Selling on Amazon Germany 2026: Taxes, Registration & FBA Compliance

Selling on Amazon Germany in 2026 is no longer a hobby setup. Under the Platform Tax Transparency Act (PStTG), Amazon now reports your sales directly to the Federal Central Tax Office; the small-business VAT threshold changed in 2025; and since January 2025, B2B sellers must be able to receive e-invoices. If you start without understanding trade registration, VAT and Amazon's FBA storage logic, the first letter from the Finanzamt will hurt. Here is what Amazon sellers in Germany really need to know.

Hobby or business? The line is thin

Three signals turn Amazon sales into a commercial activity: intent to repeat, intent to profit, and outward market presence. Selling your old phone is private; sourcing inventory and reselling at a margin is business — full stop. Amazon reports every seller with more than €2,000 in annual revenue or more than 30 transactions to the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern automatically. Staying invisible is no longer an option.

Step by step: trade office and tax office

First, register at the Gewerbeamt (trade office). The fee is €20–65, and the appointment usually takes 15 minutes. Like selling on Etsy, Amazon selling is never a freier Beruf — it is always a Gewerbe. Within four weeks, file the tax registration questionnaire (Fragebogen zur steuerlichen Erfassung) via ELSTER. This is where you choose between Kleinunternehmer status and standard VAT — and request your VAT ID (USt-IdNr) for cross-border EU sales.

Kleinunternehmer or full VAT?

Since 2025, the small-business VAT exemption runs at €25,000 prior-year revenue and €100,000 current-year revenue. Tempting — you skip VAT on invoices. But you also forfeit input-VAT recovery on inventory, packaging, Amazon fees and shipping. A seller spending €40,000 a year on stock leaves around €6,400 in input VAT on the table. For most sellers who invest seriously in inventory and PPC ads, standard VAT pays off from day one.

VAT in your Amazon workflow

Standard German VAT is 19 %; books and groceries are 7 %. Amazon issues a monthly settlement report — the basis for your VAT advance return (UStVA). In your founding year and the year after, you file monthly; later quarterly, as long as annual VAT stays below €7,500. If you sell to Amazon Business buyers, Germany's e-invoicing rules apply: you must already be able to receive structured invoices (XRechnung, ZUGFeRD), and from 2027 you must issue them too.

FBA Pan-EU: the multi-country VAT problem

With FBA Pan-Europe, Amazon shifts your inventory between warehouses in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland and the Czech Republic to shorten delivery times. Each shift is a VAT-relevant intra-community movement — you need a VAT registration in every storage country. The One-Stop-Shop (OSS) only helps with cross-border B2C sales above the €10,000 threshold and does not cover warehouse movements. Activating Pan-EU without preparing your VAT setup risks penalties in several countries at once.

Trade tax, income tax, EÜR

Sole proprietors get a €24,500 trade-tax allowance — only profit above that is taxed at the municipality's multiplier (200 %–580 %). The 2026 income-tax allowance (Grundfreibetrag) is €12,348. As long as your revenue stays below €800,000 and your profit below €80,000, a simple EÜR (cash-basis P&L) is enough. UG/GmbH sellers file a full GuV plus corporate and trade tax.

What you deduct as an Amazon seller

These line items belong in your expense ledger:

• Cost of goods and packaging
• Amazon selling, FBA and PPC fees
• Shipping and returns
• Accounting software and marketplace analytics tools
• Pro-rated internet, phone and home office
• Travel to suppliers and trade shows

How Norman helps Amazon sellers

Norman pulls your Amazon settlement reports straight into the books, categorises every fee automatically and generates your VAT advance return in one click. E-invoicing for Amazon Business customers runs as XRechnung or ZUGFeRD directly from the invoicing module — no second tool required. Your annual tax return, EÜR and income tax included, becomes a few clicks.

Conclusion

Selling on Amazon Germany in 2026 only works clean if you plan trade registration, VAT and FBA storage logic from day one. Map your scaling path — Pan-EU, OSS, multi-country VAT IDs — before you order your first container. Automated bookkeeping spares you from sorting settlement reports by hand every quarter.