Amazon seller news · Fees · Announced 6 September 2022
Announced by Amazon on 6 September 2022, effective 15 September 2022. Stock older than a year was removed — or donated, recycled or destroyed — unless you opted out.
Last updated: 19 September 2026
Historical update: this article covers an Amazon announcement from 6 September 2022. Amazon's fees, rules and programmes may have changed since — check Seller Central for the current position before acting on it.
In brief: from 15 September 2022, Amazon began automatically removing aged FBA inventory — units that had sat in Amazon's warehouses for over a year (365 days) — unless the seller had opted out. Amazon said the aim was to free space before the holiday season and help sellers avoid aged inventory surcharges and improve their IPI score. Stock went back to the seller only if a valid return address was set; otherwise it was donated, recycled or disposed of. Once created, automated removals couldn't be cancelled.
| Setting | What happened to stock over 365 days |
|---|---|
| Opted out | Stayed in FBA and kept incurring the aged inventory surcharge |
| Automated removal with return address | Returned to you (removal fees apply) |
| Automated removal, no return address | Donated, recycled or disposed of |
Amazon had switched off automated long-term storage removals at the end of 2020 because of Brexit — see Brexit and UK VAT changes.
A seller has 300 units of a slow product, each costing £5, that have sat in FBA for over a year. With no return address set, Amazon disposes of them automatically. The seller avoids further surcharges but loses £1,500 of stock (300 × £5), which must be written off, plus any disposal fees.
Write off disposed stock. Units donated, recycled or destroyed are gone; remove them from your stock valuation in the period, as a cost.
Removal fees are separate. Returned stock stays in your stock at cost, but the removal fee is an expense.
Match removals to reports. Check Amazon's removal order reports against your stock records so nothing disappears unnoticed.
Surcharges if you opt out. Keeping old stock means ongoing aged inventory surcharges — a real cost of holding slow lines.
Where it shows up. Removal and disposal charges reach you through the settlement — see reconciling an Amazon settlement.
TrueBooks posts removal, disposal and storage-related fees from every settlement to Xero with the right UK VAT, so the cost of aged stock is visible. See the Amazon Xero integration.
Source: Amazon Seller Central announcement, 6 September 2022. TrueBooks is independent and not affiliated with Amazon. General information, not tax or legal advice.
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