their VAT return, unless they use the Flat Rate Scheme. Sellers who aren’t VAT-registered can’t reclaim it, so it’s an extra 20% on their fees.

How do I get an Amazon VAT invoice for my fees?

Download them from the Tax Document Library in Seller Central, under Reports. The invoices show the Amazon entity that charged you, its VAT number, the VAT rate and the VAT amount, which is what you need to reclaim the VAT on your return.

What is the Amazon VAT Calculation Service?

It’s a free Amazon service for VAT-registered sellers. It works out the VAT on each order, shows VAT-exclusive prices to Amazon Business customers, and creates VAT invoices and credit notes for your buyers on your behalf. You’re still legally responsible for those invoices, and it doesn’t file your VAT return.

Can I issue a VAT invoice on Amazon if I’m not VAT-registered?

No. If you’re not VAT-registered you can’t charge VAT or issue a VAT invoice. If a buyer asks for an invoice, give them a receipt that shows no VAT. Amazon lets sellers who aren’t registered declare that status so it can generate receipts automatically.

Does Amazon report my sales to HMRC?

Yes, if you make 30 or more sales or receive more than about £1,700 (€2,000) in a calendar year. Under the digital platform reporting rules that started on 1 January 2024, Amazon sends HMRC your details and your sales totals each January and gives you a copy. Being reported doesn’t mean you owe tax, but HMRC can compare the figures with your tax return.

Do I need to pay tax selling on Amazon UK?

If you’re trading, buying or making goods to sell at a profit, yes. Your profit is subject to Income Tax, and to National Insurance if you’re self-employed. If your total trading income is £1,000 or less in a tax year, the trading allowance means you don’t need to report it. Above that, you register for Self Assessment by 5 October after the end of the tax year.

Related guides

• VAT threshold 2026: the £90,000 test, deadlines and late registration penalties
• Monitoring the VAT threshold: how to track your rolling total across channels
• How to register for VAT: step by step, once you’ve crossed £90,000
• Import VAT and postponed VAT accounting: bringing FBA stock into the UK
• EORI numbers for online sellers: when you need one and how to apply
• Selling to US customers: US tariffs, DDP shipping and sales tax for UK sellers
• eBay tax for UK sellers: HMRC reporting and VAT on eBay