Amazon May Buy My Products to Sell Globally

In brief: under the Amazon buy my products to sell globally option, since June 2021 Amazon may purchase FBA stock from you — paying your listed price — and resell it in other Amazon stores — in the UK, EU or elsewhere — where you don't already have an offer. Amazon handles listing, translation, pricing and cross-border delivery. When a customer abroad orders, Amazon buys the unit from you locally and you're paid your set price. Returned items go back into your inventory. Amazon raises self-billed invoices in your name, plus credit notes when items come back, which you must keep like any other invoice you issue. There's no extra fee and you can opt out at any time. In Europe, Amazon only sells from countries where you've given it a VAT number.

Amazon buy my products to sell globally: how it works

Step	What happens
Listing	Amazon lists, translates and prices your product in other stores
Sale	A customer abroad orders; Amazon buys the unit from you at your offer price
Invoice	Amazon issues a self-billed VAT invoice in your name
Return	The item returns to your FBA stock; Amazon issues a credit note

A worked example

A UK seller's £15 product is bought by Amazon for a customer in Germany. The seller is paid £15 for the unit, documented by a self-billed invoice, and doesn't deal with German listing, pricing or delivery. If the German customer returns it, the unit comes back into the seller's stock and a credit note reverses the sale.

What it means for your bookkeeping

• These are sales to Amazon. The customer is Amazon, not a consumer abroad, so the VAT treatment follows the self-billed invoice. Take it from the invoice and check it with your accountant.

• Keep the self-billed invoices. They're your sales invoices for VAT purposes, even though Amazon created them.

• Credit notes reverse sales. Returns come with credit notes; post them against the original sale.

• Opt out if it doesn't suit you. If the extra paperwork outweighs the extra sales, the programme can be switched off.

• Check the VAT codes. A sale to Amazon isn't the same as a sale to a consumer abroad — see Amazon VAT tax codes in Xero and zero-rated versus standard-rated sales.

How TrueBooks helps

TrueBooks posts every sale and refund from your Amazon settlements to Xero with the right UK VAT, and its VAT audit view by HMRC box helps you check unusual sales against their invoices. See the Amazon Xero integration.